![]() “It’s blush-worthy, the things that are depicted.The story of Oscar Wilde is a brilliant, tragic and complicated one a tale that, despite many efforts, can’t easily be transformed into simple fridge magnet epithets stating that “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Aside from being eminently quotable, Wilde’s legacy is vital in both the literary sphere and in terms of his impact on gay rights and culture. ![]() But the homosexuality is the thing that makes it unique, because no book until that point had really dealt with it in a straightforward way,” he told the US magazine. “All types of sex are depicted in both of these books. He added that both novels are explicit in their coverage of sexual relationships. O’Hearn told Publishers Weekly: “One of my goals with this project was just to make these texts available, because no one has ever seen until now.” ![]() One of Wilde’s best known works, The Picture of Dorian Grey, “is not an explicit book, whatever some of the critics thought at the time,” said Seeney, whereas Teleny “is pretty explicit, and I don’t know whether Wilde would have been bothered with writing something like that.”īut he suggested that “some of his friends might have done, and he might have felt like putting it into better language”. I think it’s perfectly possible Wilde could have been involved in some way- if I think it’s probable, is another matter,” said Seeney of Teleny. “Most people would agree it was not written by one person – stylistically it’s all over the place. ![]() “The only other time Wilde’s name was mentioned in common with it before 1934 was by Aleister Crowley.” Crowley, says Christie’s, was “convinced” of Wilde’s role, writing that “with the exception of Verlaine in Hombres, and Wilde in Teleny … nobody in modern times has dared to voice openly … the passion between man and man”. “ is not corroborated by anybody else but obviously it made for a good story, when Hirsch published a new edition of in 1934,” said Seeney of Teleny. But he was unsure if study would move forward the question of the works’ authors. Michael Seeney, deputy chair of the Oscar Wilde Society, said on Monday that “some work on Des Grieux would be useful”, as “nobody has really done anything on Des Grieux because it’s not a common book”. Des Grieux, says Christie’s, is a “rare” and “important homoerotic text” written by the same hand as Teleny, with no copy formerly in any institution. Christie’s itself only goes as far as saying that Teleny is “sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde”, adding that the authorship “remains uncertain, and is more likely to have been a collaborative effort”. UBC described the works as “two exceptional examples of early gay literature”, with Gregory Mackie, assistant professor in the English department at the university, saying that “even if Wilde didn’t write them, the speculation is still a fascinating part of his enduring mythology”. I only have the slightest idea of what it contains based on second-hand accounts by people granted access to private collections,” he wrote on his Kickstarter page. “Remember, this text has only been seen by a small number of people and anyone interested in it cannot, at present, obtain a copy of it. O’Hearn has previously edited and published Letters from Laura and Eveline, an 1883 erotic novel. He now plans to transcribe and edit what he has described as the “first ever modern edition” of Des Grieux, “so as to disseminate the work as widely as possible for general readers and scholars alike”. O’Hearn ended up raising more than $3,000 (£2,000) from a range of backers, with the University of British Columbia’s library contributing the remaining money to purchase both volumes, Des Grieux for $23,000, and Teleny for $16,000. Justin O’Hearn, a PhD candidate in Victorian literature at the University of British Columbia, hopes to change that, after his Kickstarter campaign helped raise the money to acquire both titles when they went up for auction at Christie’s. Although Teleny has been widely republished – sometimes under Wilde’s name – Des Grieux is almost wholly unknown to scholars. Only a handful of copies of Teleny and its prequel remain, with authorship still uncertain. It was subsequently collected and returned by a series of young men, and when Hirsch unwrapped it, he found the manuscript of Teleny, written by several different authors. Hirsch claimed in 1934 that in 1890 Wilde had arrived at his shop with a manuscript, carefully wrapped, which he asked the bookseller to take care of.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |