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.
Elaine Showalter
brought SG
to the attention of late-twentieth-century New Woman and feminist criticism in A Literature of Their Own, 1977, where she discussed The Heavenly Twins and The Beth Book.
Mangum, Teresa. Married, Middlebrow, and Militant: Sarah Grand and the New Woman Novel. University of Michigan Press.
220
Since...
Characters
Patricia Highsmith
In Ripley Under Water, 1991, on the other hand, Tom kills no-one directly, since a grotesque fatal accident removes the objects of his ire. But he and the reader are given recurring reminders of...
Reception
John Oliver Hobbes
The Ambassador proved to be JOH
's most successful dramatic work. On opening night, when the delighted audience called for the author, many of them were staggered at the appearance on stage of a young...
Friends, Associates
Frances Sarah Hoey
FSH
was also a close friend of her fellow-Catholic Edmund Downey
. Her husband was a friend of Richard Holt Hutton
, joint editor of The Spectator. She recalled, at the time of his...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Passages in The Lover's Companion are grouped according to different kinds of love situation (first love, love at first sight, unrequited love, etc.). Authors used include Jane Austen
, Anthony Trollope
, Oscar Wilde
,...
politics
Julia Ward Howe
In 1882 Oscar Wilde
, making his lecture tour of the USA, spoke at the Boston Music Hall. While he was in Boston he made several visits to the Howe residence, and he also...
VH
and Wilde
talked for two hours and by her own admission she fell a little in love.
Belford, Barbara. Violet. Simon and Schuster.
43
Throughout the following year Wilde called on her regularly and they corresponded; he also wrote to...
Textual Production
Henry James
He had been too anxious to attend his own play, and arrived at the theatre only as the curtain fell, having attended instead a performance of Oscar Wilde
's An Ideal Husband. He wrote...
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.
16
Glendinning, Victoria. “Speranza: A Leaning Tower of Courage”. Genius in the Drawing-Room, edited by Peter Quennell, Weidenfield and Nicolson, pp. 101-16.
113
Reception
Jane Francesca, Lady Wilde
Following the death of her husband
, JFLW
wrote to Sir Thomas Larcom
, hoping he could help secure her a government pension.
Melville, Joy. Mother of Oscar. John Murray.
143
In his reply, Larcom explained that only the Prime Minister could...
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, pp. 101-16.
112
Reception
Jane Francesca, Lady Wilde
By 16 November 1888, she had also received a grant of £100 from the Royal Literary Fund
. Her son Oscar Wilde
helped her to secure both pensions.
Melville, Joy. Mother of Oscar. John Murray.
222
Leighton, Angela, and Margaret Reynolds, editors. Victorian Women Poets: An Anthology. Blackwell.