Fitzsimons Eleanor - Wildes women : how Oscar Wilde was shaped by the women of his life

First published in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2016 by

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2015 by Eleanor Fitzsimons

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-4683-1326-0

E LEANOR F ITZSIMONS
is a researcher, writer, journalist and occasional broadcaster specialising in historical and current feminist issues. She has an MA in Women, Gender and Society from University College Dublin. Her work has been published in a range of newspapers and journals including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, History Today and The Irish Times, and she is a regular radio and television contributor.

Eleanor Fitzsimons is a researcher, writer, journalist, and occasional broadcaster specializing in historical and current feminist issues. Her work has been published in a range of newspapers and journals, including the Sunday Times, Guardian, and Irish Times, and she is a regular radio and television contributor.

Printed in the United States Copyright 2016 The Overlook Press

Jacket design by Lizzie Gardiner

Jacket photographs: Constance Lloyd Merlin Holland Picture Archive,

Lady Jane Wilde by Bernard Mulrenin Merlin Holland Picture Archive,

Oscar Wilde adoc-photos/Corbis

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I LLUSTRATION A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The portrait of Lillie Langtry by Edward John Poynter is included courtesy of the Jersey Heritage Collections.

The watercolour portrait of Lady Jane Wilde by Bernard Mulrenin; the image of the envelope containing strands of Isola Wildes hair; the sketch of Florence Balcombe by Oscar Wilde; the watercolour of View from Moytura House by Oscar Wilde; the photograph of Constance Lloyd before her marriage; the letter from Oscar Wilde to Constance, written on 16 December 1884; the photograph taken at the home of Jean and Walter Palmer in 1892; and the photograph of Lady Jane Wilde in old age are all included in the Merlin Holland Picture Archive and are used with the kind permission of Merlin Holland.

The image of the Warner Brothers Trade Card depicting Oscar Wilde looking on as a cherub presents a corset was kindly supplied to me by Michael Seeney of the Oscar Wilde Society.

The portrait of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, painted by John Singer Sargent 1889, is included in the Tate collection (currently on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London) and is used with the kind permission of Tate Images.

The image of Salome Dancing before Herod by Gustave Moreau, 1876, is included in the Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and is used with the kind permission of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

The photograph of Sarah Bernhardt is from the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The photograph of Constances grave in Genoa is used with the permission of Outi Mttnen-Bourke/G is for Genoa.

The photograph of Dolly Wilde dressed as Oscar Wilde is the property of Joan Schenkar and is used with her kind permission.

How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped
by the Women He Knew

Eleanor Fitzsimons

O scar Wilde famously insisted that there should be no law for anybody, and his devotion to personal liberty made him a staunch defender of gender equality. Women were central to his life and career.

Wildes Women is the first book to tell the story of the female family members, friends, and colleagues who traded witticisms with Wilde, who gave him access to vital publicity, and to whose ideas he gave expression through his social comedies.

In this essential new work, Eleanor Fitzsimons reframes Wildes story and his legacy through the women in his life, including such scintillating figures as Florence Balcombe; actress Lillie Langtry; and his tragic and witty niece, Dolly, who, like Wilde, loved fast cars, cocaine, and foreign women. Fresh, revealing, and entertaining, full of fascinating detail and anecdotes, Wildes Women relates the untold story of how a beloved writer and libertine played a vitally sympathetic role on behalf of many women, and how they supported him in the midst of a Victorian society in the process of changing forever.

Given the nature and magnitude of the monstrous injustice perpetrated against him, Oscar Wildes life is often examined in terms of his relationships with men, Lord Alfred Douglas in particular. Yet, he was genuinely fond of many women and this affection was usually reciprocated. As Oscars friend Vincent OSullivan confirmed in Aspects of Wilde, his warm and frank biography:

I have always found, and find today, his [Wildes] warmest admirers among women. He, in his turn, admired women. I never heard him say anything disparaging about any woman, even when some of them required such treatment!

Ever since I first encountered Lady Jane Wilde, Oscars flamboyant mother and an enduring heroine in his native Ireland, I have been intrigued by the influence she had on her sons life and work. This fascination led me to examine his attitude towards women in the context of a society that was determined to keep them down, something that was anathema to both Oscar and his mother. As an individualist who believed that few limits should be placed on anyones life, man or woman, Oscar chose, as some of his closest friends, freethinking, influential, enterprising and intelligent women who challenged conventional gender roles and operated in the public sphere.