the path for the emergence of

British Literature Modernism in the twentieth century.

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Art for Art’s Sake
Aestheticism
Aesthetic writers and artists rallied
The Aesthetic Movement behind this slogan, first adopted by
French poet Théophile Gautier, in their
Contributor: attempts to stress the autonomy of art.
Delanie Laws They felt art should be independent
from worldly issues, like politics, and
Lien de l’article : should be appreciated for its own
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/aesth intrinsic beauty rather than for any
eticism/ moral purpose. The aesthetes also
refuted the idea that there was a
correlation between art and the age in
Fin de Siècle which it was created. In other words,
art should not be interpreted as
The roots of Aestheticism can be traced historical evidence, but rather
back to the 1860’s; however, it was not appreciated for its own, independent
until the 1880’s that the movement history and progress. Stylistically, their
gained noticeable popularity. The work was highly refined and appealed
Aesthetic movement is often associated to the senses. The French author,
with the French term “fin de siècle,” or Vernon Lee, perfectly captured the
the “end of the century,” which refers aesthetes’ philosophy on art when she
to the closing of an existing era and remarked, “to appreciate a work of art
implies the beginning of a new one. It means, therefore, to appreciate that
is often used to describe late work of art itself, as distinguished from
nineteenth-century Britain, a time appreciating something outside it,
when the ideals of the Victorian something accidentally or arbitrarily
Age were losing precedence and being connected with it” (Evangelista 5).
replaced by Aesthetic values. The
established Victorian lifestyle broke
down partly because Britain’s political Influences
and economic supremacy faced new
challenges in the form of emerging Aestheticism did not suddenly emerge
world powers, like the United States. independent from outside influence.
Essentially, the glory days of Britain’s Like all movements, it grew from the
empire were coming to an end, which ideas of its predecessors and eventually
laid the foundation for a new, strictly developed its own unique
anti-Victorian method of thought. The characteristics. While many individuals
Aesthetic movement denounced the influenced the aesthetes, the two most
sober morality and middle-class values important were Walter Pater and
that characterized the Victorian Age Charles Baudelaire.
and embraced beauty as the chief
pursuit of both art and life. The
movement is often considered to have
ended with Oscar Wilde’s trials, which
began in 1895. In doing so, it cleared
Walter Pater (1839- 1894) T H E Baudelaire’s poetry exhibited many
AESTHETES WERE HEAVILY qualities that the aesthetes would later
INFLUENCED BY THE ENGLISH WRITER adopt. For instance, Baudelaire was
WALTER PATER AND HIS BOOK, THE one of the first writers to include
RENAISSANCE: STUDIES IN ART AND sexually explicit material within his
POETRY, WHICH WAS PUBLISHED IN poems, as some of his subjects were
1873. THE PIECE SOUGHT TO OUTLINE lesbians and vampires (Charles
THE IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF THE Baudelaire). The aesthetes, following
RENAISSANCE BY EXAMINING THE
his example, continued to push back
WORKS AND LIVES OF ITS ARTISTS.
the boundaries, which enclosed
MANY WRITERS, LIKE JOHN
sexuality, within their own work. They
ADDINGTON SYMONDS AND OSCAR
also gained from Baudelaire an intense
WILDE, HAD HIM AS A TUTOR DURING
THEIR OXFORD YEARS AND THUS,
desire for sensuality and a need to
FAMILIARIZED THEMSELVES WITH HIS
understand the relationship between
WORK. CONSEQUENTLY, IT IS THE art and life. In his book, Aestheticism:
CONCLUSION OF THE The Religion of Art in Post- Romantic
RENAISSANCE WHICH SERVED AS THE Literature, Leon Chai takes one of
BASIC OUTLINE FOR THE Baudelaire’s poems, “Harmonie du
DEVELOPMENT OF AESTHETIC Soir”(1857), and uses it to show how
THOUGHT. WITHIN IT, PATER Baudelaire’s ideas influenced the
CONTROVERSIALLY STATES, “NOT THE aesthetes. He notes that Baudelaire
FRUIT OF EXPERIENCE, BUT appeals to the senses with his
EXPERIENCE ITSELF, IS THE END.” HE description of fragrance within the air,
IS ATTEMPTING TO CONVEY THAT IT IS and furthermore, equates life to art
THE SINGULAR MOMENT, AND NOT when he implies that the body is like a
THE RESULTING EFFECTS OF THAT violin (Chai 48-62). Oscar Wilde, an
MOMENT, THAT IS TRULY IMPORTANT. aesthetic writer, would further develop
SUCH A STATEMENT ENCOURAGES ONE this supposed relationship between art
TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT, AND and life. In his essay, “The Decay of
FURTHERMORE, TO APPRECIATE Lying: An Observation”(1891), Wilde
PHYSICAL OBJECTS THEMSELVES claims that “Life imitates Art far more
RATHER THAN THE LINGERING than Art imitates Life.” He is
IMPRESSIONS OF THEM. HE FEELS essentially arguing that art is superior
THAT REFLECTION DIMINISHES THE to life because life relies on art as a
VALUE OF THE OBJECT BECAUSE OUR
means of finding expression and
MINDS WILL FOCUS ON GENERAL
beauty. This notion, which was built
ASPECTS RATHER THAN THE TRUE
upon the foundation of Baudelaire’s
BEAUTY OF THE OBJECT AS IT EXISTED
ideas, would eventually become a
WITHIN A DISTINCT AND FLEETING
major part of aesthetic doctrine.
MOMENT. THE AESTHETES EMBRACED
PATER’S THEORIES AS A MEANS OF
UNDERSTANDING THE SUPREMACY OF
BEAUTY OVER MORALITY AND THE The Aesthetic Lifestyle
PRESENT OVER LONGEVITY.
The aesthetes’ commitment to their
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
theories and beliefs was so strong that
Baudelaire was a French poet who is eventually aestheticism transcended
generally considered to be the fore- the boundaries of art and became a
runner of the French symbolists, a way of life. Essentially, components of
movement which held numerous aesthetic ideology can be seen in the
parallels to British Aestheticism. way the aesthetes approached fashion,
sexuality, and alcohol/drugs.
DANDYISM exotic decadence; he tends even
towards the perverse. He quivers, he
Dandyism, to some extent, has always throbs with the pure ecstasy of life,
existed. In general, a dandy is one who with the exquisiteness of his own
pays particular attention to his own experience” (Fox 247). Many aesthetes
personal appearance. Their dress is are known to have been either
often eccentric, yet elegant. Specific to homosexuals or interested in
late-Victorian England, to be a dandy homoeroticism, which can be partly
meant to also elevate the artificial over attributed to their fondness of Greek
the natural. The opening lines of Oscar culture. Since the Greeks allowed male
Wilde’s “Phrases and Philosophies for to male love and even encouraged it as
the Use of the Young”(1894) state, “The an acceptable source of pleasure, the
first duty in life is to be as artificial as concept of homosexuality appears
possible.” One example of their frequently in their art and literature.
attraction to artificiality is that they (Example?) Many aesthetes saw the
preferred urban, rather than rural, Greek example as a justification for
settings and were particularly their own homoeroticism and felt that
enamored with London (Jackson 132). such desires were “inseparable from
Furthermore, Victorian dandies aimed [their] artistic and intellectual
to uphold a high level of sophistication activities” (Evangelista 19).
and valued wit as a measure of such.
Many aesthetic writers were well- However, it was more than just a
known dandies, such as Oscar Wilde, connection to the past that led the
Algernon Charles Swinburne, and artists of this movement to embrace
Walter Pater. sexual deviance. The aesthetes were
fiercely individualistic, and as a result,
opposed anything mainstream. They
SEXUALITY & HABITS developed a love of “shocking” the
middle classes with both their art and
lifestyles (Jackson 152). Therefore,
In 1885 Britain’s Parliament outlawed they created sexually suggestive pieces
homosexuality with the Labouchere of work and adopted liberal sexual
Amendment. Males caught engaging in attitudes, both of which opposed the
any type of sexual activity with another Victorian sense of morality.
male could be sentenced to up to two Furthermore, the combination of this
years in prison. Despite this law, the desire to shock the conservative
late-Victorian period saw an increased minded with their need to live within
interest in the exploration of sexuality. the present moment, led to the
Not only were gender distinctions development of many habits which
increasingly blurred, but the presence were considered to be vices. Aesthetes
of homoerotic desires became more were generally seen as heavy
and more obvious within the public consumers of alcohol, particularly
sphere. In fact, it was during this absinthe, and were fascinated with
period that the words “homosexual” drugs like opium and hashish, all of
and “lesbian” were first used. The which granted them a greater intensity
aesthetes were both products and of sensation (Jackson 153). Though not
propagators of these new liberal all of the aesthetic artists developed
attitudes towards sexuality. Deborah these habits the death of many of them
Lutz claims that “Something of the at a young age suggests that the habits
erotic always lurks about the Aesthete: were fairly prevalent. For example,
he faints with love; he luxuriates in
Wilde died at forty, Aubrey Beardsley borrowed from the stylistic techniques
at twenty-six, and Ernest Dowson at of imaginative writing and was often
thirty-three, among others. Jackson densely allusive and metaphoric.
clearly summarizes this notion: “It Wilde’s writing, especially, also threw
would seem as if these restless and off Victorian ideas about earnest and
tragic figures thirsted so much for life, serious argument, instead relishing
and for the life of the hour, that they playfulness and paradox.
put the cup to their lips and drained it
in one deep draught…” (158). Aesthetes played with traditional
oppositions or even hierarchies
──────────────────────── between art and life. Wilde teased his
readers with the claim that life imitates
art rather than the other way round. His
point was a serious one: we notice
London fogs, he argued, because art
Aestheticism and and literature has taught us to do so.
Wilde, among others, ‘performed’
decadence these maxims. He presented himself
as the impeccably dressed and
Article written by: Carolyn Burdett mannered dandy figure whose life was
Lien de l’article : a work of art.
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-
victorians/articles/aestheticism-and- For others, similar notions propelled an
decadence interest in literature as a material thing
of beauty. Intricately crafted books
were produced by William Morris’s
Kelmscott Press, which opened in
Aesthetic style 1891, dedicated to printing and binding
Poetry was central to aestheticism, using traditional methods. In part,
from the work of Pre- Morris was striving to preserve
Raphaelites (especially Dante Gabriel traditional skills against the ever-
Rossetti and Christina Rossetti), increasing cheap mass production of
Swinburne and William Morris, through reading matter. In so doing, he was
to the flourishing of poetic voices in the making an overtly political gesture.
final decades of the 19th century. After Morris was a socialist and rejected
being lost to sight for much of the 20th capitalist methods of producing goods
century, recent literary scholarship has which, he believed, exploited workers
retrieved many important women poets and reduced them to parts in machine-
of this period, including Alice Meynell like factory processes. He rejected
and Amy Levy. Equally important, consumer culture as deadening to the
though, were the prose forms human spirit. However, his own work –
associated with aestheticism – and including textile and other crafts as well
especially the essay of art as books – quickly became associated
appreciation. Important essayists with desirable consumer objects.
include Pater, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Aestheticism has often been accused
Symons and Vernon Lee (the name of complicity with the consumer culture
adopted by Violet Paget). Their writing it overtly rejected.
was sometimes condemned as ‘purple
prose’ (i.e. writing that’s overly
elaborate and ornate), because it
 novel caused a shocked outcry when it
Decadence appeared. Focused almost exclusively
By the 1890s, another term had on the inner life of its ailing aristocrat
become associated with this focus on protagonist, Des Esseintes, the novel
‘art for art’s sake’. It has origins in charts his obsessive sensual
common with aestheticism and the two experiments. Dorian Gray’s passion for
terms often overlap and were studying and collecting jewels or
sometimes used interchangeably. perfumes or ecclesiastical vestments,
‘Decadence’ was initially used to and surrounding himself with exotic
describe writers of the mid-19th and sensual objects, mirrors Des
century in France, especially Esseintes’s pursuit of ever more
Baudelaire and Gautier. By the refined sensory experiences.
century’s end, decadence was in use
as an aesthetic term across Europe. In England, it was Wilde himself who
The word literally means a process of was identified as central to the English
‘falling away’ or decline. In relation to decadent tradition, along with Arthur
art and literature, it signalled a set of Symons and the poet, Ernest Dowson.
interlinked qualities. These included Wilde was important because of his
the notion of intense refinement; the high visibility in fashionable London
valuing of artificiality over nature; a clubs and theatres. He dressed
position of ennui or boredom rather flamboyantly, sparking fashions that
than of moral earnestness or the others copied. He was a brilliant self-
valuing of hard work; an interest in publicist, and quipped that his life was
perversity and paradox, and in a work of art. Other important poets
transgressive modes of sexuality. One include Lionel Johnson and John
of the most important explicators of Davidson. Although often under-
decadence was the poet Arthur recognised until very recently, women
Symons, whose essay ‘The Decadent also contributed to decadent style. The
Movement in Literature’ (1893), most important voice was ‘Michael
described decadence as ‘a new and Field’, the name under which two
beautiful and interesting disease’. For women, Katherine Bradley and Edith
Symons – as well as for others who Cooper, jointly wrote. The Rhymers’
were critical rather than intrigued and Club, set up by poets W B Yeats and
entranced – decadence was the Ernest Rhys in 1890s, also explicitly
literature of a modern society grown rejected literary naturalism and
over-luxurious and sophisticated. embraced experimental modes of
writing. ‘Symbolist’ poetry was closely
In France, decadence became aligned with aesthetic and decadent
associated with a type of poetry styles: all of them aimed to explore the
exemplified by the writing of Paul beauty of strange, subjective and
Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé, and unique moments.
also with the fiction of Joris-Karl
Huysmans. Huysmans’s most
notorious work, Á Rebours – published The Yellow Book
in 1884, it was translated as Against One of the most notorious exponents
Nature or Against the Grain – is widely of what was labelled decadence was
believed to be the notorious not a writer, however, but an artist.
‘poisonous’ book that fascinates Dorian Aubrey Beardsley’s distinctive, witty
Gray in Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel, The and often erotic illustrations are
Picture of Dorian Gray. Huysmans’s immediately recognisable, with their
innovative shapes and lines and bold taste was the main aim of art. The
use of black and white space. foundation of aesthetic movement is
Beardsley provided the cover
considered to be formulated in the
illustrations for perhaps the most
famous and notorious of decadent 18th century by Immanuel Kant. This
publications, The Yellow Book. This is an anti-Victorian movement which
was a periodical, featuring essays, had post-romantic roots.
poems, fiction and illustrations. This aestheticism used the concept
Launched in 1894, it ran until 1897. of art for art’s sake. The original
Yellow and green – colours associated
with bruising and decay – were concept “l’art pour l’art” is attributed
associated with decadent style, to the French novelist Théophile
and The Yellow Book contributed to Gautier. This rejected the concept
their startling new appeal. Large that art has a moral or ethical value
format, and beautifully produced, the and a didactic purpose. The followers
volumes drew attention to their appeal
of this movement believed that art
as objects, like the works from Morris’s
Kelmscott press. Again, decadence should only be beautiful.
was part of a culture of commercialism
as well as of creativity. What is Aestheticism
in Literature
What is In English literature, the aesthetic
movement gained momentum in the
Aestheticism in late 19th century. Although Pre-
Raphaelite movement is taken as a
Literature separate movement from aesthetic
Author: HASA movement, aestheticisms was also
influenced by its predecessor.
Lien de l’article: Aesthetic writers gave free rein to
https://pediaa.com/what-is- their imagination and fantasy. Their
aestheticism-in-literature/#:~:text=Aest
heticism%20is%20an%20art main purpose of their literary works
%20movement,the%20main%20aim was the pursuit of beauty. Since the
%20of%20art. followers of the movement didn’t
believe in the didactic purpose of
literature, they did not accept the
views of John Ruskin, George
What is Aestheticism MacDonald, and Matthew Arnold
who believed that literature should
Aestheticism is an art movement convey moral messages. Freedom
supporting the emphasis of aesthetic from social and moral functions, the
values more than other themes for pursuit of beauty, and the emphasis
literature, fine art, music and other of the individual self in the judgment
arts. In other words, this movement of taste can be termed as hallmarks
was based on the principle that of this movement. The literary works
pursuit of beauty and elevation of
of this movement are characterized encompass the categories of Pre-Raphaelitism,
decadence, symbolism, and early modernism. The
by the immense use of symbols, section Defining Aestheticism thus aims to orient
readers in this controversy before moving on to
sensuality, suggestion rather than examine the many spheres in which studies in
statement, and synaesthesia effects aestheticism have expanded at the end of the 20th
and beginning of the 21st centuries: from the
(correspondence between words, improvement of life of the urban working classes to
colors, and music). Oscar Wild’s novel the literary modernism that so strenuously
disavowed its debt to the aestheticism of the 1880s
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is one of and 1890s.
the most well-known examples of
aestheticism in the 19th-century
literature.
Oscar Wilde’s Role in
Literature’s “Aesthetic
Introduction of Ruth Livesey’s essay Movement”
Aestheticism Author: By Patrick N. Allitt, PhD, Emory
University
Lien:
Lien:
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/ https://www.thegreatcoursesdail
view/document/obo-9780199799558/obo- y.com/oscar-wildes-role-in-
9780199799558-0002.xml
literatures-aesthetic-movement/
Aestheticism can be defined broadly as the
elevation of taste and the pursuit of beauty as chief Walter Pater in England and
principles in art and in life. In the context of British
literature there is considerable controversy about Theophile Gautier in France
when and where aestheticism occurs; but a line can
be traced from the art criticism of John Ruskin in the
influenced the movement with
1850s, through the artists and writers of the Pre- their theorizing about it. Gautier
Raphaelite movement and the writings of Walter
Pater, to the works of Oscar Wilde and the flowering in France said:
of decadent poetry of the 1890s. The movement
drew upon the formula of “l’art pour l’art”—art for
art’s sake—articulated most memorably by the Nothing is really beautiful unless it is
French novelist Théophile Gautier in his 1836
preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin. Gautier was
useless. Everything useful is ugly for it
one of a number of French writers and artists of the expresses a need, and the needs of
period who argued that art should be evaluated with
reference to its own criteria. In aestheticism the men are ignoble and disgusting, like his
subjective view of beauty becomes the primary poor, weak nature. The most useful
means of judging value: when considering whether
a poem or a painting is good, aestheticism merely place in the house is the lavatory.
asks if it is beautiful or meaningful as a work of art in
itself. This forms a stark contrast to the long-
standing custom of judging art and literature either One of the English literary
on the basis of the moral lessons it might teach to
readers or viewers (its social usefulness) or in terms exponents of the Aesthetic
of its correspondence to real life (its realism). It is
this refusal to acknowledge the primacy of morality
Movement was Oscar Wilde.
within art that made aestheticism such a Oscar Wilde was one of the first
controversial movement from the mid 19th century
onward: its proponents were the subjects of great celebrities who was
vituperative attacks from mainstream writers and
critics and were consistently satirized throughout famous for being famous. He
this period. The category of aestheticism is a
notoriously slippery one and can overlap with and was already a famous person
before he had any literary companions you could imagine.
achievements at all. He was a Nearly everybody who met him
deliberate debunker of Victorian found him mesmeric, delightful
gravity and solemnity. He was to be with, witty, good-natured,
Irish, born in Dublin in 1854. He and a wonderful friend to have.
made a great success of his This kind of dandyism, especially
studies at Trinity College, Dublin, his great talking, made him
and won a scholarship to go to famous.
Magdalen College, Oxford. When
he was there, he got a first-class When he was only 26, he
degree in the classics and won a became thinly fictionalized in
Newdigate Prize for poetry. one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s
While he was at Oxford, he operas, Patience, which came out
joined up with many aristocratic in 1881. He is represented by the
young men who helped him gain character called Bunthorne. The
an entrée into London society. D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
which produced Gilbert and
He went into London society Sullivan went on tour to the
wearing the most outrageous United States. D’Oyly Carte
clothes he could find, the sort of himself said to Wilde, “Why don’t
things everybody else would you come along as well? You can
wear at a costume party. He give some lectures on the
would wear clothes that were afternoons of the evenings that
already 90 years out of date. For we are going to perform the
one period, he dressed up as opera.” He said that was a great
Prince Rupert, the man who had idea. So, he made this early
been the commander of King lecture tour in his mid-twenties
Charles I’s cavalry forces in the of the United States. Often the
English civil war of the 1640s. He character Bunthorne would
was famous for wearing knee- appear on stage, and Wilde
length breeches—when they had himself would come in dressed
completely gone out of fashion— in the same way, as a way of
and white silk stockings. In other underlining to the theater
words, he looked rather audience that it was meant to be
remarkable. He would have an him.
orchid. He was madly high- He loved literary paradox.
spirited. Apparently, he was one Consider the preface to his
of the most wonderful book, The Picture of Dorian Gray in
the 1890s. It is just a series of Wilde became a significant
short aphorisms, but they are all literary figure in the early ’90s
contradictory to the standard with the production and
wisdom of the time. “There is no performance of a series of great
such thing as a moral or an plays: Lady Windermere’s Fan, A
immoral book. Books are well Woman of No Importance, The Ideal
written or badly written. That is Husband, and above all, The
all.” And, “No artist has ethical Importance of Being Earnest, which
sympathies. An ethical sympathy came out in 1895 and ever since
in an artist is an unpardonable has been regarded as one of the
mannerism of style.” You could great comic masterpieces of
hardly imagine a more flagrant English theater.
violation of the Dickensian idea
The most ferocious figure in the
of what literature was for.
play is Lady Bracknell whose
He wrote a superb essay in 1889 daughter, Gwendolen, Jack
called the “Decay of Lying,” and Worthing wants to marry. Wilde
one of his characters, Vivian, wrote a conversation between
talks about how you can’t find a Jack Worthing and Lady Bracknell
good liar anymore and that it is where she tries to discover
no easy matter being a good liar. whether he is truly deserving of
Gwendolen’s hand in marriage.
People have a callous way of talking Lady Bracknell says, “Do you
about a born liar just as they talk smoke?” and Worthing replies,
about a born poet, but in both cases
“Yes, I must admit I do smoke.”
they are wrong. Lying and poetry are
She says, “I am glad to hear it. A
arts. They require the most careful
study, the most disinterested devotion. man should always have an
As one knows the poet by his fine occupation of some kind. There
music, so one can recognize the liar by are far too many idle men in
his rich, rhythmic utterance. In neither London as it is.”
case will the casual inspiration of the
moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, A little bit later, Lady Bracknell
practice must precede perfection. says:

It is deadpan about how to “I have always been of the opinion that

practice to become an a man who decides to get married
accomplished liar. should know either everything or
nothing. Which do you know?”
“I know nothing, Lady Bracknell.” love affairs, which was strictly
illegal at the time. It was Bozie
“I am pleased to hear it. I do not
who introduced Wilde to the
approve of anything that tampers with
natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a
London underworld of gay
delicate exotic fruit. Touch it and the prostitutes.
bloom is gone. The whole theory of
modern education is radically Bozie’s father, the Marquis of
unsound. Fortunately, in England at Queensberry, knew what was
any rate, education produces no effect going on and hated Oscar Wilde
whatsoever.” bitterly, whom he regarded as
A little bit later, he describes how perverting his son. In response,
he was an orphan, found in a the Marquis sent a series of
shopping bag in one of the insulting letters to Wilde, one of
London railway stations. Jack which accused him of being “a
says to Lady Bracknell, “Yes, I lost posing sodomite.” In reaction,
both my parents.” In response, Wilde sued him for criminal libel.
she says, “To lose one parent, This is in 1895, the year The
Mr. Worthing, may be regarded Importance of Being Earnest had
as a misfortune. To lose both come out. Wilde didn’t realize
looks like carelessness. Who was the seriousness of a prosecution
your father? He was evidently a of this kind. The Marquis of
man of some wealth. Was he Queensberry hired a very high-
born in what the radical papers powered legal talent, a man
call The Purple of Commerce, or did called Edward Carson, who later
he rise from the ranks of the was to have a big British political
aristocracy?”—a lovely reversal career. Carson began collecting
of class position. evidence from these male
teenage prostitutes to find that
One of the reasons Wilde wrote Queensberry’s allegations could
these plays, a great burst of be substantiated. This trial had
creativity, was because he had been going on for many days
an expensive boyfriend. His before Wilde’s counsel said to
companion was Lord Alfred him, “You must drop this case
Douglas, whom he called Bozie. because evidence is now
They met in 1890 and became accumulating which is going to
close friends. Bozie was being lead to your conviction, not his.”
blackmailed after a series of Sure enough, Wilde was arrested
extremely indiscreet homosexual
and charged with “Gross
Indecency Between Males.”

He has often been depicted by

his sympathizers as a martyr. In
a way, that is true, but in a way, it
is not; the legal system was a
little bit reluctant to hold a trial
of this kind and notified Wilde in
advance that they were going to
arrest him. Then they gave him
some time to escape to
continental Europe. There had
been several previous cases
where this had been the pattern
they followed. In other words,
they didn’t want to arrest him
and put him on trial, but when
he refused to move, essentially,
they went ahead and did it.

His first trial ended in a hung

jury. Again, there was a decent
interval in which he was, in
effect, notified “If you want to go
to Europe, you may do so.” He
didn’t. He stayed. The second
time, he was convicted and
sentenced to two years in prison
at hard labor. He went first to
Pentonville, a model prison, and
then to Reading Gaol, where he
wrote the poem “The Ballad of
Reading Gaol.” Wilde was
released from prison after two
years and spent the remainder
of his life living in France in exile,
dying young, in 1900.