Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish writer, poet, playwright, novelist and art theorist. Famous for his eccentric demeanour, his homosexuality, his aesthetic urge, he was one of the most famous writers of the late Nineteenth century.
Short biography
Oscar Fingal O’Flaherty Wills Wilde was born in Dublin of Anglo-Irish parents on October 16th, 1854. Son of a surgeon, he was first educated at home, learned French and German, was sent to Trinity College in Dublin where he studied Classics from 1871 till 1874, and then went to Magdalen College in Oxford. He became interested in freemasonry, thought about converting to Catholicism, and decided against it at the last moment. He was enthralled with the aesthetic and decadent movements. He would then be influenced by a later work, Karl Joris Huysmans’s A rebours published in 1884, believed to be the novel which precipitates Dorian Gray to his demise.
Following his graduation, Wilde returned to Dublin. He fell in love with Florence Balcombe, who ended up marrying Bram Stoker. He looked for a University job, could not find anything which suited him, published some poetry but his first attempts were not met with success. In 1882, he then toured America and delivered lectures on aesthetic theory, the so called “art pour l’art”, a literary and artistic movement maintaining that the artist should be the torch bearer of higher ideals than the petty materialistic ones typical of contemporary bourgeois society. At the same time acclaimed and heavily criticised, he then returned to London. He married Constance Lloyd, had two children with her, and became attracted to men, discovering homosexuality with Robert Ross. Wilde became a journalist, and even an editor of a woman’s magazine, “The woman’s world”, which he then left in 1889. This is when he started his main literary production, creating such great works as Lord Arthur Savile’s crime, The portrait of W.H, The Canterville’s ghost… But he also produced essays and dialogues on art, of which this quote represents a summarised illustration of his views: “Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.”. He even wrote an interesting political essay, “The soul of man under socialism”, which did not gain him any friends either with the socialists or with the conservatives. In 1890 he then wrote his one and only novel, and according to Les Éditions de Londres, one of the greatest books of the nineteenth century, The picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray is an extraordinary book, a Faust remake dealing with art, decadent movement, hedonism…
He started his theatre career. And his work was met with success and recognition. He created such high society comedy wonders as Lady Windermere’s fan, A woman of no importance, An ideal husband, and of course his masterpiece, The importance of being Earnest, but also other works: “Salomé” (written originally in French), “The Nihilists”, “Vera”…
Wilde had a lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. His lover’s father, the Marquess of Queensbury, did not take the homosexual relationship of his son with Wilde lightly, and confronted him several times. Wilde decided to sue him for libel, lost and was then imprisoned for two years, which inspired “De Profundis”, an account of what happened, and his poem, “The ballad of Reading’s gaol”. Once released, weakened, broken, ruined, Wilde went in exile to Paris where he died destitute a few years later in 1900. He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
Oscar Wilde’s legacy
Witty, eccentric, artistic genius, self-imbued, arrogant, provocative, but free, individualistic, brilliant, Wilde is the antithesis of the Victorian society he lived in. Actually, it is probably more than its antithesis, it is its antidote. Wilde’s humanity, insightfulness, creativity and “joie de vivre” are without limits. But similarly to his alter ego, Dorian Gray, the works that he bequeathed the next generations were the enchanting side, hiding a darker moon, Wilde’s own life, a patchwork of false hopes, delusions and failed attempts to find a meaning to life in a most hypocritical and conformist era. Wilde believed in a government of artists, which meant no government at all. Finally, Wilde is not only the antithesis or the antidote of Victorian society; he is the nemesis of all groups of people, governments, societies, institutions who wish to impose their dull and monolithic views on others.
© 2013- Les Éditions de Londres