![]() It then became the focus of physicians and lawyers. The technical term “homosexuality” was coined as recently as 1869. It was Lord Alfred Douglas, not Oscar, who coined the famous phrase, “the love that dare not speak its name.” Homosexuality was then typically clothed in euphemisms like Greek love. Robbie moved into the Wilde home in Chelsea, where he stayed for a few months, as friend to Constance and lover to Oscar.ĥ. Two years into the marriage, Oscar met Robbie Ross, then a 17-year-old Canadian, and they became lovers. He had no appetite for the domestic or for stability. For a few years, Oscar charmed parties with his witty wordplay and lived in a bubble of beauty and domestic harmony, so was to all appearances a happy family man. They produced two gorgeous boys, Cyril and Vyvyan. In his late 20s Oscar married the beautiful Constance Lloyd, Anglo-Irish like himself. One of Oscar Wilde’s role was that of Victorian husband and father. As a consequence, she too had her moment in court.Ĥ. She dared to say what was then scarcely thinkable – that imperialism could not survive as it was exploitative and self-serving. She stood outside her conservative, Protestant background and reminded the British government that Catholics too were entitled to human rights. A journalist, poet, literary critic and translator, Jane penned a notorious editorial in the Nation calling on the country to rise up against British colonialism. Oscar’s mother, Lady Jane Wilde, was involved in Ireland’s 1848 uprising. Mary kept up this campaign until the trial six months later, tarnishing Sir William’s reputation.ģ. The pamphlet, together with extracts from love letters he wrote her, were distributed by newspaper boys all over Dublin, into the letter box of the Wilde home for the children to see, into the homes of patients and friends, sold on the streets for a penny, they even followed Sir William into to the Metropolitan Hall, where he had come to deliver a prestigious annual lecture on Ireland’s history. She wrote a pamphlet presenting him as a misfit of a doctor, one who used chloroform to numb his patients into sexual submission. Travers used every trick in the book to humiliate Sir William. One of the most accomplished Victorian men of his generation (eye and ear surgeon, historian, archaeologist), Sir William was accused of rape by Mary Travers, a long term patient. Oscar’s father, Sir William Wilde, was the subject of a scandalous court case. One of the first to become famous for nothing other than being himself.Ģ. He returned with the confidence of a superstar and was thereafter a transatlantic celebrity. His eloquence, wit, and theatrics made excellent copy. Indeed, he learned to use the constant glare of the press to his advantage. The American media ridiculed him – for his clothes, his effete mannerisms. ![]() America was where the young Irishman became “Oscar Wilde.” He went there in his 20s to lecture on Aesthetics, it was an empowering experience. Here are some facts from my biography, The Fall of the House of Wilde, you might not know.ġ. What few know is he owed his most outstanding qualities – his advanced intellectualism, his ostentation, his hedonism, his hauteur, his progressive sexual values – to his parents. Riveting and original, Making Oscar Wilde is a masterful account of a life like no other.Everyone’s heard of Oscar Wilde – cultural icon and homosexual martyr, and one of the first modern celebrities. This ground-breaking revisionist history shows how Wilde's tumultuous early life embodies the story of the Victorian era as it tottered towards modernity. Following the twists and turns of Wilde's journey, Mendelssohn vividly depicts sensation-hungry Victorian journalism and popular entertainment alongside racial controversies, sex scandals, and the growth of Irish nationalism. ![]() With superb style and an instinct for story-telling, she brings to life the charming young Irishman who set out to captivate the United States and Britain with his words and ended up conquering the world. 'Success is a science,' Wilde believed, 'if you have the conditions, you get the result.'Ĭombining new evidence and gripping cultural history, Michèle Mendelssohn dramatises Wilde's rise, fall, and resurrection as part of a spectacular transatlantic pageant. Set on two continents, it tracks a larger-than-life hero on an unforgettable adventure to make his name and gain international acclaim. Making Oscar Wilde reveals the untold story of young Oscar's career in Victorian England and post-Civil War America. His afterlife has given him the legitimacy that life denied him. Today, his plays and stories are beloved around the world. Witty, inspiring, and charismatic, Oscar Wilde is one of the Greats of English literature.
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