Wilde's Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women He Knew by Eleanor Fitzsimons - 2015

Wilde's Women: How Oscar Wilde was Shaped by the Women he Knew by Eleanor Fitzsimons

"Life is too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it."

- Vera, or The Nihilists -

Last month I read The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons, a very valuable addition to English literary history.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

"The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons a portrait of an era as well as a literary biography.  

Nesbit is of significant culture import for her impact on English writers who grew up reading her work.  Her work does not hide from hard times but there is an optimistic spirit in her work, a curiosity and a joy about growing up.

The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit should be read by all who enjoy a first rate literary biography."

I was delighted to learn Fitzsimons has written a book focusing on the women in the life of Oscar Wilde.

" One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art." Oscar Wilde

- Phrases & Philosophies for the Use of the Young. Quoted in Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag

Oscar Wilde

October 16, 1854. - Dublin -born into an affluent family

Attended Trinity College and Oxford - educated in Greek, French and classical literature.

May 29, 1894 - Marries Constance Lloyd, they will have two children

July 1890 - The Picture of Dorian Grey is published

1895 - His highest regarded drama, The Importance of Being Ernest debuts

May 25, 1895 to May 18, 1897 - serves two years hard labour in an English Prison for homosexual acts.  Here he wrote De Profundis.  His health was terribly damaged while imprisoned.  He never fully recovered.

Oscar Wilde is the most sacred iconic LGBTQ figure.  My reading history with Oscar Wilde goes way back.  I am not sure how this happened but when Susan Sontag used quotes from Wilde in landmark essay Notes on Camp in 1964 I had already read The Picture of Dorian Grey.  From this essay I first began to sense varieties of artistic sensibilities, to see literary works as part of a greater culture.  The relationship between camp and homosexuality is complicated, for sure a connection exists.  Oscar Wilde's life as told by Fitzsimons illuminates this.

Wilde's Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women He Knew  is a fascinating look at the importance of women in the life and work of Wilde, from his mother who was a widely published authority on Irish folklore to his wife Constance Lloyd as well as other less known figures.  Fitzsimons brings everyone to life.

Wilde's father was a highly regarded surgeon, his mother, Lady Jane Wilde was an Irish nationalist, an advocate for expanded rights for women, a multilingual translator and a collector of Irish folktales.  Through her Wilde's was raised in a household where women were both formidable and educated.  Fitzsimons goes into very interesting detail on the formative years of Wilde.  From an early age Wilde was drawn to beauty in art and in persons.

He first fell in love at Trinity College, with a beautiful girl.  He wanted to marry her but took to long and she ended up married to Bram Stoker.  All the while Wilde was publishing poetry.  He embarked on a lecture tour in America.  We are shown how he charmed his largely female audience and met lots of women, including some whose name you will recognize.

Upon returning to Ireland he married a sensible financially secure woman with whom he had two sons.  As far as is known for sure he had not yet had sexual contact with men.  He met actresses through his work as a playwright. He also became close to two famous at the time female writers.  We see through Fitzsimons insights that actresses were adapt  at playing the role of romance partners for a man increasingly unsure of his sexuality.  They were used to playing roles. (In a biographies I have posted upon on Somerset Maugham and J M Barrie we see romances never consumated with actresses.). They also more or less needed to suck up Wilde!

Wilde's down fall is well known.  Fitzsimons takes us into the underground world of Gay Dublin, from high society to rent a boys, While in prison most of his friends forgot about him.  There is a long detailed chapter on his trial.  

Fitzsimons has given us new insights into the life of Oscar Wilde and an insightful account of his mileau.

From website of The author

https://eafitzsimons.wordpress.com/

“Welcome. My name is Eleanor Fitzsimons. I’m a researcher, writer, journalist and occasional broadcaster. I’m represented by www.andrewlownie.co.uk and I’ve just published my first book Wilde’s Women: how Oscar Wilde was shaped by the women he knew. My writing has been published in a variety of newspapers and journals including the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Irish Times, Irish Tatler, the Dubliner Magazine, The Gloss, UCD Connections, Maternity & Infant; History Today and Woman Mean Business. I have also contributed regularly to Irish radio and television programmes. I was the sole researcher on several primetime television programmes for the Irish national broadcaster, RTE including ‘What Have The Brits Ever Done For Us’, an examination of the historic relationship between Britain and Ireland commissioned to coincide with the landmark visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland, and ‘Bullyproof’, an IFTA winning documentary series on bullying.

I have a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Master of Business Studies degree from UCD and spent many years working at senior management level in the market information sector in both Ireland and the UK. In 2011, I returned to University College Dublin after a twenty-three years absence and graduated twelve months later with an MA (first class honours) in Women Gender and Society. I tweet at @EleanorFitz”

Wilde changed things.  .  Readers of The Picture of Dorian Grey will  see more in it thanks to Fitzsimons.  I really like his fairy tales and can hear the sniggers of the homophobic.  

Oscar Wilde's import way transcends his work.  That being said, everyone needs to read The Picture of Dorian Grey at least twice.

I give my thanks to Eleanor Fitzsimons for this wonderful book and hope to follow her career for years to come.

Mel u

"The Star Child" by Oscar Wilde (1888)

The cultural importance of Oscar Wilde is immense.  He is world wide an Iconic figure whose Portrait of  Dorian Gray (1890) and The Importance of Being Ernest helped create the Camp sensibility.   If you have not read his two most famous works, then try to do so as soon as you can.  I first read Portrait of Dorian Gray maybe fifty years ago and I still remember thinking how marvelous it must be to know people who actually talk like that.  I never dreamed I would one day reread it in fifty years.   I so wish I had a fifty year old blog post to look back on.  One of the truest rewards to younger bloggers will, I hope, be this ability.  My understanding of Wilde has been greatly informed by my reading of Declan Kiberd's chapter on his work, "Oscar Wilde - The Irishman as Artist" in Declan Kiberd's Inventing Ireland -  The Literature of the Modern Nation.  

Wilde wrote a lot of short works of fiction, some in the style of fairy tales.  I have posted over the years on several of them.  "The Star Child" was a great pleasure to read.  It is accurate to call it a fairy tale written to be read by children with a moral lesson as its main point.  It does manifest some of the main themes of Wilde's more important works (I am not sure that without the main works his fairy tales would still be much read).  It deals with the nature of beauty, one could easily look below the surface in this and many other works and ponder why an ugly person is at once seen as evil and a beautiful one kind.  Think The Wizard of Oz witches. 

One day a poor man sees a star fall and goes to the spot it landed.  He finds a beautiful baby and brings him home to his wife who goes crazy and says they don't need another mouth to feed, they already have plenty of children.  Never the less they raise him and he is very beautiful.  He is very proud of his looks, disdaining all who admire him.  One day an ugly old beggar old begger woman asks him for money, he abusively refuses her.  He is then transformed into a very ugly person. 

I will stop telling the plot here as the story is so much worth reading.  One of Wilde's themes is that people are often of several natures. 

The basic themes of Wilde are in this story.  It would be an excellent class room, ten and above, story and should prompt good conversations. 

You can read it here

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/StaChi.shtml

Please share your favorite Wilde shorter works with us.

"The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde

"The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde   (1881, 7 pages)

Irish Short Story Month Year III

March 1 to March 31

Oscar Wilde

1854 to 1900 
Dublin

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." 

Resources and  Ideas 

My Prior Posts on Oscar Wilde

In 1881, William Forster, chief secretary of Ireland, suspended the right of habeas corpus.    Czar Alexander of Russia is assassinated as is the American President, James Garfield.     University College Dublin is founded.   The first Sherlock Holmes story is published.     The best  novel published that year was Portrait of a Lady.   One Hundred and twelve years after this story was published, homosexuality was decriminalized in Ireland.    The population of Ireland was 5,174,836, 2.5 Million less than 1841.  

My Prior Posts on Oscar Wilde

"Welcome back, Oscar"-Ruprecht

    Oscar Wilde (1854 to 1900 Dublin, Ireland) most famously the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray" is an iconic GLBT writer whose life and work helped create a new sensibility.   Everyone who reads The Picture of Dorian Gray while young (and you should read it while young so you can reread it several times!) wishes they lived in a world where people talked the way they do in his book.   Most readers of Wilde stop at his novel.  A few of those who really like the novel go on to his great plays and wonderful short stories.   

I have read a number of his short stories and fairy tales and have found them thoroughly delightful.

"The Nightingale and the Rose" would be described by many as a fairy tale.   My limited research indicates that it took the Irish a long time to take pride in Wilde because of deep rooted homophobia.  Declan Kiberd talks about this in a brilliant chapter on Wilde in Inventing Ireland:  The Literature of the Modern Nation.  


As "The Nightingale and the Rose" opens a nightingale hears a student complaining that the girl he loves will not dance with him because he cannot give her a red rose.  There are several rose bushes in the nearby Garden but only one can produce a red rose.  In order to produce this rose the nightingale must be prepared to make a terrible sacrifice.  I hate to give the ending away but I will say it is a very sad one which left me with a feeling of fondness only for the wonderful nightingale.  

You can read this and other Oscar Wilde Short stories here

As Long as I am around, there will never
be an Irish Short Story Event without Oscar Wilde-
Carmilla

"Carmilla, for once you are right"-Rory

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891)

The Irish Quarter

Oscar Wilde

1854 to 1900 

Dublin

 Wilde himself is a transitional figure. The man who, when he first came to London, sported a velvet beret, lace shirts, velveteen knee-breeches and black silk stockings, could never depart too far in his life from the pleasures of the old-style dandy; this conservatism is reflected in The Picture of Dorian Gray. But many of his attitudes suggest something more modern. It was Wilde who formulated an important element of the Camp sensibility -- the equivalence of all objects -- when he announced his intention of "living up" to his blue-and-white china, or declared that a doorknob could be as admirable as a painting. When he proclaimed the importance of the necktie, the boutonniere, the chair, Wilde was anticipating the democratic esprit of Camp.-from Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp"

The first time I read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde I was probably fifteen or so.   I think that is probably about the right age to first read it.   I remember thinking at the time how wonderful it would be to know people who actually spoke the way the Lord Henry and Dorian spoke about art, life and beauty.  The Picture of Dorian Gray helped to create or make public a new sensibility, that of camp.   It also was one of the first, that I know of, novels to openly glorify a thinly disguised homoerotic fixation.  I think it was in a way a great force for social good in the world as it was a model for future GLBT writers but in a way I think it may have done harm as it lead to the identification of gay men as "fops" given to long anti-adult commentaries on the nature of art and such.

The best thing in the novel is in the outrageous things Lord Henry says and the worse thing in the novel is the fact that there is no counterpoint to the things he says.   Have you ever had a reunion with a friend from decades ago, one you were once very close to and had memories of great conversations with and then upon seeing them again found you or they had changed enough so you did not have as much to say to each other as you once did and you were a bit glad when you parted, still on good terms and promising to stay in touch but knowing you probably will not?

I think everyone should read The Picture of Dorian Gray.  It is not that long, it is an important work historically and you might be entranced by some of the things said in the conversations.  It will probably make you think.   It did change the world.  I also have posted on some of his plays and short stories and highly recommend them.

Mel u

Lady Wilde, Jane Francesca Agnes-Three Irish Folk Lore Stories

"The Priest's Soul" (1882, 22 pages)
"The Black Lamb"  (1883, 6 pages)
"The Horned Women" (1883, 4 pages)

Irish Short Story Week Year Two

March 12 to March 22

Three Paranormal Stories by

Oscar Wilde's Mother

Resources and Ideas for Irish Short Story Week

Please consider joining us for Irish Short Story Week Year Two, March 12 to March 22.   All you need do is post on one short story by an Irish author and send me a comment or an e-mail and I will include it in the master post at the end of the challenge. Thanks


1n 1883 Richard Wagnar died.  In Ireland the English government suppressed The Irish Land League, designed to protect the rights of tenant farmers.  George Moore published A Modern Lover.  The Brooklyn Bridge opens.   

 I think the main, perhaps close to the only one, people still read the short stories of Lady Wilde is that they are curious to read something by the mother of Oscar Wilde.   A few people, like myself, also come upon her stories in William Butler Yeats' Folk and Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasants.  Yeats speaks very highly of her though he does say some of her fairy tales are not strictly in accord with the details of Irish Folklore as seen by scholars. 

Lady Wilde, as she was called, was born in Dublin in 1821.  She died in London 1896.   At this time Oscar was in prison.  Lady Wilde, knowing she was to die soon, requested permission to visit him but the English authorities denied her request.  (There is some information about her here.

None of these works are great great short stories  but all are interesting and fun to read..   I admit to a high curiosity factor about her work and I confess I did not really know she was also an author until a few days ago.    I will just post briefly on each story.

"The Priest's Soul" is the longest most interesting story of the three.  It also documents the great respect in which the Irish held people of learning.   As the story opens we meet a young man from a humble family.   At a very young age he can out debate all the teachers and priests in the area.   He reads and studies and learns more and more.   He believes only in what he can see, only in the visible material world.     He does not believe in God or that man has a soul.   He soon becomes known as the wisest man in the land (there is no place or date setting given for the story) and people come from all over even out of the country to listen to him.  Soon almost everyone in the country loses their faith in God and no one believes people have souls.   One day an angel advises him he will die soon.   He is faced with a serious dilemma when he realizes his repudiation of traditional religion was all wrong.   He tries to convince people he was wrong but they all think he was just joking with him.  I will leave the rest of the story untold.

"The Horned Women" is a simple story, it closer to a fable than a short story about a country woman who house is invaded first by a woman with a horn, then another woman with two horns and so on up until there are twelfe horned women in her house.    The fun in this story is how she gets rid of the horned women forever.

"The Black Lamb" is another simple story.   It is a story about a changeling and about folk beliefs about death.   

You can download all of these stories from Manybooks.  They are in the William Butler Yeats collection I mentioned.  

Mel u

"The Model Millionaire" by Oscar Wilde-Post 4

"The Model Millionaire" by Oscar Wilde (1881, 6 pages)

Irish Short Story Week

Oscar Wilde Day

Camp and the Irish Short Story Writer

47. Wilde himself is a transitional figure. The man who, when he first came to London, sported a velvet beret, lace shirts, velveteen knee-breeches and black silk stockings, could never depart too far in his life from the pleasures of the old-style dandy; this conservatism is reflected in The Picture of Dorian Gray. But many of his attitudes suggest something more modern. It was Wilde who formulated an important element of the Camp sensibility -- the equivalence of all objects -- when he announced his intention of "living up" to his blue-and-white china, or declared that a doorknob could be as admirable as a painting. When he proclaimed the importance of the necktie, the boutonniere, the chair, Wilde was anticipating the democratic esprit of Camp.-from Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp"

u

Resources and  Ideas for Irish Short Story Week


Please join us for Irish Short Stories Week-March 12 to the 22.  All you need do is to  post on your blog about an Irish Short Story and leave me a comment so I can include it in the master post.   

More Oscar Wilde Short Stories

In 1881, William Forster, chief secretary of Ireland, suspended the right of habeas corpus.    Czar Alexander of Russia is assassinated as is the American President, James Garfield.     University College Dublin is founded.   The first Sherlock Holmes story is published.     The best  novel published that year was Portrait of a Lady.   One Hundred and twelve years after this story was published, homosexuality was decriminalized in Ireland.    The population of Ireland was 5,174,836, more than 2.5 Million less than 1841.  

Please consider joining us for Irish Short Story Week Year Two, March 12 to March 22.   All you need do is post on one short story by an Irish author and send me a comment or and e mail and I will include it in the master post at the end of the challenge. 


    Oscar Wilde (1854 to 1900 Dublin, Ireland) most famously the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray" is an iconic GLBT writer.   Everyone who reads The Picture of Dorian Gray while young (and you should read it while young so you can reread it several times!) wishes they lived in a world where people talked the way they do in his book.   Most readers of Wilde stop at his novel.  A few of those who really like the novel go on to his great plays and wonderful short stories.   


I have read a number of his short stories and fairy tales and "The Model Millionaire" is one of my favorites.  

"I look forward to meeting your
mother and would have liked to have
know you"-Yokio Mishima

The Model Millionaire" reminded me of Picture of Dorian Gray in its tone and setting.   ( It is not as wicked a work but then what would be?)    The central character in this story is  Hughie, a young man who lives from the 200 pounds a year his aunt left him:   "He had tried everything. He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears?"   Hughie has a young lady he wants to marry but her father will not allow it until Hughie can show him he has at least 10,000 pounds.    Who but Wilde could describe a character like that and make us love him.   One day Hughie goes to visit the studio of an older friend of his who is a very successful and prosperous because of it society portrait painter. 

The painter is doing a portrait of what seems a tramp dressed in ragged unwashed for a long time clothes.  Hughie asks the painter how much an artist model gets paid and is shocked by the small amount.     He then asks the artist how much he will sell the painting for and  learns it will be sold for an amount  ten times greater than Hughie's annual income.     When the artist steps out for a moment Hughie gives the portrait sitter all of the coins he has in his pocket.   This means Hughie will not be able to go anywhere by cab for a month so it is a real gesture.    When the seeming tramp leaves the painter tells Hughie that the model is very taken by him.   The painter reveals that he has told the man all about Hughie including where he lives and that he needs 10,000 pounds to marry.   Hughie is concerned the tramp may show up at his door.    The painter reveals to Hughie the identity of the model.

'What I say,' said Trevor. 'The old man you saw to-day in the studio was Baron Hausberg. He is a great friend of mine, buys all my pictures and that sort of thing, and gave me a commission a month ago to paint him as a beggar. Que voulez-vous? La fantaisie d'un millionnaire! And I must say he made a magnificent figure in his rags, or perhaps I should say in my rags; they are an old suit I got in Spain.'

     'Baron Hausberg!' cried Hughie. 'Good heavens! I gave him a sovereign!' and he sank into an armchair the picture of dismay.

"The Model Millionaire" is a surprise ending short story (not a real shocking surprise) so I will not tell any more of the plot than I have.   The fun in this story is in the tone and the turns of phrase.  It is easy to read and follow.   It is a traditional story.      You can read it in just a few minutes online here .   

Please share your experience with Wilde with us.

Mel u

"The Sphinx Without a Secret" by Oscar Wilde

"The Sphinx Without a Secret" by Oscar Wilde (1891, 6 pages)

 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900, Dublin, Ireland) is best known for The Portrait of Dorian Gray.   He also wrote a number of delightful short stories. I have already posted on three of Wilde's short works  so I will keep this post quite brief

 "The Sphinx Without a Secret" was first published in a collection of Wilde's stories that he edited in 1891, Lord Saville's Crimes and Other Stories.    Most of Wilde's work seems to focus on lower level members of British aristocracy.   His prose style is pleasant  and a bit unique.


As the story opens Lord Murchison's friend asks him what is troubling him.   It turns out he he disturbed by something he found out about a woman he loved and intended to marry but who is now, alas, dead.    The woman was always very secretive about how she spent her days  (No one seems to work in the world of Wilde, which is OK!)    He follows her one day and sees her go into a boarding house and stay there several hours.    Of course he wants to know what she is doing in there but before he can really ask her she dies.  

I think this story is kind of a satire of short stories that rely on a big shock surprise at the end.   As I discovered along with Lord Murchinson why she went to the boarding house I was at first befuddled then delighted by the sheer cleverness of Wilde.  

"The Sphinx Without a Secret" can be read online .

If you like the prose style of Wilde then I think you will like this story.



Mel u

"The Model Millionaire" by Oscar Wilde- Happy 156th Birthday

"The Model Millionaire" by Oscar Wilde (6 pages, 1881)

"What was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears?"




Greetings to the many readers from Chisinau-your comments on the story and general reading suggestions are very welcome-Mel u-Editor of the Reading Life

Yesterday was the 156th birthday of Oscar Wilde (1854 to 1990-Ireland)  .    Google brought this to the attention of the world by placing on its search page a doodle image inspired by his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.    A few months ago I read and posted on two of his fairy tales, "The Selfish Giant" and "The Happy Prince    This morning as I was reading through the new posts in my Google Reader I found a very interesting post on Zee's Worldly Obessions entitled "Ten Things You Should Know About Oscar Wilde".    Long ago I read The Picture of Dorian Gray  and loved it.     I wanted to post something in honor of his birthday.    Lately I have been reading a lot of short stories so I decided I would read one of Wilde's traditional (non-fairy tale) short stories.

"The Model Millionaire" reminded me of Picture of Dorian Gray in its tone and setting.   ( It is not as wicked a work but then what would be?)    The central character in this story is  Hughie, a young man who lives from the 200 pounds a year his aunt left him:   "He had tried everything. He had gone on the Stock Exchange for six months; but what was a butterfly to do among bulls and bears?"   Hughie has a young lady he wants to marry but her father will not allow it until Hughie can show him he has at least 10,000 pounds.    Who but Wilde could describe a character like that and make us love him.   One day Hughie goes to visit the studio of an older friend of his who is a very successful and prosperous because of it society portrait painter.

The painter is doing a portrait of what seems a tramp dressed in ragged unwashed for a long time clothes.  Hughie asks the painter how much an artist model gets paid and is shocked by the small amount.     He then asks the artist how much he will sell the painting for and  learns it will be sold for an amount  ten times greater than Hughie's annual income.     When the artist steps out for a moment Hughie gives the portrait sitter all of the coins he has in his pocket.   This means Hughie will not be able to go anywhere by cab for a month so it is a real gesture.    When the seeming tramp leaves the painter tells Hughie that the model is very taken by him.   The painter reveals that he has told the man all about Hughie including where he lives and that he needs 10,000 pounds to marry.   Hughie is concerned the tramp may show up at his door.    The painter reveals to Hughie the identity of the model.

'What I say,' said Trevor. 'The old man you saw to-day in the studio was Baron Hausberg. He is a great friend of mine, buys all my pictures and that sort of thing, and gave me a commission a month ago to paint him as a beggar. Que voulez-vous? La fantaisie d'un millionnaire! And I must say he made a magnificent figure in his rags, or perhaps I should say in my rags; they are an old suit I got in Spain.'

     'Baron Hausberg!' cried Hughie. 'Good heavens! I gave him a sovereign!' and he sank into an armchair the picture of dismay.

"The Model Millionaire" is a surprise ending short story (not a real shocking surprise) so I will not tell any more of the plot than I have.   The fun in this story is in the tone and the turns of phrase.  It is easy to read and follow.   It is a traditional story.      You can read it in just a few minutes online here .  

Mel u