The cambridge companion to oscar wilde cambridge companions to literature

The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde is an essential introduction to one of th e theatre' s mos t importan t an d enigmati c writers Althoug h a genera l overview, thes e newl y commissione d essay s als o offe r som e o f th e lates t thinking on the dramatist and his impact on the twentieth century Part on e places Wilde's wor k within th e cultural an d historica l contex t of his time and includes an opening essay by Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland Further chapter s als o examin e Wilde an d th e Victorians an d hi s imag e a s a dandy Par t tw o look s a t Wilde' s essentia l wor k a s playwrigh t an d genera l writer, includin g hi s poetry , critique s an d fiction , an d provide s detaile d analyses of such key works as Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest, among others Th e thir d grou p o f essay s examine s th e theme s an d factor s which shaped Wilde's work and includes Wilde and his view of the Victorian woman, Wilde's sexual identities and interpreting Wilde on stage The volume also contains a detailed chronology of Wilde's work, a guide to further readin g and illustrations from important productions THE CAMBRIDG COMPANION T E O OSCAR WILD E CAMBRIDGE COMPANION S T O LITERATUR E The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature edited by Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism edited by Jill Kraye The Cambridge Companion to Dante edited by Rachel Jacoff The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad edited by J H Stape The Cambridge Chaucer Companion edited by Piero Boitani and Jill Mann The Cambridge Companion to Faulkner edited by Philip M Weinstein The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre edited by Richard Beadle The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies edited by Stanley Wells The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama edited by A R Braunmuller and Michael Hattawa y The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry, Donne to Marvell edited by Thomas N Corn s The Cambridge Companion to Milton edited by Dennis Danielson The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism edited by Stuart Curran The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce edited by Derek Attridge The Cambridge Companion to Ibsen edited by James McFarlane The Cambridge Companion to Brecht edited by Peter Thomson and Glendyr Sacks The Cambridge Companion to Thoreau edited by Joel Myerson The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharton edited by Millicent Bell The Cambridge Companion to Realism and Naturalism edited by Donald Pizer The Cambridge Companion to Twain edited by Forrest G Robinson The Cambridge Companion to Whitman edited by Ezra Greenspan The Cambridge Companion to Hemingway edited by Scott Donaldson The Cambridge Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel edited by John Richetti The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson edited by Gregory Clingham The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde edited by Peter Raby The Cambridge Companion to Beckett edited by John Pilling The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams edited by Matthew C Roudane The Cambridge Companion to T S Eliot edited by A David Moody The Cambridge Companion to Arthur Miller edited by Christopher Bigsby THE CAMBRIDG E COMPANION T O OSCAR WILD E EDITED B Y PETER RAB Y Hotnerton College, Cambridge CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRES S CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information o n this title: www.cambridge.org/052147471X © Cambridge University Press 199 This publication i s in copyright Subjec t to statutory exceptio n and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements , no reproduction o f any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published 199 Sixth printing 2004 A catalogue record forthis publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to Oscar Wilde / edited by Peter Raby p cm — (Cambridge companions to literature) Includes bibliographical references an d index ISBN 521 47471 X (hardback) ISBN 521 47987 (paperback) Wilde, Oscar, 1854-190 - Criticis m and interpretation I Raby, Peter II Series PR5824.C36 199 828'.809-dc21 96-37705 CI P ISBN-10 0-521-47471- X hardbac k ISBN-10 0-521-47987- paperbac k Transferred t o digital printing 2005 CONTENTS List of illustrations page Notes on contributors x Preface x Acknowledgements xvi Note on references xvii Chronology xi ix i v i i x Part I: Context i Biograph y an d the art of lying MERLIN HOLLAN D Wild e and the Victorians REGENIAGAGNIER Wild e and the Dandyism o f the Senses STEPHEN CALLOWA Y Part H: Wilde's works Wild e as poet KARL BECKSO N AN D BOBB Y FON G Wild e the journalist JOHN STOKE S Wild e as critic and theorist LAWRENCE DANSO N Vll CONTENTS Wilde' s fiction(s) JERUSHA MCCORMAC K Distance , death an d desir e in Salome 11 JOSEPH DONOHU E Wilde' s comedies of Society 14 PETER RAB Y 10 The Importance of Being Earnest 161 RUSSELL JACKSON Part HI: Themes and influence s 11 A verdict of death: Oscar Wilde, actresses and Victorian women 18 KERRY POWEL L 12 ' A complex multiform creature ' - Wilde' s sexual identities 19 JOSEPH BRISTO W 13 Wilde' s plays: some lines of influence 21 RICHARD ALLE N CAV E 14 Wild e on the stage 24 JOEL KAPLAN 15 Osca r Wilde: the resurgence of lying 27 DECLANKIBERD Select bibliography General index 29 Index of works by Oscar Wilde 30 95 ILLUSTRATIONS page Osca r Wilde with hi s friends a t Magdalen College , Oxford (Reproduce d courtesy of Mr R C C Hunt) Th e Hungaria n oper a singe r Alic e Guszalewic z a s Salome , Cologne , 1906 (Reproduced courtes y of Collection Viollet, Paris) Wild e the Aesthete, dresse d fo r hi s American tour i n 188 (Reproduce d courtesy of the Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles) 4 Charle s Ricketts' s title-pag e fo r The Sphinx, 189 (Reproduce d courtesy of Mr Merli n Holland) Wild e a s story-teller , etchin g b y th e America n artis t Jame s Edwar d Kelly, 188 10 Wild e a s th e Fa d Boy , presentin g a cop y o f Dorian Gray t o a scandalised Mr s Grundy , i n Punch (1 Jul y 1890 ) (Reproduce d courtesy of the Library Syndicate , Cambridge University Library) 11 Aubre y Beardsley' s first Salome illustration (Reproduce d courtesy o f th e Library Syndicate, Cambridge University Library ) 13 Lady Windermere's Fan a t th e S t James' s Theatre , 189 (The Lady, 10 March 1892 ) 14 Mr s Arbuthno t insult s Lor d Illingworth , A Woman of No Importance, Act IV (The Graphic, April 1893 ) 10 Fou r sketche s b y Fre d Pegra m o f An Ideal Husband (Lady's Pictorial, 12 January 1895 ) J 11 Wild e a s th e poe t Maudle , on e o f a serie s o f caricature s b y Georg e du Maurie r (Punch, Februar y 1881 ) (Reproduce d courtes y o f th e Library Syndicate, Cambridge University Library) 20 12 Benedic k Bate s a s Doria n Gra y an d Ti m Pigott-Smit h a s Robbi e Ross / Basil Hallwar d i n Nei l Bartlett' s productio n an d adaptatio n o f The Picture of Dorian Gray a t th e Lyric , Hammersmith , 199 (Phot o b y Sheila Burnett, reproduced courtes y of the Lyric, Hammersmith) 24 1 53 55 Oscar Wilde: the resurgence of lying 11 Osca r Wilde, 'Intentions: The Decay of Lying', The Artist as Critic, ed R Ellmann (London: W H Allen, 1970), p 292 12 J M Synge , 'Th e Playbo y o f th e Wester n World' , i n Plays 2, ed An n Saddlemyer (Oxford: Oxfor d University Press, 1968), p 103 13 Ibid , p 149 14 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 294 15 Wilde , Earnest, ed Jackson, p 20 16 Synge , Plays 2, p 99 17 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 294 The connection was first made by the scholar Thomas R Whitaker 18 Wilde , Earnest, ed Jackson, p 83 19 Ibid , pp 62-3 20 Synge , Plays 2, p 97 21 O n thi s elemen t se e Hug h Kenner , The Invisible Poet: T S Eliot (London : Methuen, 1965) , pp 125-57 22 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 317 23 Jame s Joyce , The Critical Writings, ed E Maso n an d R Ellman n (London : Faber and Faber, 1959) , p 205 24 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 291 25 W H Auden , The Kierkegaard Anthology (Ne w York: Random House , 1957) , p 20 26 Wilde , Earnest, ed Jackson, p 27 27 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 291 28 Synge , Plays 2, p 53 29 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 296ff 30 Synge , Plays 2, p 95 31 Ibid , p 99 32 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p i2ff 33 J M Synge, manuscripts TCD 4382, f 69V 34 Synge , Plays 2, pp 125-7 35 Davi d H Green e and Edward M Stephens,/ M Synge i8yi-i(>09 (Ne w York i96i),p 26 36 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 302 37 J M Synge, Collected Letters 1, ed Ann Saddlemyer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983), p 330 Ibid , where Synge regrets using the word 39 Wilde , The Artist as Critic, ed Ellmann, p 320 40 Wilde , Earnest, ed Jackson, p 104 41 Ibid , p 46 42 Synge , Plays 2, p 165 43 Ibid , p 173 44 Ibid , pp 79 and 173 45 Wilde , Earnest, ed Jackson, p 34 46 Ibid , p 68 47 Synge , Plays 2, p 169 48 Sea n O'Casey, Three Plays (London: Macmillan, 1957) , pp 187, 213 49 Brenda n Behan, The Hostage (London: Methuen, 1959) , p 61 50 Gabrie l Fitzmauric e an d Decla n Kiber d eds , An Crann faoi Bhlath: The 293 DECLAN KIBER D Flowering Tree — Irish Poetry with Verse Translations (Dublin : Wolfhoun d Press, 1991) , pp 100-3 51 To m Murphy, The Gigli Concert (Dublin : Gallery Publications, 1984) , pp 7off 52 W , H Auden , 'A n Improbabl e Life 5, i n Oscar Wilde: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed R Ellmann (Englewoo d Cliffs , NJ : Prentice Hall, 1969) , p 136 294 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPH Y Wilde's works Collected Edition of the Works of Oscar Wilde, ed Robert Ross, vols (London : Methuen, 1908 ; reprinted 1969) Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, introductio n b y Merlin Holland (London : Collins , 1994) The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde, ed Richar d Ellman n (Ne w York: Random House , 1969 ; W H Allen: London, 1970) The Complete Shorter Fiction of Oscar Wilde, ed Isobe l Murra y (Oxford : Oxfor d University Press, 1979) The Importance of Being Earnest, ed Russell Jackson (London : Benn, 1980) Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest': A Reconstructive Critical Edition of the Text of the First Production, ed Josep h Donohu e an d Rut h Berggre n (Gerrards Cross : Colin Smythe, 1995) The Importance of Being Earnest as Originally Written by Oscar Wilde, ed Sara h Augusta Dickson , vols (New York: New York Public Library, 1956) The Definitive Four-Act Version of 'The Importance of Being Earnest', ed Rut h Berggren (Ne w York: Vanguard, 1987) The Importance of Being Earnest and other plays, ed Peter Raby (Oxford : Oxfor d University Press, 1995) Lady Windermere's Fan, ed Ian Small (London : Benn, 1980) The Picture of Dorian Gray, ed Isobe l Murra y (Oxford : Oxfor d Universit y Press , 1974)Salome (Pari s and London: Librairie de TArt Independant; Elki n Matthews an d John Lane, 1893) Salome: A Tragedy in One Act: Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde: Pictured by Aubrey Beardsley (London : Elkin Mathews an d John Lane , 1894) Two Society Comedies, ed Ian Small and Russell Jackson (London : A and C Black, 1983) Bibliographical and works Fletcher, Ia n an d Stokes , John, ( Oscar Wilde\ Anglo-Irish Literature: A Review of Research, ed Richard Finnerna n (Ne w York: Modern Languag e Associatio n o f America, 1976) Fletcher, Ia n an d Stokes , John , c Oscar Wilde' in Recent Research on Anglo-Irish Writers, ed Richar d Finnerna n (Ne w York : Moder n Languag e Associatio n o f America, 1983) 295 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPH Y Mason, Stuar t [Christophe r Millard] , A Bibliography of Oscar Wilde (London : T.Werner Laurie , 1914 ; reissued, 1967) Mikhail, E H., Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism (London : Macmillan, 1978) Small, Ian , Oscar Wilde Revalued: An Essay on New Materials & Methods of Research (Greenboro , NC: ELT Press, 1993) Biographical works Davis, Coakley , Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Irish (Dublin: Town House, 1994) Ellmann, Richard, Oscar Wilde (London : Hamish Hamilton , 1987) Harris, Frank, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (printe d an d publishe d b y the author: New York, 1916 ; revised edition, London: Constable , 1938) Hart-Davis, Rupert (ed.) , The Letters of Oscar Wilde (London : Hart-Davis, 1962) Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde (Oxford : Oxfor d Universit y Press, 1979) More Letters of Oscar Wilde (London : John Murray, 1985) Holland, Vyvyan, Son of Oscar Wilde (London : Hart-Davis, 1954) Oscar Wilde: A Pictorial Biography (London : Thames an d Hudson, i960) Hyde, H Montgomery (ed.) , The Trials of Oscar Wilde (London : Hodge, 1948) Oscar Wilde (Ne w York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 1975) Mikhail, E H (ed.), Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections (London : Macmillan, 1979)Page, Norman, An Oscar Wilde Chronology (London : Macmillan, 1991) Pearson, Hesketh , The Life of Oscar Wilde (London : Methuen , 1946 ; revise d edition, 1954) Schroeder, Horst , Additions and Corrections to Richard Ellmann 9s ( Oscar Wilde* (Braunschweig: privately printed, 1989) Sherard, Rober t Harborough , The Life of Oscar Wilde (London : T Werner Laurie , 1906) Criticism Beckson, Karl, London in the 1890s: A Cultural History (Ne w York: Norton, 1992) The Oscar Wilde Encyclopedia (Ne w York: AMS Press, 1995) Beckson, Kar l (ed.) , Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage (London : Routledg e and Kegan Paul, 1970) Behrendt, Patrici a Flangan , Oscar Wilde: Eros and Aesthetics (London : Macmillan , 1991) Bird, Alan, The Flays of Oscar Wilde (London : Vision Press, 1977) Brake, Laurel , Subjugated Knowledges: Journalism, Gender and Literature in the Nineteenth Century (London : Macmillan, 1994) Chamberlin, J E., Ripe was the Drowsy Hour: The Age of Oscar Wilde (Ne w York: Seabury, 1977) Cohen, Ed , Talk on the Wilde Side: Toward a Genealogy of a Discourse on Male Sexualities (Ne w York: Routledge, 1993) Cohen, Phili p K , The Moral Vision of Oscar Wilde (London : Associate d Universit y Press, 1978 ) (Rutherford : Fairleig h Dickinson University Press, 1979) Dellamora, Richard, Masculine Desire: The Sexual Politics of Victorian Aestheticism (Chapel Hill: University o f North Carolin a Press, 1990) z96 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPH Y Dijkstra, Bram , Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siecle Culture (Oxford : Oxfor d Universit y Press, 1986) Dollimore, Jonathan , Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault (Oxford: Clarendo n Press , 1991) Dowling, Linda , Language and Decadence in the Victorian Fin de Siecle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986) Ellmann, Richar d (ed.) , Oscar Wilde: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewoo d Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall, 1969) Eltis, Sos , Revising Wilde: Society and Subversion in the Plays of Oscar Wilde (Oxford: Clarendo n Press , 1996) Ericksen, Donald H., Oscar Wilde (Ne w York: Twayne, 1977) Finney, Gail, Women in Modern Drama: Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at the Turn of the Century (Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1989) Gagnier, Regeni a A , Idylls of the Marketplace: Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public (Stanford : Stanfor d Universit y Press, 1986) Gagnier, Regeni a A (ed.) , Critical Essays on Oscar Wilde (Ne w York : Twayne , 1991) Jackson, Holbrook , The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at the Close of the Nineteenth Century (London : Grant Richards, 1913) Kaplan, Joel (ed.) , Modern Drama, (Specia l Wilde number), 12: (1994) Kaplan, Joel , an d Stowell , Sheila , Theatre and Fashion: Oscar Wilde to the Suffragettes (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1994) Kohl, Norbert , Oscar Wilde: The Works of a Conformist Rebel (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1988) Knox, Melissa , Oscar Wilde: A Long and Lovely Suicide (Ne w Haven : Yal e University Press, 1994) Meltzer, Franchise , Salome and the Dance of Writing: Portraits of Mimesis in Literature (Chicago : University o f Chicago Press, 1987) Morgan, Margery, File on Wilde (London : Methuen, 1990) Nassaar, Christopher , Into the Demon Universe: A Literary Exploration of Oscar Wilde (Ne w Haven: Yale University Press, 1974) Pine, Richard, Oscar Wilde (Dublin : Gill and Macmillan, 1983) Powell, Kerry , Oscar Wilde and the Theatre of the 1890s (Cambridge : Cambridg e University Press, 1990) Raby, Peter, Oscar Wilde (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1988) The Importance of Being Earnest: A Reader's Companion (Ne w York : Twayne , 1995)Roditi, Edouard, Oscar Wilde (Norfolk , CT : New Directions Books, 1947) San Juan, Epifanio , The Art of Oscar Wilde (Princeton : Princeto n Universit y Press , 1967) Sandulescu, C Georg e (ed.) , Rediscovering Oscar Wilde, Princes s Grac e Iris h Library Series (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1994) Schmidgall, Gary, The Stranger Wilde: Interpreting Oscar (London : Abacus, 1994) Shewan, Rodney, Oscar Wilde: Art and Egotism (London : Macmillan, 1977) Showalter, Elaine , Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fi n d e Siecl e (London: Bloomsbury, 1991) Sinfield, Alan , The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde and the Queer Movement (Ne w York: Columbia University Press, 1994) 297 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPH Y Smith, Phili p E an d Helfand , Michae l S , Oscar Wilde's Oxford Notebooks: A Portrait of Mind in the Making (Ne w York: Oxford Universit y Press, 1989) Stokes, John, Oscar Wilde, Britis h Council Writers and Their Work Series , (London: Longman, 1978) In the Nineties (Heme l Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989) Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles, and Imitations (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1996) Sullivan, Kevin, Oscar Wilde (Ne w York: Columbia University Press, 1972) Symons, Arthur, A Study of Oscar Wilde (London : Charles J Sawyer, 1930) Thornton, R K R., The Decadent Dilemma (London : Edward Arnold, 1983) Tydeman, Willia m (ed.) , Wilde, Comedies: A Selection of Critical Essays (London : Macmillan, 1982) Woodcock, George , The Paradox of Oscar Wilde (London : T V Boardman, 1949) Worth, Katharine , The Irish Drama of Europe from Yeats to Beckett (London : Athlone Press, 1978) Oscar Wilde (London : Macmillan, 1980) Zagona, Helen Grace, The Legend of Salome and the Principle of Art for Art's Sake (Geneva: Ambilly-Annemasse, i960) Many specialise d article s ar e liste d i n the endnote s t o th e essay s i n this volume Fo r new listings , and fo r othe r aspect s of the context o f Wilde's work, se e bibliographie s in, fo r example , English Literature in Transition, Modern Drama, Nineteenth Century Theatre, Victorian Newsletter an d The Year's Work in English Studies The volume s liste d abov e edite d b y Kar l Beckson , Richar d Ellmann , Regeni a Gagnier an d Willia m Tydema n provid e a n excellen t introductio n t o th e rang e o f critical essay s an d reviews The collectio n edite d b y Georg e Sandulesc u reprint s th e papers given at the Wilde Conference i n Monaco i n 1993 For a n extensiv e commentar y o n th e literatur e abou t Wilde , se e Ia n Small , Oscar Wilde Revalued 298 ... Richetti The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson edited by Gregory Clingham The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. .. and Jill Mann The Cambridge Companion to Faulkner edited by Philip M Weinstein The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre edited by Richard Beadle The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare... by Joel Myerson The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharton edited by Millicent Bell The Cambridge Companion to Realism and Naturalism edited by Donald Pizer The Cambridge Companion to Twain edited