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.
ER
's first few years in London brought her into contact with several important literary and theatre figures, including Henry James
, Oscar Wilde
, actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree
, and actress Ellen Terry
...
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...
Friends, Associates
John Strange Winter
JSW
had an extensive social circle in London—her biographer, Oliver Bainbridge
, notes that a number of social claims were made upon her by reason of her popularity, and that these were always in advance...
At the age of six, NCB
had a chance encounter with Oscar Wilde
at an American seaside resort. He helped her escape from some children who were chasing her, and then sat her on his...
Friends, Associates
Rhoda Broughton
RB
's vitality, sincerity, and pungent wit gained her the friendship of some of the most notable people of her day.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Her wide circle of friends and acquaintances included Henry James
(the two became extremely...
Friends, Associates
Ada Leverson
AL
's first meeting with Oscar Wilde
is variously dated 1892 or 1893. They became very close, exchanging compliments, paradoxes, and flattery.
Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. Viking.
392
Burkhart, Charles. Ada Leverson. Twayne.
21
She was a tower of strength to him at the time...
Friends, Associates
Alice Meynell
Following her early conquest of Tennyson
, AM
went on to develop a large circle of literary acquaintances. Callers on the Meynells at Palace Court included Irish writer Katharine Tynan
, Aubrey Beardsley
(while he...
In England she also formed close friendships and intellectual bonds with feminist and socialist intellectual Eleanor Marx
, barrister and mathematics professor Karl Pearson
, and socialist pioneer Edward Carpenter
. Others she met in...
Dixon, Ella Hepworth. "As I Knew Them". Huchinson.
71
Through the...
Friends, Associates
Evelyn Sharp
ES
wrote later that at no time in her life did she make intimate friends easily. Most people she had to do with she liked up to a certain point only, but she could count...
Friends, Associates
Ethel Lilian Voynich
Stepniak and his work, including Underground Russia, 1883, were influential in ELV
's personal life and career.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Gray, Anne, and Pam Blevins. The World of Women in Classical Music. WordWorld Publications, pp. 876-7.
876
He taught her Russian, pushed her to continue writing, and was the first to introduce her...
Friends, Associates
Jane Francesca, Lady Wilde
In London JFLW
associated with writers such as Marie Corelli
, Ouida
, and Violet Hunt
. Oscar
, an emerging celebrity, introduced his mother to the city's artistic circle.