Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Oscar Wilde
-
Standard Name: Wilde, Oscar
Birth Name: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
OW
's significance as poet, playwright, and writer of prose fiction, remained in eclipse for many years after his notorious trial and imprisonment in Reading Gaol
, events whose chilling impact on poetry and prose in England was not reversed until the modernists returned to the struggle for unfettered aesthetic expression. A leading proponent of art for art's sake in England, OW
was a follower of Walter Pater
, from whose work he borrows in lavish quantity, and, like Pater, he was much influenced by the French l'art pour l'art poets, notably Charles Baudelaire
and Théophile Gautier
.
Clements, Patricia. Baudelaire and the English Tradition. Princeton University Press.
140-83
More recently, his brilliant aesthetic essays have drawn serious attention as the basis for many critical propositions . . . which we like to attribute to more ponderous names.
Ellmann, Richard, editor. The Critic as Artist: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde. Random House.
x
His notoriety as a casualty of oppressive laws against the practice of homosexuality is also the subject of a good deal of recent critical comment.
JFLW
discovered that her husband's death had left the family with considerable debts. His estate was primarily divided between the sons, Willie
and Oscar
, and while his widow nominally received about £100 to £150...
Wealth and Poverty
Jane Francesca, Lady Wilde
By the time JFLW
moved to Oakley Street, her finances were greatly reduced. A day after arriving at the new house, she asked to borrow a sovereign from Constance
. Proper household management became difficult...
Wealth and Poverty
Ouida
She did not, however, have enough money. Oscar Wilde
took it upon himself to organize a fundraising drive to discharge her unpaid bill at the Langham Hotel
. As late as June, Vernon Lee
reported...
Both Sides of the Curtain covers ER
's relations with the theatre knights Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
and Sir Henry Irving
. According to Woolf (who found it a fascinating book, despite its portraits of...
Both Edith and Katharine contributed to this extraordinary journal, giving their impressions of travel, art, religion, death, and love. They also record encounters with their literary contemporaries, including Robert Browning
, George Meredith
, John Ruskin
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Maureen Duffy
From Methuen's first-published author, Edna Lyall
, she traces the firm's dealings with other progressive activists, with canonical names in many genres including books for children, and with such controversial figures as Ibsen
, Wilde
, and Lawrence
.
LMA
's writings were often printed serially before their volume publication. Periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly, the Saturday Evening Gazette, the Christian Union, the Boston Commonwealth, the Flag of our...
Textual Production
Katherine Mansfield
Stories she designed for particular sets of readers around this time, especially those for the Fabian New Age, show the edge of professionalism. She had already written bowdlerised versions of Baudelaire
and Wilde
...
Textual Production
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
MEB
continued after this to maintain a rate of about one new novel a year. In Gerard, which appeared in 1891, she combined elements from Goethe
's Faust with others from Balzac
's La...
Textual Production
Ada Leverson
The Green Carnation, a novel caricaturing Oscar Wilde
, appeared anonymously and was thought by Wilde to be by AL
: its author was actually Robert Hichens
.
Burkhart, Charles. Ada Leverson. Twayne.
22
Textual Production
Ada Leverson
AL
wrote to T. S. Eliot
(editor of The Criterion) offering him an essay on Wilde
, something on Proust
, and a short story, The Consultation.
Wyndham, Violet. The Sphinx and Her Circle: A Biographical Sketch of Ada Leverson 1862-1933. A. Deutsch.
93
Timeline
Around 1878: The Albemarle Club was formed with the plan...
Building item
Around 1878
The Albemarle Club
was formed with the plan of admitting equal numbers of men and women.
1881: Lady Harberton founded the Rational Dress...
Building item
1881
Lady Harberton
founded the Rational Dress Society
which proposed dress reform for women, denounced tight-lacing and high heels, and advocated divided skirts.
By 24 December 1881: Lillie Langtry became the first English society...
Building item
By 24 December 1881
Lillie Langtry
became the first English society woman to appear professionally on the stage when she played Kate Hardcastle in Goldsmith
's She Stoops to Conquer at the Haymarket Theatre
, London.
1883: L. R. S. Tomalin, an early disciple of Gustave...
1885: Breaking with established department store...
Building item
1885
Breaking with established department store practice, Harrods
began to offer credit to select customers.
4 March 1885: In Marius the Epicurean, Walter Pater established...
Writing climate item
4 March 1885
In Marius the Epicurean, Walter Pater
established his view that the city was the modern topic for writers. The novel is set in Marcus Aurelius
's Rome.
November 1886: The monthly magazine Lady's World: A Magazine...
Writing climate item
November 1886
The monthly magazineLady's World: A Magazine of Fashion and Society began publication.
1893: An anonymous imprint of the homoerotic novel...
Writing climate item
1893
An anonymous imprint of the homoeroticnovelTeleny, in which Oscar Wilde
likely had a hand, was published in London by Leonard Smithers
.
April 1894: The aesthetic quarterly the Yellow Book began...
Writing climate item
April 1894
The aesthetic quarterly the Yellow Book began publication.
After 25 May 1895: Following the conviction of Oscar Wilde,...
Writing climate item
After 25 May 1895
Following the conviction of Oscar Wilde
, Edward Carpenter
's publisher broke his contract to publish Love's Coming of Age, after discovering that Carpenter had privately printed a pamphlet entitled Homogenic Love.
1903: Woman's World began publication in Londo...
Building item
1903
Woman's World began publication in London.
1907: The London County Council banned stage tableaus...
By 27 February 1911: The secretary of the Actresses' Franchise...
Building item
By 27 February 1911
The secretary of the Actresses' Franchise League
organised a feminist production of Wilde
's Salome (reviewed on this date).
April 1918: An article in Noel Pemberton Billing's weekly...
Building item
April 1918
An article in Noel Pemberton Billing
's weekly Vigilante alleged that the Germans had identified 47,000 Britons who could be blackmailed into treason because of their deviant sexuality.
Wilde, Oscar. Poems; with The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Methuen, 1909.
Leverson, Ada, and Oscar Wilde. “Reminiscences of the Author”. Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde, Duckworth, 1930, pp. 19-49.
Wilde, Oscar. The Artist As Critic. Editor Ellmann, Richard, Vintage Books.
Sharp, Elizabeth A. “The Author of ’John Halifax, Gentleman’”. The Woman’s World, edited by Oscar Wilde, Vol.
1
, pp. 111-14.
Wilde, Oscar. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Leonard Smithers, 1898.
Wilde, Oscar. The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Vol. 4, Criticism: Historical Criticism, Intentions, The Soul of Man. Editor Guy, Josephine M., Oxford University Press, 2007.
Wilde, Oscar. The Letters of Oscar Wilde. Editor Hart-Davis, Rupert, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962.