The Case of the Pederast's Wife [Paperback]

Clare Elfman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

A young Victorian doctor seeks a miraculous cure for the ""pederast's wife."" This is a fascinating novel about the world of late Victorian England, the ""new"" medicine, sex and scandals, and a revealing portrait of the suffering woman who was in the shadows during the famous Oscar Wilde trial- his wife, Constance Wilde. Clare Elfman paints a vivid picture of this Victorian world: genteel rooms where gentlewomen buttoned to the throad and trapped in log-o-mutton sleeves take tea among the lady fern and aspidistra, while in hidden rooms a fin-de-siecle decadence culminates in the shocking trial of Oscar Wild for ""gross indecency.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With skill and finesse, Elfman speculates on the strange marriage of Oscar and Constance Wilde, yielding a tale whose graceful prose and sympathetic characters compensate for some lackluster pacing. Young doctor Martin Frame pursues Constance as the model patient on whom to demonstrate his revolutionary theory about "hidden anguish and visible pain." In hoping to make a name for himself, he feels he can also distance himself from the misogynous attitudes of his physician father. Though it strains credulity, the long-suffering Constance quickly allows Martin access to her personal life, but it is difficult for him to convince her that her significant physical discomfort, a "creeping paralysis," derives from psychological distress. Constance stands by her playwright husband during his trial for alleged sexual relations with boys, even after the guilty verdict irrevocably ruins the Wilde name and forces her and their sons to flee to Paris and adopt a new surname. Martin is dismayed by Constance's firm belief that Oscar is the victim of a conspiracy in which disgruntled actors are paid to enact "renters"--or young male prostitutes--to declare that Oscar made use of their services. Inspired by his literary hero, Sherlock Holmes, Martin composes a paper for publication: "The Case of the Pederast's Wife." Like Constance, who feels that only she can save Oscar from himself, Martin increasingly believes he is the only one who can save Constance from her own demons. Whether he comes to care for her as a person or merely values her as a guinea pig adds to the intrigue. Martin's increasing lack of objectivity leads to dire consequences for all involved. Elfman (The Strawberry Fields of Heaven) uses fine period detail to create a Victorian setting in which her characters' wickedly clever dialogue rings true. But her manipulation of historical facts in the last part of the novel weakens the theme of loss, denial and self-induced misery. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Shocked by the brutal treatment of "hysterical" women in Victorian England, young doctor Martin Frame develops a theory of "hidden anguish and visible pain," which can be relieved by a "talking cure." He applies his theories to the wife of the imprisoned writer Oscar Wilde, blaming her increasing paralysis on her denial, guilt, and repressed anger over Wilde's abandonment of his family for Bosie Douglas. She makes a breakthrough but regresses when Frame arrogantly refuses to attempt a similar "treatment" on her estranged but still beloved husband. Stated so briefly, the story may sound a bit far-fetched, but Elfman (The Strawberry Fields of Heaven) demonstrates great skill in unraveling an incredibly complex psychological conundrum. This verisimilitude may be due to the fact that the book is based on Constance Wilde's letters and Vyvyan Holland's memoir The Son of Oscar Wilde (1954). Elfman's exploration of Victorian medicine, psychology, and attitudes toward women and sexuality is fascinating and rich with modern implications. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
-Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Dufour Editions (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802313329
• ISBN-13: 978-0802313324
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,046,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Book About a Little Known Woman, October 29, 2001

By 

"jkronberg" (Santa Barbara, CA., USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case of the Pederast's Wife (Paperback)

The Case of the Pederast's Wife, by Blossom Elfman, is an incredibly well researched and written book. the first thing one notices is the quality of the writing and of the scholarship and research. Oscar Wilde was a complex and intereting character and until I read this quite marvelous book, I had no idea that he had a wife! He was, after all, an avowed homosexual. As one reads the book one comes to understand the restraints of the time Wilde and his wife, Constance, lived. Many books, plays and films have been written about Wilde, but Constance, his wife and mother of his two sons, has been neglected, even avoided. Applause and kudos to Ms. Elfman who had the intelligence and wit to discover Constance Wilde and to bring her to life in a wonderfully written book.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The pitfalls of being earnest, October 7, 2000

By 

Jen Stelling (Cohoes, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case of the Pederast's Wife (Paperback)

This painfully sincere novel fails on many levels. It is haphazardly imagined and arbitrarily constructed, and its characters are cardboard-thin. Its protagonist, physician Martin Frame, is the son of a brutish doctor who treats hysteria with adamantine harshness. Unlike his father, Frame does not believe that women should be treated like barnyard animals; he is interested in applying a version of good old Freud's talking cure to women in distress.

A friend of a patient introduces him to the Wildes, and Frame is smitten with Constance's constancy. Plus, she smells good and appears to be halfway bright. He feels compelled to aid her in recovering from her attachment to Oscar.

This is in some ways an interesting premise, but Elfman doesn't go far enough in imagining these people and what their relationships could have been. Writing historical fiction requires a certain amount of brashness, a willingness to presume to speak for the dead. That doesn't happen here... Elfman seems overwhelmed by the significance of what she is about.

The structure of the novel also leaves something to be desired... chapter epigrams seem arbitrary in this short first-person account; they read like bits of preliminary character sketches and research notes, draft work that should have been edited out of the final product.

What is it about Oscar Wilde that makes him so difficult to capture in print or on film? The recent awful biopic of Oscar was every bit as wooden as this well-meant but unsuccessful novel.