The Fall of Public Man

Jan 13, 2025 12:35 AM

Author:Richard Sennett

THE FALL OF PUBLIC MAN is a book in the great tradition of sociological scholarship. Sennett writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behaviour and activity are appropriate in each. He argues that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, and that this breakdown is so profound that public man has been left with no certain idea of his role in society. Sennett sees the development of the city as the single most important element of the social change he describes, and puts his argument in its historical perspective through an analysis of the changes in our built environment from the 18th century to the present day.

Reviews

Intriguing and entertaining...McKenna makes an impassioned case for re-gaying Wilde

—— The Times

A groundbreaking new biography of our greatest queer martyr

—— Observer

It cannot be recommended too highly. Extraordinary, intensely passionate and quite beautiful

—— Manchester Evening News

This is by far and away the best biography of Oscar Wilde to date

—— John McRae, Professor of Literature

A bold book

—— The Guardian

Extraordinary, intensely passionate and quite beautiful

—— The Manchester Evening News

A bustling, revealing and downright moving portrayal of thwarted genius

—— Attitude

Neil McKenna's book is the most important one to have been written about Wilde for many years

—— Irish Independent

McKenna’s book offers an entertaining and fascinating (sometimes jaw-dropping) insight into Victorian homosexual practices. He is outstanding

—— The Observer

A sensational new biography

—— Bent Magazine

A brilliant reconstruction of Oscar Wilde's dynamic sex life, brilliantly written and meticulously researched

—— Bent Magazine

Where this biography really excels is in recreating the fevered atmosphere of the late Victorian homosexual underground

—— Mail on Sunday

A fully convincing biography of this most intensely symbolic of Victorian lives

—— Gay Times

McKenna makes many interesting connections between Wilde’s life and his literary works

—— Mail on Sunday

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