Oscar Wilde wrote plays that are still performed in many theaters around the world.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS.
“An artist is not a moralist,” wrote Oscar Wilde. But he lived in a society of moralists. A man of beautiful poses and colorful comments, he wore a green painted carnation in his buttonhole and often held sunflowers or lilies in his hands (these were the favorite flowers of the Pre-Raphaelite artists who inspired Oscar).
At first this brilliant Irishman, son of Sir William Wilde and a graduate of Oxford, greatly entertained London. He had a fantastic memory, he loved ancient art, he always made jokes, to delight or shock, and he was the center of attention. It was not pleasant to be around him: many stories are told about the brilliant Wilde at social evenings, but for some reason there are no memories of Wilde with whom one simply talked about life. But there are many anecdotes and aphorisms (the degree of reliability is almost like that of Faina Ranevskaya).
And then “The Picture of Dorian Gray” appeared – one of the best works of English literature of the late 19th century. British society recognized the novel as immoral. Where vice was condemned, critics saw vice praised. If anyone does not remember, in the novel the beautiful young Dorian Gray poses for a portrait, and then the image reflects all the crimes and misdeeds that the model commits, but not a single horror is reflected on Dorian’s beautiful forehead. Everything passes on to the canvas, where the man ages, his lips curve in a hypocritical smile and the spilled blood flows from his hands. What does Oscar Wilde write about this? “This portrait is like his conscience. Yes, conscience. And we must destroy it.”
This phrase says a lot. Wilde, for all his peacock pomposity, knew well what conscience is. Otherwise, I would have gotten out of the quagmire I found myself in at the end of my short life.
If you mark this life with a dotted line, it will turn out something like this. A collection of poems, a trip to America, a trip to Paris, marriage to Constance Lloyd. Two children to whom he tells stories. Then, two magnificent children’s books: “The Happy Prince and Other Stories” and “The House of Pomegranates.” Fairy tales contain love, tenderness and parental happiness. One of them, “Star Boy”, was filmed twice in the USSR, in 1958 and 1983; Today you can admire the cosmic story about the bond between mother and child, even if you watch an old movie.
Oscar Wilde also wrote plays that are still performed in many theaters around the world. “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, “The Importance of Being Serious”, “The Ideal Husband”… Light, like a salon, where real feelings are almost invisible. Just elegant paradoxes and sarcasm. Loathsome lords, ladies and schemers (like Mrs. Cheveley, played very convincingly by Lyudmila Gurchenko in the Soviet film adaptation of the play).
There are no signs of problems. Wilde is always joking. For example, when he arrives in the United States, he declares at customs: “I have nothing to declare except my temper.” Later, his self-confidence would fail him completely: his relationship with his young friend Bosie, the marquis’ son, ended in litigation. Wilde, without lawyers, sued for libel and, as a result, sued himself: relying too much on his eloquence, he said everything that puritanical British society could not bear. A terrible scandal and imprisonment followed.
Oscar Wilde’s coldness and detachment in his ironic secular works is like glass.
Photo: Wikipedia.
Many pages are dedicated to this Bosie, gigolo and scoundrel, in many biographies of the writer. Wilde wasn’t the first the sweet boy turned to for money. The wife watched in horror as pounds disappeared from the family budget, but did nothing until the trial. And she did not divorce Wilde when he went to prison. She helped him until the end of his life, although for the sake of the children she changed her last name. And Bosie, even after imprisonment, managed to get extra money from Wilde and dared to write to him: “When you are not on a pedestal, no one is interested in you.”
Maybe everything could have been different. But it’s like a green carnation in your buttonhole: it’s ridiculous, but you want it. A year and a half in Reading was a punishment, but The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a masterpiece and a gift for new generations. Only Wilde himself had it too difficult.
He was released in 1987. He then lived in France, his wife sent him money, but did not allow him to see his children. He changed his name and called himself Sebastian Melmoth (there was such a work in English literature, “Melmoth the Wanderer”). He was constantly ill and died from an ear infection he contracted in Reading. His grave is located in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, on the tombstone there is a winged sphinx; It is not known how the legend arose that it is necessary to kiss the sphinx for your cherished wish to come true, but for years it was covered in lipstick and painted with hearts, only in the early 2010s it was covered with girls with a glass fence.
And there’s something very organic about it. Oscar Wilde’s coldness and detachment in his ironic secular works are like glass. His phrases are beautiful, but they have little connection with real life and death. For example, he was once asked what he was working on and he responded that he was working on breaks. He could tell in detail how he crossed out a comma, then thought about it and put it back. He condemned Rudyard Kipling for writing a novel in which cod was caught, and cod, according to Wilde, was a vulgar fish.
He died after severe agony, when he no longer cared about the vulgarity of fish or the appropriateness of commas. The calendar showed November 30, 1890 and the writer was only 46 years old. It was considered unnecessary and said it would not survive the 19th century because the British could no longer tolerate its presence. And he was wrong: the English have continued to endure Wilde’s presence for almost 135 years. The Picture of Dorian Gray has been written. Lady Windermere’s fan is open. And in Reading Prison… “Alone, humiliated, we rust / The chain of life without end.”
There was the dandy, with a green carnation in his buttonhole and a sunflower in his hand.
LISTEN TOO
“Mother Earth, white birch” Tatyana Kurtukova spoke directly about the competition with SHAMAN (more details)
