English dons that love Wilde's fanciful novel of Victorian life (3,3,5,4)

'novel of victorian life' is the definition.
(novel by Arnold Bennett)

'english dons that love wilde's fanciful' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'dons' means one lot of letters goes inside another (don means to wear or put on).
'fanciful' indicates anagramming the letters (a fanciful or silly ordering of the letters).
'that'+'love'+'wildes'='thatlovewildes'
'thatlovewildes' is an anagram of 'tholdwivestale'.
'e' inserted inside 'tholdwivestale' is 'THE OLD WIVES' TALE'.