Coffee with Oscar Wilde (Coffee with...Series)

I discovered this Coffee with....series quite by accident, roving through a discount store I picked one up on a whim. However, I was quite surprised to find these little books contained a biography of each person presented in a conversational question and answer format. I am interested in people who have made a name for themselves. These books, in a concise and "easy- to- read format, offer insight into the lives of famous people from all genres. I am in the process of collecting the series!

Genre: Fictional Biographies & Memoirs, Historical FictionPublisher: Watkins PublishingPub. Date: June 11, 2019This story is one in a series regarding other imagined conversations with legendary people. The infamous Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900) is easily one of the most paramount playwrights of the Victorian age. This novel was originally published under the title “Coffee with Oscar Wilde.” No matter the name, what a treat to review this clever novel about a fictional conversation with Oscar Wilde, over coffee and a cigarette. The premise of the tale is that Wilde is being interviewed by an unnamed interviewer. What makes this book so clever is that he is being interviewed in the present. The author never explains how this phenomenon happens. Still, much fun to read Wilde’s possible views on histories’ take on him. Or how appalled Wilde might be to learn that smoking is now frowned upon. “A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure.”― Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”Set in Paris, where he fled once released from prison after the scandalous trial that revealed his homosexuality. During the trial, he was actually accused of being his character, who never ages, from his novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The story comes so close to spelling out homosexual desire. In 1945 the book was turned into a movie. In Holland’s book, the author is at his wittiest channeling Wilde’s feelings about the trial. He does a wonderful job of showing Wilde’s misjudgment on what would be the trial’s outcome. After all, at that time in his life, Oscar was the darling of upper-class society.In the books prologue the author explains that in writing the novel he did not cut out Wilde’s quotes and sew them back together. He feared that would become a book of one-liners. Instead, he wrote Wilde’s words without always being recognizable. He did this by heavily researching his works and letters. The result feels fresh. This book is a fast (under 200 pages) and a delightful read. However, it is easy to imagine that if you are familiar with all the aspects of Wilde’s life it may not be as impressive. Personally, I was surprised to learn that Oscar was married and had two children. I enjoyed reading about the close relationship he had with his mother, and the lover who caused his downfall. I was so impressed with this concept of a fictional memoir that I hope to read “Conversations with Mozart” by Simon Parke.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that "Life...is simply a mauvais quart d'heure made up of exquisite moments". One can safely aver that this exquisite slip of a book will imbue any bad quarter of an hour (or an hour for that matter), that the reader may have been experiencing prior to perusal, with fresh delight of life and renewed appreciation of this most remarkable of men. Merlin Holland (Oscar Wilde's Grandson) has inherited the family's gift for language and felicity of phrasemaking as he creates the fictional dialogue (based on biographical facts) he would imagine having with Wilde, with love and understanding. To go with the general ethos of this book, it would seem churlish not to imbibe a fine cup of coffee (or whatever is the beverage of your choice) whilst hungrily devouring its contents.An undoubted charm when writing about Wilde is that the material is so rich and illuminating to begin with, starting with the epigrammatic brilliance. Holland doesn't refrain from highlighting his famous ancestor's masterly command of aphorisms right from the off, "I always maintain that a cigarette is the perfect type of pleasure", "in life, style, not sincerity, is the essential", "there are only two tragedies in this world - one is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it".Cleverly blending the epigrams with historical facts, Holland traces his grandfather's fascinating story with great fidelity, showing clearly the formative influences of John Mahaffy when Wilde attended Trinity College, Dublin and subsequently at Oxford University, under the tutelage of John Ruskin and Walter Pater, whose respective theories about art and life were to have a huge impact on his writing and thinking. It is clear too, how conscious Wilde was of wanting to create a sensation, a burning desire to stand out from the crowd, "I watched young men with bright prospects and perfect profiles come to London and end up complete wrecks in a few months by adopting some useful profession."There is no disputing that Wilde was a shameless self-promoter (one can only imagine how much he would have revelled in the age of social media) and his life is so endlessly fascinating and full of incident that to some extent it can overshadow his stature as a writer. This book is a humane and humour-filled insightful introduction to the life and work of one of the greatest writers who ever lived. When I first read Wilde as teenager, I viewed him primarily as a wit and dandy. Of course, this is just one aspect of his personality. In the intervening years, I have come to appreciate the more scholarly and philosophical facets of his character. This, I believe, is what enthrals the ardent Wildean and/or any keen student of culture/history/literature/living - the multiplicity of personas which Wilde adopted (as Socrates said, "Nothing is stable in human affairs"). Wilde didn't simply subvert the narrow stereotypical ideologies of his age. He made people think anew about questions relating to: class, gender, sex, life, religion, liberty, self, relations, social justice etc. In short, what it means to be human. And still does, more than a hundred years after his death. Surely, this is a sign of his singular genius.

good

An interesting read, and as it is written by his grandson, there are a good set of questions.