Oscar Wilde is best known for his quips, quotes and aphorisms, at least to me. The Importance of Being Ernest gave to me my first real appreciation of plays. It is a light, comic romp full of misdirection and subtle and not so subtle puns. For various reasons I have seen the play three times over the years. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic of this epoch. The novel also in many ways led to his downfall. While he wrote the book before his fall from grace I found The Picture of Dorian Gray metaphorically autobiographical of his entire life. In the end Oscar Wilde ended up destroying himself. The book raised the rancor of puritanical 1890 England due to its homoerotic theme, and allusions of an underworld of what was then considered deviant behavior.
I knew Oscar was gay(in the modern sense of the word) and had gone to jail for two years for this “crime”. However, I had always pictured him as this bon vivant, a social gadfly. The Oscar I discovered in this book was much different. He was a man in many ways out of touch with realities of life, and a much too good opinion of himself. Early in his adult life he married mainly because he did not want to work, and the woman had a small income. Oscar is a tragic figure, but his treatment of his wife is more so. What was so surprising to me was how self-destructive he was. There were other proximate causes, but Oscar’s refusal to work after he left jail and his drinking were the real causes. It is ultimately a very sad story.
Frank Harris was a publisher and a friend and a benefactor of Oscar’s. He wrote this book some 10 years after Oscar’s death. It is very well written, but runs a tad long. Mr. Harris thought Oscar was an amazing talent. While talented, time has not given the accolades to Oscar’s work that Mr. Harris was expecting. He knew Oscar was a deeply flawed individual, and has not hidden any of the blemishes.
I typed “Oscar Wilde biography” into the search at Amazon.com. It came back with 54 pages of results. Many were not biographies, but many were. I counted 15 or so before I quit. There were biographies on his wife, on his niece and on Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar’s lover. I suppose the attraction is that the man rose meteorically in London society and literary circles, and his fall was just as quick. Throw in the theme of forbidden love in 1890s London, and it is indeed a Greek tragedy. There is no doubt that Oscar was hounded and persecuted for being a homosexual. Or perhaps he was so because he was successful and a homosexual who did not hide it. However, he allowed himself to be forced onto the slaughterhouse kill floor. He could have easily fled to Europe, but for reasons inexplicable to me he did not.
This book is an excellent character study of the man. It gives a sense of the puritanical attitudes of that period in London. A recurring theme for Oscar was that he should be able to love whomever he wanted as long as no one was harmed. And really what is so wrong with that?
This book is the public domain and I have included links for the Gutenberg.org e-books and the LibriVox.org audiobook. Enjoy.
Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions – Volume 1
Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions – Volume II
Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions – Audiobook