In April 1895 Oscar Wilde failed to win his case against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his close friend and lover Douglas

In April 1895 Oscar Wilde failed to win his case against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his close friend and lover Douglas. The Marquess demanded an end to the affair between Oscar Fingal and his son and accused the writer of sodomy, or, to be precise, sent a note addressed "To Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite", whereupon Wilde sued him for libel and decided to conduct his own case without a barrister. It was not the best of ideas. First, the Marquess produced weighty evidence for his words; second, Wilde's eloquence made no legal impression on the court; third, the proceedings became the starting point for charging the popular author with offending against public morality, and for his subsequent arrest and conviction.

Report a translation error

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

In April 1895 Oscar Wilde failed to win his case against the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his close friend and lover Douglas

Read more

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s