Customer Reviews

Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius

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OSCAR WILDE; A CERTAIN GENIUS, is a great read. Barbara Belford does an excellent job explaining Wilde's success and his self-destruction. Her book is filled with anecdotes about and insights into Wilde's brilliance and his impact on Britain in the last decades of the nineteenth century. OSCAR WILDE should appeal to those readers who want Oscar plain (if that's possible) as opposed to a footnote driven academic study. Enjoy.

Every ten to twenty years there should be a new biography of Oscar Wilde.

This book is a good look at Oscar Wilde as seen and, perhaps, judged, from our times. Unlike older biographies, his social life is brought out much more.

The book is a good addition to any Wilde fan's library. Some uncommon anecdotes will be found.

I have always loved to read about the life and times of Oscar Wilde. This book is a great read as it is concise (312 pages, to the point, and does not romanticize or canonize its subject. Oscar is presented to us in the words of the author as being full of life and full of himself. He could be charming, witty, intelligent, generous and insightful and on the other hand he was also at times petty, conceited, inconsiderate and self centered. You could imagine him laying in bed at night trying to come up with some witty epigram or saying to charm the public. That he succeeded more often then not refelects well on his intellect. Most importantly the author debunks the theory espoused by Richard Ellman and others that Oscar Wilde contracted syphillis at Oxford and his early death at the age of 46 was a result. Oscar never exhibited signs of syphilis and he died of cerebral meningitis due to a fall he had in prison. The myth of Wilde's syphilis was most probably created by his freind and former lover Robbie Ross in order to romanticize him.

The story of Wilde's downfall with his lawsuit agains the Marquis of Queensberry (preceded by his relationship with Queensberry's unworthy son Lord Alfred "Bosie" Doublas) is well documented. The intolerance and cruelty of the British is truly horrifying. Macauley once commented on "the English in one of their periodic fits of morality." Wilde could have and should have fled to France but it seems to me that he saw himself as a character in one of his plays albeit a Greek tragedy. The author also delves into the whole Dorian Gray saga as well as the classic Wilde comedies.

I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone interested in Oscar Wilde in particular or in Victorian England in general or anyone such as myself who is in love with the "romance" of that era which includes swirling fogs, hansom cabs, gaslit lamps, Cafe Royal society, Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, etc.

As an aside anyone visiting London who is interested in WIlde and his times should take London Walks "Oscar Wilde's London" walk given every Saturday morning. It is well worth it!

Ms. Bedford made no pretention to focusing upon a particular aspect of Oscar Wilde's life. Rather, she intended to offer a truly unbiased volume of carefully researched biographical information regarding Wilde and his societal surroundings. Many other readers have criticized the work for its seeming lack of spirit and depth. Ms. Bedford did not wish to offer such things, however. It is the duty of the reader to take the work and make one's own opinions regarding Wilde's life. Such a practice is rarely performed in modern times since the reading public are so very used to being told what to like - an attitude Wilde fought so much against. The volume meets the standard set by the author in the introduction, as well as the standards of biographies of its kind. It is, on the whole, a very good work.

Since Ellmann's definitive biography of Oscar Wilde, no book on Wilde has been as meticuously researched and evenly reported as Barbara Belford's new work. From the moment I read her author's query in the New York Times Book Review a few years ago, I anticipated its publication, and was not disappointed.

I learned some new, anecdotal information from this book, even after my twenty-eight years of studying and collecting all that is Wilde. Those discoveries brought this reader much joy.

The only criticisms I have of this book are minor. Someone with a keener eye should have proofread the manuscript for awkward grammatical phrasings. Also there was a passion for Wilde missing in the author's voice that I, as a Wilde fanatic, wanted to hear. But it is to Belford's credit and background as a biographer that her tone is unbiased. I believe her work on Bram Stoker informed this biography and afforded the opportunity for unearthed details which give this book its verve and value.

Barbara Belford's biography is well-illustrated and quotes its subject profusely, yet I came away with the feeling it tried to hard to prove a theory of Wilde rather than to explore him. The author discusses her reservations about Ellmann's biography of Wilde, and complains in her foreword that recent biographies have "take[n] specialist views: ... the Irish Wilde, the gay Wilde..." Yet she does exactly that, and seems to want to make up for Ellman's "reticence" in discussing Wilde's sexuality by placing it at instead the center of this work. As if Ellmann's Wilde was perhaps not gay enough for some, Belford's is overwhelmingly so; this has the (unintended?) effect of minimizing the importance of Wilde's wife Constance and his children. Wilde's homosexual passions are cast as the sole source of his inspiration, and it is suggested that he wanted to assert his right to live as he chose. In fact, the opposite appears true. By prosecuting Queensberry, Wilde was in essence asserting his right to stay legally and publicly in the closet. Once he had been forced in court to accept that Queensberry was "entitled to call him a posing sodomite", Wilde hardly seems to have accepted the title with enthusiasm or pride, as he himself makes clear in the opening of De Profundis.

Overall I'd say it was a pleasant enough read for those already familiar with its subject, but I would hesitate to recommend it to Wilde novices: the man was more complex than he is ultimately portrayed here, and one almost gets the impression the writer dislikes her subject. It leaves the taste of an exposé.

Although it is apparant that Barbara Belford researched Oscar Wilde's life thoroughly, she is never able to capture her subject in such a way that the reader feels s/he knows Wilde well. Often her sentences are run-on and so confusing that frequently I had to re-read a line in order to grasp its meaning.

I have recently read Jonathan Fryer's biography of Robbie Ross who was Wilde's great friend and literary executor. If Ross had not been associated so closely with Wilde, his life would not merit a biography. Even so, I feel that I know Ross better from Fryer's book than I understand Wilde from Belford's. The same holds true concerning Douglas Murray's book, Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas. Bosie's relationship with Wilde brought about Wilde's conviction for gross indecency, his imprisonment, his exile and contributed to his early death in 1900. Aside from those facts, Bosie Douglas's life would not call for a biography. Yet again I understand Bosie from Murray's book than I understand Wilde from Belford's. In fact, both Fryer and Murray offer more insight into Wilde in their biographies of his close associates than Belford offers in her biography of Wilde.

As Continental forces and Virginia militia units were engaged in winning independence, American quartermasters and provisioners struggled to provide these units with all the necessities of life, from meals and guns to meat, fodder for horses, the horses themselves, firewood, and every other type of material. Much of this was requisitioned from the civilian population and certificates were issued payable in either continental or state funds, depending on the units supplied, upon presentation to court authorities. Thousands of these certificates issued to Virginians were duly entered by the courts, and they provide a fascinating insight into the period of the Revolution. These "Publick" Claims booklets contain interesting and useful information about the contributions of ordinary people to the Revolutionary War. They provide some details of people's service in the militia or as guards for prisoners of war; they indicate where some bodies of troops were at particular times; and they identify providers of horses, wagons, cattle, grain, or other supplies. Much of the information in these booklets cannot be found anywhere else, which makes the surviving records particularly valuable. Also remarkable is the fact that records survived from virtually every county in the state at that time with the exception of the newly formed Kentucky counties. This makes the collection even more valuable in covering areas which heretofore in this time period have suffered from a lack of personal data. The "Virginia Publick Claims" are published by counties. In addition to a faithful transcription by Janice Luck Abercrombie and the late Richard Slatten, a complete index is provided for each county booklet. This series is an extremely important genealogical tool for searchers in Revolutionary-era materials.

I disagree strongly with the other reviewers. This biography adds very little that is new, and the writing itself is graceless. Ellmann's biography of Wilde, which Belford criticizes freely, is a work of art, and a real tribute to the genius of Oscar Wilde; it may contain mistakes, but it is a masterpiece. Belford's work is little more than a souvenir for those making a fuss about Wilde's 100th; Oscar deserves better.

I reached for this volume for a refreshing change of pace from this dreary, political and social state of things. Alas, there was no such lift to be had in this volume. The story was all there, the good times and the bad but the tone was too dark. I'll wager that most people who reach for his biography are less intrigued by the history as they are by the precision bite of his words. Indeed, this seems more of a latter life work. We are given a front row seat to the repressive consequences for his flaunting conservative standards about sexuality. The details were complete and appropriately credited. But the theatrics were missing. That novel charge so often haughty and sharp lost that rippling propulsion that has succeeded over time. As a unashamed Victorian homosexual, Wilde was well ahead of his time. The question is, was he ahead of our time as well? there can be no doubt that Wilde's tongue can wag and delight contemporary readers and theater goers. However that voice and pen, used with sizzling, frenetic arrogance is sadly, not at home in this bio.