Books
Although known as a man of many talents, Oscar Wilde's literary acumen extends further than most people realise. Wilde's Selected Journalism, only now released in the Oxford World Classic series, sounds the preposterous profundity of his opulent oeuvre. Furthermore the regard with which Anya Clayworth holds Wilde's witty and ironically understated pieces enables her to demonstrate his brilliance in a detailed introduction. This is in contrast to the tone of supreme self deprecation that characterises pieces, especially the early ones for the Pall Mall Gazette, The Dramatic Review, as well as The Court, Society Review and The Women's World.
The volume is the most, indeed only, available comprehensive edition of Wilde's journalism that is currently in print. Clayworth has collected together as much of his work as possible, although none of it is available in manuscript form, from copies of the original publications, and introduces them in a reverent tone. In contrast to this is the carefully crafted articulate irony of Wilde's own work. The juxtaposition of the interests he later demonstrated, not least with the "subject of a work of art" and the mundane "lithograph of a leg of mutton," amusingly characterise much of the work. The selection is also able to reflect concisely the eclectic vibrancy which characterised Wilde's reviews, on subjects as diverse as cookbooks and women's dress as well as the more serious and identifiable poets.
From the first printed letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, concerning Wilde's view on the position at which women's clothes were best hung from, in which he displays abundantly the wit that would later characterise his work, but with a touching humility that is striking in the youthful quest for financial success and increase in reputation. Perhaps the most important element to the work is the demonstration of Wilde's artistic and personal loyalties, displayed, as in later works, by both form and content, that is of great importance in determining the development of Wilde's own success as a writer.
This is especially the case as this period of journalistic intensity, fastidiously identified despite a frequent lack of proper acknowledgement, coincides with Wilde's unsuccessful first play Vera; Or, The Nihilists (1880) and Poems (1881). The accusations of derivativeness that hung like a malingering spectre over those two, particularly the latter, now seems unidentifiable in Wilde's journalism, bestowed with a striking freshness and originality, work that is bolstered with his brilliant epigrams for the first time.
Wilde is perhaps most enlightening when talking about other poets, particularly his friends, whose work he negotiates with a sensitivity that makes this book a worthwhile academic tool, of worth in relation to a number of poets (but also authors and playwrights) other than Wilde. Wilde notices in Swinburne, someone who holds a high place in his estimation, whose work we "cannot indeed help loving", one main fault: "an entire lack of any sense of limit". In a volume that demonstrates Wilde's mastery of a fourth genre of literary worth, journalism, of a quality comparable to his poetry, prose and plays, the comment seems a little amusing. More pertinently however one can trace a rift in Victorian poetry; the criticism levelled at Swinburne by Wilde, that of his having no soul, of "language [as] his master", which indicates his alarmingly modern poetic purpose, and Wilde's reaction to this, evident in his treatment of art throughout later works. Although the quality of Wilde's own work is evident, the book also claims two other attributes, an "insight in to the colourful world of magazine publishing in the late nineteenth century," and the quality of textual and explanatory notes that accompany the text and introduction. Unfortunately the volume offers little insight into the world of late 19th century publishing and even less colour on the subject.
Although an explanatory note on each of the titles Wilde has worked for does follow the introduction any information is sparse, and is mainly a bibliography for further reading. In contrast to this the introduction consists of impressively detailed historical points concerning Wilde's private life. It demonstrates both Wilde's need for the larger income that journalism presented, providing the practical security he lusted after so much (following his marriage to Constance Lloyd in 1884), and the impact of the development in style his journalism witnessed on his later work, particularly the social comedies he is well known for.
Despite the depth of the introduction it is elements of Wilde's work that blatantly show his relation to other poets, and demonstrates, in his style, a link to his later work, that is most important. As Rayworth admits, there is no full length study of Wilde's journalism, and although it abounds with the features that characterise his rightly lauded work, it is most useful as a comparative tool.
Importantly though it is of interest in this respect to the general reader as well as the scholar due to Wilde's own shining brilliance, evident even at this early stage in his development.
13th May 2004