25 “dirty, dingy.” Illustrated Police Budget, May 4, 1885.
26 “A slim thing.” Letters, p. 389.
27 “Everyone tried to outdo.” Trials, p. 164.
28 “I know and admire.” Letters, p. 376.
29 “What is to become.” Ibid., p. 389n.
30 “Misfortunes one can endure.” Plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, p. 18.
31 “face looked almost bloodless.” Illustrated Police News, Apr. 20, 1895.
32 “committed the act.” Trials, p. 175.
33 “degraded.” Ibid., p. 235.
34 “the love that dare not.” Ibid., p. 200.
35 “repeatedly exists between an elder.” Ibid., p. 201.
36 “simply wonderful.” Beerbohm, Letters to Reggie Turner, p. 102.
37 “though they may have erred.” George Ives Diary, May 26, 1895, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
38 “came tapping with his beak.” Yeats, p. 288.
39 “If you stay.” Ibid., p. 289.
40 “made the right decision.” Ibid.
41 “At least my vices.” Ibid., p. 291.
42 “one must have a heart.” Leverson, Letters to the Sphinx, p. 42.
43 “This trial seems to be.” Trials, p. 253.
44 “stableman’s gait and dress.” Letters, p. 492.
45 “People who can do.” Trials, p. 272.
46 “And I?” Ibid., p. 273.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: TOUCHING SORROW
1 “Clergymen, and people.” Letters, p. 473.
2 “I should hate.” Ibid., p. 115.
3 “even in prison.” Writings, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” p. 29.
4 “For sleep, like all wholesome things.” Daily Chronicle, Mar. 24, 1897.
5 “I had to keep everything.” Trials, p. 278.
6 “step back and view them.” Robert Harborough Sherard, The Life of Oscar Wilde (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1906), p. 389.
7 “The terror of a child.” Daily Chronicle, May 28, 1897.
8 “third-rate, badly-written religious books.” Ibid., Mar. 24, 1897.
9 “too critical, too intellectually subtle.” Intentions, “The Critic as Artist,” pt. 2, p. 170.
10 “the diary that we all carry.” Plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, p. 273.
11 “To have altered my life.” Letters, p. 705.
12 “It even smelt bad.” Trials, p. 284.
13 “The prisoner is either locked up.” Daily Chronicle, Mar. 24, 1897.
14 “One of the tragedies.” Ibid.
15 “Must it be cut?” “The Story of Oscar Wilde’s Life in Reading Jail,” Bruno’s Weekly (New York), Jan. 22, 1916.
16 “He had the eyes.” Ellmann, p. 497.
17 “Oscar Wilde, I pity you.” Sherard, Real Oscar Wilde, p. 137.
18 “I like hearing myself talk.” Fiction, “The Remarkable Rocket,” p. 154.
19 “the sign of the widow’s son.” Sherard, Real Oscar Wilde, p. 140.
20 “very repentant.” Clark, Constance Wilde to Emily Thursfield, Oct. 12, 1895.
21 “first heard a nightingale’s song.” Ibid., Jan. 5, 1895.
22 “May the prison help him!” Ellmann, p. 498.
23 “such a terrible thing.” Clark, Constance Wilde to Lily Wilde, [Feb. 5, 1896].
24 “For many reasons.” Clark, Willie Wilde to More Adey, Feb. 4, 1896.
25 “revolting and grotesque.” Letters, p. 400.
26 “have nothing to do.” Ibid., p. 401.
27 “If Oscar asks me.” Ellmann, p. 500.
28 “Tell him I know.” Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 138; Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde and Myself (London: John Long, 1914), p. 177.
29 “altered every man’s life.” Letters, p. 488.
30 “that little tent.” Poetry, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, p. 155.
31 “no other Irishman.” Neue Freie Presse, Apr. 23, 1905.
32 “It was the triumph.” Letters, p. 429.
33 “There is a luxury.” Dorian, p. 125.
34 “much perilous stuff.” Letters, p. 514.
35 “No!” Wilde exclaimed. Charles Ricketts, Self-Portrait (London: Peter Davies, 1939), p. 47.
36 “one last glimpse.” Trials, p. 297.
37 “No prisoner has ever.” Letters, p. 461.
38 “with the dignity.” Ibid., p. 563.
39 “Sphinx, how marvellous.” Ibid.
40 “I look on all.” Ibid.
41 “he broke down.” Ibid., p. 564.
CHAPTER TWENTY: MISBEGOTTEN YESTERDAYS
1 “It is only shallow people.” Dorian, p. 45.
2 “had grown to feel.” Rothenstein, Men and Memories, p. 362.
3 “He is sure.” John Rothenstein, The Life and Death of Conder (London: Dent, 1938), p. 165.
4 “Laughter is the primeval attitude.” Dorian, p. 30.
5 “Pitiful family.” Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Journal: Mémoires de la vie littéraire, 1891–1896, vol. 4 (Paris: Flammarion, 1956), p. 797.
6 “I’m writing an essay.” Mikhail, p. 350.
7 “I have come to loathe.” Barnaby Conrad III, Absinthe: History in a Bottle (San Francisco: Chronicle, 1988), p. 16n.
8 “Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities.” Redman, Epigrams, p. 165.
9 “beginning at the end.” Letters, p. 575.
10 “I begin to realise.” Ibid., p. 577.
11 “I have made Aubrey buy.” More Letters, p. 151.
12 “I adore this place.” Letters, p. 585.
13 “pilgrimage to the sinner.” Ibid., p. 596.
14 “I want to have a poet.” Ibid., pp. 597, 619.
15 “Why are you.” Ibid., p. 612.
16 “such lovely little fellows.” Ibid., p. 582.
17 “I have now.” Ibid., p. 607.
18 “I feel him.” Ibid., p. 577.
19 “You are made.” Ibid.
20 “is the knowledge.” Ibid., p. 595.
21 “I am so glad.” Ibid., p. 600.
22 “no longer the lyrical madman.” Gide, Oscar Wilde, p. 47.
23 “One should never go back.” Ibid.
24 “little gamins.” Letters, p. 617.
25 “no heart to write.” Ibid., p. 639.
26 “I am not in the mood.” Ibid.
27 “I will publish.” O’Sullivan, Aspects of Wilde, p. 102.
28 “the most learned erotomaniac.” Letters, p. 630.
29 “personally charming.” Ibid., p. 656.
30 “I am greatly hurt.” Ibid., p. 635.
31 “Poor Oscar cried.” Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 158.
32 “I feel that my only hope.” Letters, p. 637.
33 “Do remake my ruined life.” Ibid.
34 “Yes: I saw Bosie.” Ibid., p. 638.
35 “The Triad of the Moon.” Ibid., p. 649.
36 “He laboured over it.” Douglas, Oscar Wilde and Myself, p. 122.
37 “more than he loves.” Letters, p. 648.
38 “I cannot live.” Ibid., p. 644.
39 “I must remake my maimed life.” Ibid., p. 647.
40 “A wonderful personality.” Ibid., p. 661.
41 “I am engaged.” Ibid., p. 775.
42 “a face chiselled.” Ibid., p. 787.
43 “like a young St. John.” Ibid., p. 776.
44 “How can she really imagine.” Ibid., p. 653.
45 “lost that supreme desire.” Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 168.
46 “I loved you.” Dorian, p. 117.
47 “He has been sweet.” Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 168.
48 “Russian Elder.” Letters, p. 698.
49 “the maladie.” Ibid., p. 696.
50 “Nobody here seems to feel.” Clark, Elisabeth Marbury to Leonard Smithers, Jan. 25, 1898.
51 “a moving piece.” Daily Telegraph, Feb. 27, 1898.
52 “It is frightfully tragic.” Hyde, Oscar Wilde, p. 387.
53 AM IN GREAT GRIEF Letter
s, p. 729.
54 “did not feel it.” Ibid.
55 “My way back.” Ellmann, p. 566.
56 “If we had only met.” Letters, p. 730.
57 “When I read it.” Ibid., p. 721.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: STEALING HAPPINESS
1 “O we are wearied.” Poetry, “Panthea,” p. 94.
2 “I’m so alone.” Gide, Oscar Wilde, p. 47.
3 “I have lost.” Letters, p. 708.
4 “a curious and bitter lesson.” Ibid., p. 791.
5 “A patriot put in prison.” Ibid., p. 705.
6 “I saw at once.” Rothenstein, Men and Memories, p. 362.
7 “I live a very ordinary life.” Letters, p. 743.
8 “the public liked to hear.” Ibid., p. 780.
9 “one can get nothing.” Ibid., p. 717.
10 “one can’t get railway-tickets.” Ibid., p. 812.
11 “I have been seven times.” More Letters, p. 171.
12 “Nothing fattens so much.” Letters, p. 763.
13 “I can’t afford.” Ibid., p. 828.
14 “Of course I cannot bear.” Ibid., p. 740.
15 “the harvest-moon.” Ibid., p. 767.
16 “quite an imp.” Ibid., p. 768.
17 “rather like a handsome bamboo walking-stick.” Ibid., p. 834.
18 “by the lack of intellect.” Ibid., p. 774.
19 “like a rose-leaf.” Ibid., p. 739.
20 “Maurice has won.” Ibid., p. 710.
21 “So you love Maurice?” Ibid., p. 732.
22 “How is my golden Maurice?” Ibid., p. 739.
23 “rests his hope.” Ibid., p. 756.
24 “was rather like a public meeting.” Ibid., p. 749.
25 “A delightful evening.” Ibid., p. 748.
26 “sodomist outcasts.” Clark, Vincent O’Sullivan to Arthur Symons, [192?].
27 “Frank insists.” Letters, p. 770.
28 “the exquisite taste.” Ibid., p. 776.
29 “My dear Frank.” Ibid., p. 781.
30 “I hope to be happy.” Ibid., p. 782.
31 “It was very tragic.” Ibid., p. 783.
32 “There is something.” Ibid., p. 719.
33 “wide chasms.” Ibid., p. 785.
34 “One has always sad memories.” Clark, Lily Wilde to Oscar Wilde, May 7, [1899].
35 “Swiss people are carved.” Letters, p. 784.
36 “Mellor carries out the traditions.” More Letters, p. 180.
37 “The chastity of Switzerland.” Letters, p. 792.
38 “Whatever I do.” Ibid., p. 791.
39 “Life is rather dust.” Ibid., p. 795.
40 “I have had a very bad time.” Ibid., p. 737.
41 “it is always a bore.” Ibid., p. 804.
42 “Don’t have with me.” Ibid., p. 815.
43 “I have no doubt.” Ibid., p. 721.
44 “Oscar meant well.” George Ives Diary, Feb. 23, 1905, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
45 “It is a poor little Bohemian hotel.” Letters, p. 767.
46 “literary resort.” Ibid., p. 768.
47 “God saved the genius.” Laurence Housman, Echo de Paris: A Study from Life (London: Cape, 1923), p. 30.
48 “very pleasant Christmas.” Letters, p. 813.
49 “Our present-day literature.” Ted Morgan, Maugham: A Biography (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980), p. 76.
50 “My throat is a lime kiln.” Letters, p. 817.
51 “Poisoning by mussels.” Ibid.
52 “a sort of blood poisoning.” Ibid., p. 818.
53 “when one is cooped up.” Ibid., p. 727.
54 “a sweet singer.” Ibid., p. 816.
55 “It will be delightful.” Ibid.
56 “the only city.” Ibid., p. 826.
57 “I do nothing.” Ibid., p. 825.
58 “I really must become a Catholic.” Ibid., p. 819.
59 “built again his own palace.” Mikhail, p. 480.
60 TERRIBLY WEAK. Letters, p. 837.
61 “Ah! Robbie.” [Raymond] and Ricketts, Oscar Wilde, p. 59.
62 “And what have I.” Letters, p. 848.
63 “I will never outlive.” Ibid., p. 849.
64 “You are qualifying.” Ibid., p. 848.
65 “I have had a dreadful dream.” Ibid., p. 849.
66 “He has not once hinted.” Clark, Reggie Turner to Robbie Ross, Nov. 27, [1900].
67 “You dear little Jew.” Letters, p. 852.
68 “The diagnosis.” Ellmann, p. 582.
69 ALMOST HOPELESS. Letters, p. 853
70 “the cherub with the flaming sword.” Ibid., p. 859.
71 “when roused Wilde gave signs.” Ibid., p. 857.
72 “Oscar’s end was as quiet.” Clark, typescript for a new preface to The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde by Frank Harris and Lord Alfred Douglas (London: Fortune Press, 1925), p. 15.
73 “if a man needs an elaborate tombstone.” Letters, p. 169.
EPILOGUE
1 “I think [Wilde].” Hoare, Wilde’s Last Stand, p. 152.
2 “artificial, trivial.” Beckson, Encyclopedia, p. 425.
BOOKS BY BARBARA BELFORD
Bram Stoker:
A Biography of the Author of Dracula
Violet: The Story of the Irrepressible Violet Hunt and
Her Circle of Lovers and Friends—Ford Madox Ford,
H. G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, and Henry James
Brilliant Bylines:
A Biographical Anthology of
Notable Newspaperwomen in America
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BARBARA BELFORD’S other biographies of Victorian literary figures include Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula and Violet: The Story of the Irrepressible Violet Hunt and Her Circle of Lovers and Friends-Ford Madox Ford, H. G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, and Henry James. She lives in New York City.
Oscar Wilde Page 42