BOOKS
A PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD:
ST. OSCAR, THE HOMINTERN MARTYR
THE PARADOX OF OSCAR WILDE. By
George Woodcock. Macmil–
lan. $3.50.
What a subject for a Big Feature Movie and, in these days–
who knows?-if pedantically introduced by Dr. Kinsey, it might even
be made. It has just about everything. For location, Dublin, Oxford,
Greece, the Cultured East, the Wild West, drawing rooms in Belgravia,
private rooms at the Savoy, the Old Bailey, Reading Gaol, Paris cafes;
for supporting cast Sir William, unwashed, skirt-chasing, but a great sur–
geon, Lady "Speranza" Wilde, her broad chest covered with large min–
iatures of family portraits which made her look like a walking museum,
Pater lecturing inaudibly, Ruskin with pick and shovel, Bosey Douglas
and his dotty choleric papa, bloody-but-unbowed Henley, Frank Harris,
editor and romancier, Carson the prosecutor who nearly became guilty
of treason over Ulster; and for big scenes, the hero dusting his clothes
after Oxford hearties had dragged him up a hill with ropes and re–
marking "Yes, the view from here is very fine," his drinking Arizona
cowboys under the table, his reception of Queensberry's card on which
tradition has it that the operative word was misspelt
sondomite,
the
plot of his friends to get him out of England in a balloon, his arrest in
a bedroom of the Cadogan Hotel, his oration at the first trial on the
love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name and the unexpected appearance at the
second of the "gilded snakes" with Cockney accents, the whores dancing
in the street on the night of the verdict, the jeering crowd on the
platform of Reading station, the curious crowd outside the Dieppe
brothel waiting to hear his opinion ("it was like cold mutton,") his death
and burial, etc. Is there another life-story in history to compete with it?
Moreover, would there be much of importance about Wilde which a
movie could not show? Byron's life was sensational, too, but measured
against
Don Juan
it is a small matter. The traditional view is that
there is little of Wilde's literary work which is worth much, that Wilde
the conversationalist and behaver is the significant figure. Tradition
is often wrong and it is important that the facts should from time to
time
be
re-examined to check it. This Mr. Woodcock has painstakingly
