OSCAR WILDE, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Linda Cantoni, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

OSCAR WILDE

HIS LIFE AND CONFESSIONS

BY

FRANK HARRIS

VOLUME I

[Illustration: Oscar Wilde at About Thirty]

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR

29 WAVERLEY PLACE NEW YORK CITY

MCMXVIII

Imprime en Allemagne Printed in Germany

Copyright, 1916, BY FRANK HARRIS

CONTENTS

VOLUME I

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION iii

I. Oscar's Father and Mother on Trial 1

II. Oscar Wilde as a Schoolboy 23

III. Trinity, Dublin: Magdalen, Oxford 37

IV. Formative Influences: Oscar's Poems 50

V. Oscar's Quarrel with Whistler and Marriage 73

VI. Oscar Wilde's Faith and Practice 91

VII. Oscar's Reputation and Supporters 102

VIII. Oscar's Growth to Originality About 1890 112

IX. The Summer of Success: Oscar's First Play 133

X. The First Meeting with Lord Alfred Douglas 144

XI. The Threatening Cloud Draws Nearer 156

XII. Danger Signals: the Challenge 175

XIII. Oscar Attacks Queensberry and is Worsted 202

XIV. How Genius is Persecuted in England 229

XV. The Queen _vs._ Wilde: The First Trial 261

XVI. Escape Rejected: The Second Trial and Sentence 292

VOLUME II

[Transcriber's Note: Volume II is also available on Project Gutenberg.]

XVII. Prison and the Effects of Punishment 321

XVIII. Mitigation of Punishment; but not Release 345

XIX. His St. Martin's Summer: His Best Work 363

XX. The Results of His Second Fall: His Genius 406

XXI. His Sense of Rivalry; His Love of Life and Laziness 433

XXII. "A Great Romantic Passion!" 450

XXIII. His Judgments of Writers and of Women 469

XXIV. We Argue About His "Pet Vice" and Punishment 488

XXV. The Last Hope Lost 509

XXVI. The End 532

XXVII. A Last Word 542

Shaw's "Memories" 1-32

THE APPENDIX, 549

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I

Oscar Wilde at About Thirty Frontispiece

FACING PAGE Dr. Sir William Wilde 22

Oscar Wilde at Twenty-Seven, as He First Appeared in America 75

Oscar Wilde 90 [Transcriber's Note: This illustration is not in the original list.]

VOLUME II

Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas About 1893 321

"Speranza": Lady Wilde as a Young Woman 358

Note to Warder Martin 576

THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE GUILTY IS STILL MORE AWE-INSPIRING THAN THE CRUCIFIXION OF THE INNOCENT; WHAT DO WE MEN KNOW OF INNOCENCE?

INTRODUCTION

I was advised on all hands not to write this book, and some English friends who have read it urge me not to publish it.

"You will be accused of selecting the subject," they say, "because sexual viciousness appeals to you, and your method of treatment lays you open to attack.

"You criticise and condemn the English conception of justice, and English legal methods: you even question the impartiality of English judges, and throw an unpleasant light on English juries and the English public--all of which is not only unpopular but will convince the unthinking that you are a presumptuous, or at least an outlandish, person with too good a conceit of himself and altogether too free a tongue."

I should be more than human or less if these arguments did not give me pause. I would do nothing willingly to alienate the few who are still friendly to me. But the motives driving me are too strong for such personal considerations. I might say with the Latin:

"Non me tua fervida terrent, Dicta, ferox: Di me terrent, et Jupiter hostis."

Even this would be only a part of the truth. Youth it seems to me should always be prudent, for youth has much to lose: but I am come to that time of life when a man can afford to be bold, may even dare to be himself and write the best in him, heedless of knaves and fools or of anything this world may do. The voyage for me is almost over: I am in sight of port: like a good shipman, I have already sent down the lofty spars and housed the captious canvas in preparation for the long anchorage: I have little now to fear.

And the immortals are with me in my design. Greek tragedy treated of far more horrible and revolting themes, such as the banquet of Thyestes: and Dante did not shrink from describing the unnatural meal of Ugolino. The best modern critics approve my choice. "All depends on the subject," says Matthew Arnold, talking of great literature: "choose a fitting action--a great and significant action--penetrate yourself with the feeling of the situation: this done, everything else will follow; for expression is subordinate and secondary."

Socrates was found guilty of corrupting the young