Four days after the opening of Oscar Wilde's most popular and witty play The Importance of Being Earnest, the Marquess of Queensberry threw down a gauntlet to the playwright in the form of a card - the catalyst for one of the most bizarre contests ever staged at the Old Bailey. Wilde's prosecution for libel and his own subsequent prosecution by the Crown for gross indecency showed a man completely at odds with a class-ridden society that was rife with snobbery and narrow-mindedness. This book describes the case.