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Oscar Wilde’s American visits resulted in mixed fortunes: he failed to achieve too much literary advance, and although his tour met with a mixed reception critically, it was a great commercial success. We can see these fortunes reflected in the above cartoon from Judge magazine of September 1883.
Continue reading “Not A Joy Forever”
A verse parody appeared just three weeks after Oscar Wilde arrived in America. It was one many such newspaper items in 1882 that poked fun at Wilde and the aesthetic movement.
It was notable for its affected and satirical overuse of alliteration. Although Wilde was known for his occasional penchant for this verbal prose style (something that Whistler later parodied), it was probably not recognized by the author of this verse when it was written in January 1882.
It is more likely that its use was prompted by expressions such as “too-too” and “utterly utter” that were connected to the also alliterative Apostle of the Aesthetes.
As such, the text is instructional in understanding allusions to Wilde and the aesthetic movement. Let us examine the terminology:
Continue reading “Quixote of the Queer”
—Corroborating Research—
In a recent article I established the literary source for the cello coat worn by Oscar Wilde at the Grosvenor Gallery. However, I left it open to interpretation whether Wilde actually did have such a coat tailored or, perhaps, he just happened to have one like it. After all, ask you may recall, there was only one report of the “cello” shape.
However, we can now be definitive.
Further research allows us to make the coat story complete—although, as we shall see, the archaic variant word compleat might make for a better fit.
Continue reading “Cello Encore”