Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann - analysis and review

 

Disclaimer: this blog is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I might earn a small commission from the sale. However, this does not impact upon the price of the items, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

Oscar Wilde's life was lived in two parts. In the first part, a famous literary man, celebrated and satirised in almost equal measure, an outrageous figure, but a respected author and playwright of Victorian London. In the second part, he was an exiled man, nearly broken by two years of prison and hard labour, fated to die lonely, scraping by on donations from the few still willing to give.

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Richard Ellmann brought the subject's life into sharp focus, from Wilde's fame and flamboyance, to his pain and depressions. Wilde is brought to life here.

It has been said that Wilde almost lived his life as though he were planning to be the ideal subject for a biographer, and it is hard to disagree with that assertion when you have finished the final page of Ellmann's work. 

The best biographies strip away at time and space, and make the subject more than just a sample of a life, something studied in cold analyses. The best biographers bring their subjects, regardless of the time or place in which they lived, to life, and that is what Ellmann did here. We find Wilde as a kind, innocent, and generous man. We find him as a man broken and pained by prison and exile, by the cold cuts from past friends, because of his homosexuality. We find Wilde as a man brought down by love and cruelty.

If you've any interest in literary history at all, or if you just have an appreciation for well written biographies, biographies written with real care and consideration, then you should know that this is a charming and captivating read. A truly excellent biography of a truly excellent man!

I have discovered that this biography can be somewhat tricky to track down, but if you should come across this book, be sure to snap it up! However, a more recently published biography of Wilde, Oscar: A Life by Matthew Sturgis, has received very favourable reviews that compare it to Ellmann's work, and this book is available here.

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Thank you, every reader and supporter!

Can you relate to that final page sadness?

 

Disclaimer: Monsta Reader is affiliated with bookshop.org and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I might earn a small commission from the seller. But that does not affect the price of the items, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

Do you ever read the last word, of the last sentence, on the last page of a book and feel a little sad? A little loss?

If you're an avid book reader, the chances are that you have experienced, with at least one book, what has been colloquially called a "book hangover". It's that slight sadness that the story is over, the characters are gone, and you can never discover them for the first time again. It's gone forever.

There's something about a good book, a good story. It requires your time and your attention. A really good story might just change your mind about a few things, or at least challenge some preconceived notions. But, then again, it might just hold you tight in its embrace, and reassure you of the goodness of you and life. Whatever the story and its message, if you've found something between the covers that has captured you, it is understandable that, when you reach that last page, you could be left a little shaken.

Often it is works of fiction that have this effect. When the reader goes on a journey with the characters, and the journey comes to an end, and the reader has to go on beyond the book. Has to sort through the feelings the work has left them with.

Good art is supposed to have an emotional impact, or challenge ideas. It is not absurd that you should leave a book feeling a little shaken, or otherwise effected. 

Kazuo Ishiguro, Aldous Huxley, and Jonas Jonasson have all gifted me - and probably some of you too - with books that I didn't want to end. As have many other wonderful writers.

I am currently reading Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman, a Pulitzer Prize winning biography of the famous Victorian poet, author and playwright. I have read it before, but it is well worth reading again.

I tell you this because some of the books that have most effected me, as I have closed the books' cover on the final page, have been biographies. Almost feeling as though I had lived the life of the subject right along with them - I can only imagine how the biographers themselves must feel! - and that feeling of loss at the last page is keener, for me, because it was real. The people in the pages had lived real lives. Especially when the ending is somewhat tragic, as we know it was for Wilde.

When I was younger I was a little obsessed with Marilyn Monroe for a time, and I read a number of biographies about her. They made me wish that there was a heaven, or that time travel could be possible. I had similar feelings when I read a biography of Bill Hicks, the American comedian, later on. The books left me wishing that I could have met them, or at least see them perform. But then, perhaps that's one of the marks of a good biography.

What about you? Which books have left you feeling a sense of loss? With the joy of having read the book, but a sadness for having reached the end?

Drop some titles in the comments!

Thank you for reading. Before you go, can I please ask you to consider supporting this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine gets me through those book hangovers, and returning to the keyboard!

Though this blog is affiliated with a couple of booksellers, I have resisted putting ad space in these blog posts as much as possible. I write about books because I have a passion for books - as simple as that. I would prefer that that shines through, rather than this being a space geared towards selling a product to consumers. I'd rather generate discussion that sales.

But it would be unrealistic of me, trying as I am to pursue writing work, if I didn't seek some remuneration for the research, writing, proofreading, etc. that goes into every piece of content. So, if you can, you can support this blog on ko-fi.com - thank you to every reader and supporter! Thank you!

All of my most recent reads!

 Disclaimer: MonstaReader is affiliated with bookshop.org, and Waterstones. If you should make a purchase through any of the links in this blog, I might earn a small commission from the seller. However, this does not impact the cost to the consumer, and it does not influence the content of this blog.

A day in the life of your friendly little MonstaReader is spent pretty much like anyone else's. I wake up in the morning and sigh because my body didn't metamorphose into something less flabby and more muscular while I slept; I check my diary for the day, considering where and when I can fit in some reading time; I make myself a coffee, watching the birdfeeders whilst it brews . . .

Pretty standard stuff, you know.

But, if you're here, it's probably the books that you're interested in. So, in today's post, I thought I would do a little round-up of all my most recent reads. Three books that I was reading simultaneously, and books that I will dive into much more deeply in future posts.

Native Son by Richard Wright

We start with Native Son by Richard Wright (my copy pictured above), a novel written as protest, in which we follow Bigger Thomas, a young black man trapped in poverty and Chicago slums. Published in 1940, this was a novel that shocked readers at the time, and which still has power in its pages today. 

The reader is immersed into a world of anger and fear, a world where something has to break, because a world into which you are born Black is a world in which you are not free. There is not even the illusion of freedom.

Much has changed since this novel was written but, one fears, much has stayed almost exactly the same. This is a novel written as a protest, and though some criticisms have been levelled at the novel - James Baldwin did so in his writings on protest novels - the author, Wright, explained in an introduction to the novel that the world he created in the book was a reflection of the world in which he lived.

This is a book well worth reading, a landmark novel, that went on to make Richard Wright the first bestselling Black writer in America.

You can purchase Native Son by Richard Wright here.

The Silence by Tim Lebbon

Next, we move on to something quite different . . .

In an underground cave system, sightless creatures use sound to hunt their prey. When humans move in and disturb these inhabitants, the predatory creatures are loosed from the caves, and they swarm from the darkness. 

Ally, deaf in the years since a terrible accident, knows how to live in silence. Ally and her family leave their home, and make their way towards a remote haven, where they hope to escape these creatures, which are drawn to sound. But is the world forever changed?

Horror novels have been looked upon with a lack of respect in the past, and it's true that a bad horror novel can be pretty torturous - horrific in all the wrong ways - but a good horror novel can explore important themes, just as much as any other genre. Indeed, is well placed to explore themes other genres would find difficult to include.

The Silence explores how people react to extraordinary events. Each chapter opens with an extract from a fictional news report, a briefing , or social media commentary. With the fantastic events of the novel juxtaposed with the familiar human commentary that we are all used to by now on these platforms, the world in this horror feels that much more real. Indeed, half the horror and suspense in the book comes from how the human beings can treat each other when they are scared, and can't make sense of the world any more.

You can purchase The Silence by Tim Lebbon here.

Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman

This one is a Pulizer Prize winning biography I have read before, and now I am reading it again.

We follow Wilde's ascent and, sadly and inevitably, his downfall in Victorian society, in this, Richard Ellman's definitive Wilde biography.

Wilde was a kind, brilliant and, at times, self-destructive man. And he almost made the work of the biographers easy for them, having lived a life so ideal for biography. 

This is a book that you can tell has been written with care, a desire to do justice to the subject, the subject being a brilliant man torn down, and that care and attention elevates this biography.

Unfortunately, I cannot find a link to this book with my affiliates, but it is out there. It was published by Penguin and, if you can seek it out or you stumble across it, I urge you to make the purchase! Or, perhaps your local library has a copy!

Thank you for reading. Before you go, can I ask that you consider supporting this blog with a coffee from ko-fi.com - the caffeine keeps my eyes open as I turn pages or tap away at my keyboard.

Writing these posts is driven by my passion for books, which I hope shines through, and, though I am affiliated with two booksellers, I have resisted placing ad space in my posts. The affiliate links are there, but I am much more interested in writing about the books than I am in trying to sell them to you as a product. I discuss the books, and then the choice is yours.

But my passion for the written word has extended beyond bibliophilia, and I find myself engaged in endeavours to write. And unfortunately, one needs money to pursue their ambitions and passions.

Every reader and supporter is much appreciated - ko-fi.com - and I thank you for reading! Thank you!