Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 (of 2)

rds Lady St. Helier). His appearance was not in his favour; there was something oily and fat about him that repelled me. Naturally being Britis

turned upside down. Two of Balzac's characters, it will be remembered, practised this form of humour. The desire to astonish and dazzle, the love of the uncommon for its own

? You ought to know him: he is so

th his right hand as he spoke, and his jowl was already fat and pouchy. His appearance filled me with distaste. I lay stress on this physical repulsion, because I think most people felt it, and in itself, it is a tribute to the fascination of the man that he should have overcome the first impression so completely and so quickly. I don't remember what we talked about, but I noticed almost immedi

y almost at once into the inner drawing room in order to be free to talk in some seclusion. After ha

ed since how I could have been so disagreeably affected by them at first sight. There was an extraordinary physical vivacity and geniality in the man, an extraordinary charm in his gaiety, and lightning-quick intelligence. His enthusiasms, too, were infectious.

owerful and he took a delight in using it. He was well-read too, in several languages, especially in French, and his excellent memory stood him in good stead. Even when he merely

and offered a large sum for it-I think some five thousand dollars-in advance. He wrote to them gravely that there were not one

ded, and laughed again, while probing me with inquisitive ey

party it appeared the ladies sat a little too long; Oscar wanted to smoke. Sudd

Mr. Wilde," she sa

do as he was tol

py l

rtinence had an ext

re natural to him, sprang immediately from his taste and temperament. Perhaps it would be well to defi

sophy, and held to it for long years with astonishing tenacity. His attitude towards life can best be seen if he is held up against Goethe. He took the artist's view of life which

od or bad; he therefore sought after the extraordinary, and naturally enough often fell into the extravagant. But how stimu

main. "The fashion of this world passeth away," said Goethe, "I would fain occupy myself with that which endures." Midway in life Goethe accept

ought so far: the transce

ere the religion of Goethe began; he was far more of a pagan and individualist than the great German; he lived for the beautiful and extraordinary, but not for the Good and still less for the Whole; he acknowledged no moral obligation; in commune bonis was an ideal which never said anything to him; he cared nothin

g, and there is, of course, something to be said for it. The artistic view of life is often higher than the ordinary religious

ould be applied to everything, most of all to religion and morality. Cavaliers a

gly concede to others. No one condemns another for preferring green to gold. Why should any taste be ostracised?

umorous smile and exquisite flash of deprecation, as if

ifference to it, and his English love of inequality. The republicanism he flaunted in his early verses was not even skin deep; his political beliefs and p

ow like flowers. Their function is to give birth to genius and nourish it. They have no other raison d'être. Were men as intelligent as bees, all gifted individuals would be supporte

ies, but talk to me of the hardships of men of genius, and I could weep tears of blood. I was nev

m, or the "heaven-sent" as rhetoricians prefer to style them. The many are only there to produce more "sports" and ultimately to benefit by them. All this is valid enough; but it leaves the crux of the question untouched. The poor in aristocratic England are too degraded to produce "sports" of genius, or indeed any "sports" of much va

larity and unmerited renown. Indeed if he had loved athletic sports, hunting and shooting inst

little else." This class hated and feared him; feared him for his intellectual freedom and his contempt of conventionality, and hated him because of his light-hearted self-indulgence, and also because it saw in him none of its own sord

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wind of puritanic hatred blowing against him helped instead of hindering his pro