One of the most famous literary figures of the 19th century – the playwright Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde – visited Ryde on 3rd October 1884.
Wilde is best known for his play The Importance of Being Ernest, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The aesthete is also famous for his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts, which led to his imprisonment in 1895.
Wilde came to Ryde as part of a lecture tour, in which he spoke at Ryde Town Hall about the styles of dress of the period. Oscar had earlier declared: “One should either be a work of art or wear a work of art.”
A local reporter believed the local audience had come hoping to have a laugh at the apostle of Aestheticism’s expense. However, Mr Wilde apparently won his sceptical audience over.
The reporter said:
“The rather long hair which he still affects was rather becoming than otherwise. Mr Wilde is an enthusiast in a good cause, and like a good many enthusiasts, he has had to go a long way up the hill in order to induce people to follow him. Mr Wilde had the hearty concurrence of every sensible person present when he denounced the ugliness of the modern costumes.”
Another reporter, from The Isle of Wight Times, was rather less complimentary describing Wilde’s lecture as:
“Nothing but a lot of namby pamby notions that would be better suited to milliners’ girls.”
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Was he not a Ex-Con?
Not in 1894. No
I always thought that he was a Cowboy, like John Wayne ?
Best have a lie-down in a darkened room, TTFT. Your poor brain cell must be really tired after all that attempted thinking.
You get all the best people: Oscar Wilde, Jimi Hendrix, The Princess Royal, not to mention Queen Victoria. They like the peace of the island, plus you had the best audience for Mr Wilde to lecture to.
One of Oscar’s truce’s quotation’s as true today as it was then “Patriotism the last refuse of a scoundrel”
You could choose any number of Wilde’s brilliant quotes. One of my personal favourites is….
“Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same”
Genius !!!
He also gave the same lecture in the assembly rooms in Albert Street, Ventnor on the same tour.