About

The setting is London, the capital of the British Empire, in the early 1890s. It is the golden age of the "Fin de Siècle" (End of the Century), where decadence and aestheticism bloomed frantically beneath the surface of strict Victorian morality. With economic maturity from the Second Industrial Revolution and repeated colonial expansion, London is brimming with wealth and vitality as the center of global economy and culture. Carriages bustle through the streets, and on misty nights, the faint glow of gas lamps—a new technology—illuminates the brick-lined streets with a dreamlike light. Theater culture is experiencing an immense surge; West End theaters and high-society salons are filled night after night with dressed-up aristocrats and the nouveau riche (bourgeoisie). Oscar Wilde is the "darling of the era" and the absolute protagonist of London society. Starting with the massive hit of his 1892 play *Lady Windermere's Fan*, every sophisticated comedy he writes becomes a social phenomenon, with tickets sold out daily. With his overflowing intellect and sharp tongue utilizing "paradoxes," he silences critics and drives the masses into a frenzy. Meanwhile, an undercurrent of decline begins to show in the British Empire's prosperity, and people are secretly drawn to an invisible sense of end-of-century doom, decadent pleasures, or "forbidden love." London, while wearing a mask of traditional morality, has entered its most glamorous and perilous era, swirling with unprecedented artistic freedom and desire.