Why post a portrait of Oscar Wilde?
Here is my reasoning:
By posting this rather large image of Wilde, my blog will be infused with his enigmatic greatness. I’m hoping that Wilde’s portrait (like the picture of Dorian Gray) will have an opposite, but equal effect on my blog: Wilde's soul will be reflected in my blog. And if not, hopefully it just seasons my writing with a little Wilde spice.
Fun Wilde fact of the week: As the result of a famous trial, he suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years of hard labour after being convicted of the offence of gross indecency. (source Wiki)
Why am I not surprised?
2 comments:
Deep--do you know the rest of the story? He had a love affair with a young man (a beauty, perhaps like Dorian??) named Lord Alfred Douglas.
When Douglas' father, the Marquis of Queensbury, called Wilde a sodomite (publicly) Wilde sued him for libel, a cosmically bad error in judgment, since homosexuality was illegal in England. Not only was the libel charge thrown out, but Wilde was arrested and sent to Reading Gaol, where he wrote a long narrative poem. But he never recovered from the ordeal, and when he was released from prison he moved to France and died within two years at the age of 44. A very sad end to a brilliant career.
The story behind his arrest makes it even more interesting. Poor Wilde...
As they say, the flame burns twice as bright, but half as long.
Still, I love Wilde.
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