Wilde's women : how Oscar Wilde was shaped by the women of his life

559 Pages·2016·4.59 MB·English

by  Fitzsimons

WILDE’S
WOMEN
How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped
by the Women He Knew
Eleanor Fitzsimons
WITH 24 BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS
O
scar Wilde famously insisted that “there should be no law for anybody,” and
his devotion to personal liberty made him a staunch defender of gender equality.
Women were central to his life and career.
Wilde’s Women is the first book to tell the story of the female family
members, friends, and colleagues who traded witticisms with Wilde, who gave
him access to vital publicity, and to whose ideas he gave expression through his
social comedies.
In this essential new work, Eleanor Fitzsimons reframes Wilde’s story and
his legacy through the women in his life, including such scintillating figures as
Florence Balcombe; actress Lillie Langtry; and his tragic and witty niece, Dolly,
who, like Wilde, loved fast cars, cocaine, and foreign women. Fresh, revealing,
and entertaining, full of fascinating detail and anecdotes, Wilde’s Women relates
the untold story of how a beloved writer and libertine played a vitally
sympathetic role on behalf of many women, and how they supported him in the
midst of a Victorian society in the process of changing forever.
ELEANOR FITZSIMONS
is a researcher, writer, journalist and occasional broadcaster specialising in
historical and current feminist issues. She has an MA in Women, Gender and
Society from University College Dublin. Her work has been published in a range
of newspapers and journals including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, History
Today and The Irish Times, and she is a regular radio and television contributor.
Copyright
First published in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2016 by
Overlook Duckworth, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.
NEW YORK
141 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
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© 2015 by Eleanor Fitzsimons
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-4683-1326-0
C
ONTENTS
Copyright
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1 The Real Mrs Erlynne
2 The Precocious Miss Elgee
3 Taming Speranza
4 Lost Sisters and an Earlier Libel Trial
5 ‘The Sweetest Years’
6 ‘Tea and Beauties’
7 ‘How Different an Actress Is!’
8 ‘The Paradise for Women’
9 The Revolutionary and the Duchess
10 Speranza’s Saturdays
11 Married Life
12 Entering the Woman’s World
13 Stories for Girls
14 In the Footsteps of Ouida
15 The Perfect Salomé
16 Deadly Serious Social Comedies
17 A Less than Ideal Husband
18 The Wittiest Woman in the World
19 ‘Death Must Be So Beautiful’
20 Not Much to Laugh About
21 ‘The World Rings with His Infamy’
Epilogue: A Wilde Legacy
Acknowledgements
Selected Bibliography
Notes and References
Index
About the Author
L I
IST OF LLUSTRATIONS
1 Lillie Langtry by Edward John Poynter. This is the painting displayed by
Oscar in the sitting room of 13 Salisbury Street
2 Watercolour portrait of Lady Jane Wilde by Bernard Mulrenin painted for
the Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition of 1864
3 Envelope containing strands of Isola Wilde’s hair, with the inscription ‘My
Isola’s Hair’
4 Sketch of Florence Balcombe by Oscar Wilde
5 Watercolour of View from Moytura House painted in 1876 by Oscar Wilde
and presented by him to Florence Balcombe
6 Cartoon from Time magazine, April 1880
7 Lillie Langtry and Sarah Bernhardt
8 Helena Modjeska
9 Constance Lloyd before her marriage to Oscar Wilde
10 Warner Brothers Trade Card
11 Love letter from Oscar Wilde to his wife Constance, written on 16
December 1884, shortly after their marriage
12 Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sargent, 1889
13 Cover of The Woman’s World
14 Ouida
15 Sarah Bernhardt
16 Salome Dancing before Herod by Gustave Moreau, 1876
17 Photograph taken at the home of Jean and Walter Palmer in 1892
18 Lady Jane Wilde in old age
19 Grave of Constance Wilde in Genoa
20 Maud Allan as Salomé
21 Dolly Wilde dressed as Oscar Wilde
ILLUSTRATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The portrait of Lillie Langtry by Edward John Poynter is included courtesy of
the Jersey Heritage Collections.
The watercolour portrait of Lady Jane Wilde by Bernard Mulrenin; the image
of the envelope containing strands of Isola Wilde’s hair; the sketch of Florence
Balcombe by Oscar Wilde; the watercolour of View from Moytura House by
Oscar Wilde; the photograph of Constance Lloyd before her marriage; the letter
from Oscar Wilde to Constance, written on 16 December 1884; the photograph
taken at the home of Jean and Walter Palmer in 1892; and the photograph of
Lady Jane Wilde in old age are all included in the Merlin Holland Picture
Archive and are used with the kind permission of Merlin Holland.
The image of the Warner Brothers Trade Card depicting Oscar Wilde looking
on as a cherub presents a corset was kindly supplied to me by Michael Seeney of
the Oscar Wilde Society.
The portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, painted by John Singer Sargent
1889, is included in the Tate collection (currently on loan to the National Portrait
Gallery, London) and is used with the kind permission of Tate Images.
The image of Salome Dancing before Herod by Gustave Moreau, 1876, is
included in the Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer
Foundation, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and is used with the kind
permission of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
The photograph of Sarah Bernhardt is from the Folger Shakespeare Library.
The photograph of Constance’s grave in Genoa is used with the permission of
Outi Määttänen-Bourke/G is for Genoa.
The photograph of Dolly Wilde dressed as Oscar Wilde is the property of
Joan Schenkar and is used with her kind permission.
I
NTRODUCTION
Given the nature and magnitude of the monstrous injustice perpetrated against
him, Oscar Wilde’s life is often examined in terms of his relationships with men,
Lord Alfred Douglas in particular. Yet, he was genuinely fond of many women
and this affection was usually reciprocated. As Oscar’s friend Vincent
O’Sullivan confirmed in Aspects of Wilde, his warm and frank biography:
I have always found, and find today, his [Wilde’s] warmest admirers among
women. He, in his turn, admired women. I never heard him say anything
disparaging about any woman, even when some of them required such
1
treatment!
Ever since I first encountered Lady Jane Wilde, Oscar’s flamboyant mother
and an enduring heroine in his native Ireland, I have been intrigued by the
influence she had on her son’s life and work. This fascination led me to examine
his attitude towards women in the context of a society that was determined to
keep them down, something that was anathema to both Oscar and his mother. As
an individualist who believed that few limits should be placed on anyone’s life,
man or woman, Oscar chose, as some of his closest friends, freethinking,
influential, enterprising and intelligent women who challenged conventional
gender roles and operated in the public sphere.
Jane Wilde was deeply unconventional and determined to shine bright. Oscar
admired her brilliance and her appetite for life, and it was she who taught him
that a woman could be as intuitive and inventive as any man. Yet, she was
contradictory in her approach to what we label feminism. While she campaigned
vociferously for women to be granted access to education and the professions,
and welcomed progressive legislation such as The Married Women’s Property
Act (1870), she also believed that a loyal wife should accommodate any
indiscretions perpetrated by her husband, particularly if he was a genius as
Oscar’s father was. This contradictory approach surely influenced Oscar’s
choice of wife and his subsequent behaviour during their marriage.
Oscar Wilde is, quite correctly, held up as a gay icon who railed against the
ignorance and prejudice of those who would deny the authenticity and
appropriateness of love between two men. Yet, like every aspect of his life, his
sexuality is complex. It seems that from the early 1890s onward, he was
attracted exclusively to men. Yet, before this, he was involved with several
women. Oscar lost his first girlfriend, Florence Balcombe, to Bram Stoker, but
won her back as a friend. His wife, Constance Lloyd, was highly accomplished,
politically active and hugely supportive of him. She held strong proto-feminist
views and advocated the adoption of rational clothing that would allow women
to lead more comfortable and effective lives. Throughout their marriage, she
supported Oscar emotionally and financially and she gave birth to their two
beloved sons. Although deeply saddened by his duplicity, she did everything she
could to help him after his arrest and imprisonment. He loved her and he
mourned her deeply when she died.
Oscar also had dozens of women friends, among them socialite and astute
businesswoman Lillie Langtry; and acclaimed actresses Ellen Terry and Sarah
Bernhardt. He provoked extraordinary loyalty in women we have largely
forgotten today: the witty and vivacious Ada Leverson and the hugely popular
and influential Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Stannard, who published her bestselling
novels as ‘John Strange Winter’. He traded witticisms with women, promoted
their work, collaborated with them on theatrical productions and drew
inspiration from their lives. Many of the most outspoken and memorable
characters in his plays are women.
Nowhere was the support of powerful women more important than in
America, where Oscar toured in 1882 as a young poseur with only a poorly
reviewed collection of poetry to his name. Dozens of wealthy and influential
women who could make or break the reputation of a young writer delighted in
his compelling personality and promoted him with enthusiasm. One of them
even married his brother.
One of the most illuminating periods in Oscar’s life in terms of his attitude
towards women was his tenure as editor of proto-feminist magazine The
Woman’s World. Under his editorship, he insisted, this publication would
concern itself ‘not merely with what women wear, but with what they think, and
what they feel’. He encouraged contributors to write about women in the public
sphere and he demonstrated a nuanced and progressive attitude towards gender
expectations and control.
Oscar acted as a conduit for women’s ideas and used his social comedies to
expose the deep-rooted hypocrisy that prevailed in patriarchal Victorian society.
He facilitated the introduction of female-centric European culture to a London
audience by collaborating with Polish actress Helena Modjeska and American