OSCAR WILDE

Oscar Wilde and his wife Constance married in 1884. The following year the couple moved into No. 16 Tite Street. It was where he wrote most of his principal works. His parents had been interested in Irish folklore and had given their son, whom they had named after a Gaelic hero, a thorough knowledge of it. It was drawing upon this seam that helped him to produce his first works of prose fiction, the stories The Canterville Ghost (1887) and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1887), and the fairy tale The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888).

Wilde and Whistler were neighbours in Tite Street. Upon one occasion the painter said something that the writer was struck by. The latter declared I wish I had said that. The former replied You will, Oscar, you will.

The first known instance of Wilde engaging in homosexual activity was with Robert Ross in 1886. The author found it to be to his inclination. It has been claimed that the Church of England Pension Fund occupies the former premises of Oscar Wilde's favourite male brothel.

In 1888, in the wake of the Ripper murders, the American publisher of Lippincott s Magazine introduced Wilde to Conan Doyle at The Langham Hotel. They took to each other. It prompted Wilde to write The Picture of Dorian Grey (1891). Doyle wrote the second Sherlock Holmes story. There is a theory that the Scot based Mycroft Holmes upon the Irishman, giving him size, lethargy and Hellenism as characteristics.

Wilde used decadence as a means of promoting his own ideas, such as art for art s sake. He was influenced by the ideas of Walter Pater and John Ruskin. The original magazine version of Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) was a reworking of the French decadent text Joris-Karl Huysmans's (1848-1907) rebours (1884). The text had homosexual overtones. Critics commented on this. Wilde acted upon the comments and removed the passages from the book version.

Wilde went on to write the plays Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

In 1891 he started an affair with Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas. The two men's behaviour became particularly transgressive because they shared a taste for rough trade and would frequently take their dates to well-heeled establishments.

In 1892 Wilde and Doyle dined with one another again. With them were J.M. Barrie, Bram Stokers, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Willie Hornung.¹

Lord Alfred's father, the 9^th Marquis of Queensberry, was an unstable man, who was given to violence. He had not one gay son but two. His eldest one and heir-apparent, Viscount Drumlanrig, was rumoured to be involved with the Foreign Secretary the 5^th Earl of Rosebery. In 1894 Drumlanrig shot himself. Queensberry became determined to disconnect Bosie from Wilde.

Queensberry left a card for Wilde at the Albemarle Club in which he accused the writer of being a somdomite . Wilde convened a council of war about what his response should be. This was held at the Caf Royal. Those who attended included Frank Harris and George Bernard Shaw. The consensus of the group was that he should ignore the insult. However, Wilde was already intent on suing the peer for libel. The author sued the peer for criminal libel. The trial was conducted at the Old Bailey. Edward Carson was the principal lawyer for the defence. He and Wilde had been contemporaries at Trinity College. At the end of the trial, the court found for the marquis. The plea of justification and its supporting evidence were then communicated by Queensberry's lawyers to the public prosecutor. Subsequently, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency. Scope was left to enable him to leave the country. He had taken on a very Greek view of fate that it what will happen will happen whether you are good or bad, you just accept it. He chose to stay and was arrested at The Cadogan Hotel in Sloane Street.

Following Wilde's conviction, a mob stormed No. 16 and looted many of his possessions.

It is unlikely that he would have written any more sparkling comedies. He had become interested in French symbolism. Salome (1891) was informed by this new interest. He wrote it in French. It could not have been produced in Britain because at the time it was illegal to depict any Biblical character on the British stage.

Wilde served his two-year-long prison sentence in Reading Gaol.² Ross stood by him during his final years and was with him at his death.

Location: The Albemarle Club, 13 Albemarle Street, W1S 4HJ (red, blue)

17 Oakley Street, SW3 5NT (red, pink)

32 Old Bailey, EC4M 7HS (blue, red)

The Cadogan Hotel, 75 Sloane Street, SW1X 9SG (blue, brown)

34 (originally 16) Tite Street, SW3 4JA (orange, blue)

See Also: GAY & LESBIAN

¹. Hornung created Raffles. He was Conan Doyle's brother-in-law.

². By contrast, Rosebery went on to serve as Prime Minister.

Public Profile

Wilde was satirised in some cartoons by George du Maurier that Punch magazine published. He appreciated the ridicule was raising his public profile. He played to the role, assembling the costume; he had a green coat that was lined with otter fur and a collar of seal skin.

Gilbert & Sullivan's opera Patience (1881) satirised the Aesthetic Movement. Retrospectively, the character Bunthorne came to be associated with Wilde. Therefore, the D Oyly Carte organisation encouraged him to travel to America to help furnish it with publicity. He was able to combine this with his lecture tour. He proved to be open to promoting the opera as part of his American lecture tour. He played to the role, assembling the costume; he had a green coat that was lined with otter fur and a collar of seal skin.

Upon arriving in New York almost the first thing that he did was go to the photographic studio of Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896).¹ The photographer paid the likes of Sarah Bernhardt to be photographed and then made a handsome profit through selling the resulting photographs. Wilde turned up with his recently developed wardrobe. Many of the resulting images are the ones that became embedded in society. Wilde returned to London a celebrity.

¹. Jumbo and Lily Langtry were touring concurrently.

David Backhouse 2024