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, 1985.
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, 1969.
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.
"Oscar Wilde" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg.
While she never seriously entertained the proposals of most of her suitors, she seems to have considered at least one as a possible candidate for husband: Lord Alfred Douglas
, who is notorious as the...
Family and Intimate relationships
Natalie Clifford Barney
This relationship is the focus of Diane Souhami's Wild Girls (2004). Barney assiduously promoted her partner's work for forty years, ultimately finding it an archival home and ensuring the publication of a well-illustrated account of...
Family and Intimate relationships
Jane Francesca Lady Wilde
Jane Francesca Wilde
(Speranza) gave birth to her elder son, named Willie
; he died in 1899 while his brother Oscar
was in prison.
Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. Knopf, 1988.
16
Glendinning, Victoria. “Speranza: A Leaning Tower of Courage”. Genius in the Drawing-Room, edited by Peter Quennell, Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1980, pp. 101-16.
113
Family and Intimate relationships
Jane Francesca Lady Wilde
Oscar Wilde
, son of JFLW
, stayed with her in Chelsea after being released on bail following his arrest in April.
Glendinning, Victoria. “Speranza: A Leaning Tower of Courage”. Genius in the Drawing-Room, edited by Peter Quennell, Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1980, pp. 101-16.
112
Family and Intimate relationships
Iris Tree
Writer, critic, and caricaturist Sir Max Beerbohm
was IT
's half-uncle, the youngest son from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's father's second marriage. Best remembered for his drawings and caricatures of the famous, Beerbohm also wrote...
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster, 1990.
43
Family and Intimate relationships
Edith Templeton
She said years later: In truth, I would have married any Englishman. The marriage turned out badly. One of their rows was provoked by his discovering her in possession of a book by Oscar Wilde
Family and Intimate relationships
Violet Hunt
VH
and Wilde
talked for two hours and by her own admission she fell a little in love.
qtd. in
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster, 1990.
43
Throughout the following year Wilde called on her regularly and they corresponded; he also wrote to...
Family and Intimate relationships
George Douglas
The eldest of GD
's brothers, John Sholto Douglas, the heir, became Marquess of Queensberry
at their father's early death. He later became notorious as the father of Lord Alfred Douglas
and the enemy of...
Family and Intimate relationships
Dorothy Richardson
Odle illustrated editions of Voltaire
's Candide, Swift
's Gulliver's Travels, Wilde
's The Sphinx, and Twain
's 1601, among others; his images also appeared in such periodicals as The Gypsy...
Family and Intimate relationships
E. B. C. Jones
Robert Ross
, journalist, art historian, and Roman Catholic convert, who is remembered principally as a friend of Oscar Wilde
, was her uncle.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Robert Baldwin Ross
Family and Intimate relationships
Jane Francesca Lady Wilde
Her second child, the famous Oscar Wilde
was born on 16 October 1854.
Leighton, Angela, and Margaret Reynolds, editors. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology. Blackwell, 1995.
292
Family and Intimate relationships
Charlotte O'Conor Eccles
Sir William Wilde
, husband of Jane Francesca
and father of Oscar
, was a connection by marriage as well as a family friend.
“OConor-EcclesLibrary Ireland.
Friends, Associates
Julia Frankau
Through her brother James, she moved in intellectual circles that included George Moore
and Oscar Wilde
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Drogheda, Charles Garrett Ponsonby Moore, Earl of et al. The Covent Garden Album: 250 Years of Theatre, Opera, and Ballet. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.
136
Harewood, George Henry Hubert Lascelles, Earl of, editor. Kobbé’s Complete Opera Book. 10th ed., Bodley Head, 1987.
806-7
27 March 1958: The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry was the...
Building item
27 March 1958
The Belgrade Theatre
in Coventry was the first theatre built in Britain after the war.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
414
1966: US cultural critic Susan Sontag published...
Writing climate item
1966
US cultural critic Susan Sontag
published Against Interpretation, her first essay collection. The title piece, On Style, and Notes on Camp (dedicated to Oscar Wilde
and exploring the idea of life as theatre)...
30 November 2000: The age of consent all over Britain was set...
Building item
30 November 2000
The age of consent all over Britain was set at sixteen for either heterosexual or homosexual relations.
Guardian Weekly.
(14-20 December 2000): 13
“The Gay Rights Movement / The campaign for sexual equality”. BBC Archive.
14 July 2006: The Bow Street Magistrates Court, one of...
Building item
14 July 2006
The Bow Street Magistrates Court
, one of London's most famous courts, closed after dispensing justice for 267 years.
“Bow Street Court Closes Its Doors”. BBC News.
“Infamous Names in Bow Street’s Past”. The Mail on Sunday.
