Wilde at heart

“This is a book of revelations,” writes Merlin Holland as he begins his extensive account of the downfall and subsequent decades-long hypocritical attacks on his grandfather, playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, who became the poster boy of sexual misconduct (a homosexual affair) and subversive behaviour for attacking Victorian morals.

Despite some rehabilitation of Wilde’s life and actions, “I have no doubt that Oscar will go on inspiring hypocrisy in various forms for decades to come,” Holland says.

Many of the people who attacked Wilde or unduly benefited from his work (or their descendants) will feel uncomfortable by the revelations in this book, he writes, and if that sounds simply like historical payback, it is not. The author’s research draws a clear picture of the vicious attacks on Wilde’s character and writing, and on those who monetarily benefited from it.

But first: the scandal took place in 1895; Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years’ hard labour for an affair with Lord Alfred (Bosie) Douglas, son of the Marquess of Queensberry. The marquess accused Wilde of being a sodomite, and Wilde sued for libel, goaded by Bosie, who loathed his father. Wilde withdrew his suit, and was charged and convicted in criminal court.

Wilde’s wife, Constance, changed the family name to Holland, and she and sons Cyril and Vyvyan fled to the continent, where she died in 1898. After Wilde’s release from Reading Gaol in 1897 he lived in France, relying on financial help from Constance and friends. The boys, who were away at separate boarding schools, never saw their father again. They only learned of his death in 1900 by hearing about it from non-family members.

Cyril died in the First World War, leaving Vyvyan, later to become Merlin Holland’s father, as the sole descendent. The estate and royalties of Wilde’s work were overseen as best they could be by family friends, especially executor Robbie Ross, who did what he could to glean funds from Wilde’s writing and keep others from publishing books or performing plays without compensation. He was in almost constant battle with Bosie Douglas, who had denounced his earlier life, become a Roman Catholic and was waging a battle against anything Wildean.

Wilde himself played fast and loose in selling new material and rights to older unpublished work after he left jail, material that fell under the purview of an official receiver because he had been declared bankrupt.

His misdeeds paled in comparison to the many publishers, theatrical producers and would-be authors and editors who produced or sold his work without paying royalties, sometimes republishing work, still under copyright in Britain, France or Germany to avoid payment.

The British public in general still took pleasure in “kicking Oscar’s corpse,” Robbie Ross wrote in 1918, but by the 1920s what they saw as the less attractive aspects of Wilde’s life, revisited so often in the law courts, had been largely forgotten or forgiven. It became popular for writers to include a reference in their memoirs to enjoying Wilde’s friendship, or giving him moral or financial support during his exile. Of course, those who could have confirmed or denied those claims — Wilde, wife Constance and Ross — were conveniently dead.

Vyvyan kept his head low when it came to his father’s literary affairs, doing what he could to rehabilitate and protect his image without coming out as a Wilde offspring. His second wife and Merlin’s mother, Thelma, made it her life’s work to whitewash Wilde’s legacy, to prevent writers or broadcasters from rehashing the so-called sordid details of his life.

Holland was eight years old when he noted Wilde’s name on a theatre billboard and asked his father if he didn’t have something to do with the family. At the time, few people were even aware that Vyvyan was the legendary writer’s son.

Vyvyan was a feckless character for much of his life as he tried to avoid the Wilde curse, and it became Merlin’s role in middle age to accept and attempt to present the Wilde legacy in its true light. He spent nearly 30 years researching and writing this book.

After Oscar contains too many examples of misdeeds, mishandling of Wilde’s oeuvre and image and sometimes fraud by less-than-scrupulous people to recount all in a book review. But Holland has done a good job researching, weaving many narratives and correcting misinformation about his grandfather.

It may not be the last word on Wilde, but it is an honest look at his life and legacy and a masterful addition to Holland’s literary credentials, which include Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess, the first complete, verbatim record of the libel trial that brought ruin to Wilde; The Wilde Album, a pictorial biography of Wilde; Conversations with Oscar Wilde; as well as serving as co-editor of The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde and editor of an abridged version of Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters.

Let’s let Wilde have the last word. He is reported to have remarked to a friend, as they discussed a mutual acquaintance in 1899, that in 50 or 100 years, no one would remember that man, but Wilde’s comedies and stories would be read by millions. (Not to mention public memorials and his likeness on T-shirts and mugs.)

Chris Smith is a Winnipeg writer.