Urganch state university the department of roman-german philology theme: oscar wilde and his works

1.2 On the occasion of Wilde's Death
A Reuter telegram from Paris states that Oscar Wilde died there yesterday afternoon from meningitis. The melancholy end to a career which once promised so well is stated to have come in an obscure hotel of the Latin Quarter. Here the once brilliant man of letters was living, exiled from his country and from the society of his countrymen. The verdict that a jury passed upon his conduct at the Old Bailey in May 1895, destroyed for ever his reputation, and condemned him to ignoble obscurity for the remainder of his days. When he had served his sentence of two years’ imprisonment, he was broken in health as well as bankrupt in fame and fortune. Death has soon ended what must have been a life of wretchedness and unavailing regret. Wilde was the son of the late Sir William Wilde, an eminent Irish surgeon. His mother was a graceful writer, both in prose and verse. He had a brilliant career at Oxford, where he took a first-class both in classical moderations and in Lit. Hum., and also won the Newdigate Prize for English verse for a poem on Ravenna. Even before he left the University in 1878 Wilde had become known as one of the most affected of the professors of the aesthetic craze and for several years it was as the typical aesthete that he kept himself before the notice of the public. At the same time he was a man of far greater originality and power of mind than many of the apostles of aestheticism. As his Oxford career showed, he had undoubted talents in many directions, talents which might have been brought tofruition had it not been for his craving after notoriety. He was known as a poet of graceful diction as an essayist of wit and distinction later on as a playwright of skill and subtle humour. A novel of his, The Picture of Dorian Gray, attracted much attention, and his sayings passed from mouth to mouth as those of one of the professed wits of the age. When he became a dramatist his plays had all the characteristics of his conversation. His first piece, Lady Windermere’s Fan, was produced in 1892. A Woman of no Importance followed in 1893. An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest were both running at the time of their author’s disappearance from English life. All these pieces had the same qualities—a paradoxical humour and a perverted outlook on life being the most prominent. They were packed with witty sayings, and the author’s cleverness gave him at once a position in the dramatic world. The revelations of the criminal trial in 1895 naturally made them impossible for some years. Recently, however, one of them was revived, though not at a West-end theatre. After his release in 1897, Wilde published The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a poem of considerable but unequal power. He also appeared in print as a critic of our prison system, against the results of which he entered a passionate protest. For the last three years he has lived abroad.
The most popular of Wilde’s books was The Picture of Dorian Gray, which has had an immense sale, both in the United Kingdom and this country. It appeared first in Lippincott’s Magazine, in 1895, and was afterward issued in book form, with considerable additions, by Ward, Lock and Company. After the famous trial the London publishers withdrew it from circulation, although inundated with orders for copies. Among literary people Intentions, published in 1894, is regarded as Wilde’s finest prose work. It is a collection of essays, and, though full of the author’s favorite paradoxes, contains much art criticism which shows evidence of careful thought. Some of the essays, notably ‘TheDecay of Lying and ‘The Critic as Artist,’ had previously appeared in English reviews and had attracted a good deal of attention. Wilde’s poems were first published in 1881, and a new edition was issued at the Bodley Head about ten years later. Both editions were exhausted a very short time after publication. Many isolated stanzas and lines have been quoted to show that, had he possessed the necessary perseverance and steadfastness of character, Wilde could have been one of the great poets of the nineteenth century. Many persons have also noticed the remarkable forecast of his own life which the author wrote in the dedication to this volume of verse and the passionate regret there expressed that he had not used his gifts to better purpose.After Wilde’s release from prison a poem was published anonymously, entitled A Ballad of Reading Jail. It created a great deal of interest and favorable criticism, and is now known to have been written by Wilde. Wilde was spoken of as an aspiring dramatist long before any piece signed by his name was acted. His Salome was cast in the dramatic form, and Guide Ferranti, a tragic piece briefly acted here by Lawrence Barrett, was reputed to be his work. There was a certain lyrical quality in some of its passages which credited this report. His first acknowledged play, however, was Lady Windermere’s Fan, produced by George Alexander at the St. James’s Theatre, in London, in 1893, and acted here soon afterward at Wallack’s without setting the town ablaze. There was much verbal smartness in this piece, and it was no strong accusation against its merit to say that its plot was antique and its stagecraf. After the first performance in London, Wilde appeared on the stage of the St. James’s smoking a cigarette, and responded to a ‘call’ that was not altogether friendly with imperturbable good humor and assurance. This served its purpose in giving the piece a unique advertisement. His next play, A Woman of No Importance, was acted first at the London Haymarket, under Beerbohm Tree’s direction, and in New York, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, with Rose Coghlan in the principal role. It was indeed a play of no importance, and Miss Coghlan wisely employed her famous brother Charles to patch it up and lend it some sort of theatrical value. The Importance of Being Earnest, frankly a farce and full of nimble wit, on the other hand, missed a long run at the Empire Theatre because it was too dainty and fragile to suit the taste and understanding of the ordinary theatregoer, and An Ideal Husband, admirablyacted by Daniel Frohman’s company at the Lyceum, while it made no one’s fortune and lacked vigorous dramatic spirit, was a clever piece of work which aroused the critical admiration of W.D.Howells. As a dramatist, Wilde was hampered by his utter lack of sincerity and his inability to master the technical side of playwriting. But his wit, his pleasing literary facility, and his droll views of life made some of his plays rather effective with a limited audience. The tragedy of Mr. Oscar Wilde’s life is ended. The labouring of moralities would be quite superfluous, but a word or two may be said upon the sum of his achievement. Mr. Wilde led a movement in the eighties, which, in spite of its absurdities, killed much vulgar Philistinism. He took up the aesthetic fashion rather than made it; for its beginnings are to be found in the paintings of Rossetti and Burne-Jones, the art work of William Morris, and the writings of Pater. Mr. Whistler’s well-known gibe when he met Mr. Du Maurier and Mr. Wilde together, ‘Which of you invented the other?’ was not a historical definition exactly. The Irishman’s attacks on social conventions recalls, in other respects, that of Disraeli the Younger, though he was a much smaller man. He was audacious in costume, and succeeded through an elaboration of wit. ‘I felt disappointed with the Atlantic’ will probably remain the most easily remembered saying of Mr. Wilde’s. He made many better jests but they depended for their point on circumstance, and were frequently humorous inversions of the commonplace.⁸