28 Friday Mar 2014
Posted in Victorian Celebrities
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Contemplating all the things.
“All the spring may be hidden in the single bud, and the low ground nest of the lark may hold the joy that is to herald the feet of many rose-red dawns.”
-Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
Today was the first day chez les Vicky A’s that actually felt like Spring. Many happy wishes for a good thaw, warm weather, and a happy weekend to you, our dear Readers.
16 Wednesday Oct 2013
Posted in Victorian Celebrities
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You’re not seeing things, Dear Readers. It is not, in fact, Wilde Friday, but rather Wilde Wednesday being as today, October 16th, is Oscar Wilde’s 159th birthday! Stephen Fry says it best:
Happy Birthday, you magnificent man, you. We sure do love you here at the Vicky A’s.
11 Friday Oct 2013
Posted in Victorian Celebrities
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“I adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don’t talk politics.”
~Lord Goring, Act 1, Scene 1 of An Ideal Husband, 1895
It’s been a hell of an 11 or so days here in the States. If any of our readers have been affected by the Shutdown via furloughs, our sincere sympathies and hopes that all this stupidity will come to an end soon. Too bad Oscar isn’t around to provide commentary on all of this; I could see him acting in a role much like Lewis Black does when he pops up on the Daily Show. “Back in Black” becomes “Wilde Times” or something similar.
16 Friday Aug 2013
Posted in Victorian Celebrities
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
~Quoted by Frank Harris, Wilde’s friend and biographer, in Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (1916).
It’s been one of those weeks here at the Vicky A’s where work and life combine in a loud, obnoxious blender to the delight of absolutely no-one. But here’s to Friday’s and to teas and to whisky’s and to Cumberbatches and headless portraits and Irish dramatists and to all the wonderful things in life! Sláinte, dear ones!
19 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Letters/Epistolary Art, Literature, Victorian Celebrities
It’s a scorching day at Vicky A headquarters; what better way to celebrate (?) it than with a scorching love letter or two, courtesy of our dear Oscar?
The Morgan Library has posted a collection of Wilde’s letters and manuscripts, including several to his lover, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas. Some of his love letters are spontaneous and immediate in nature; just a quick line here and there. Others reveal a deep longing for Bosie’s company and a youthful ecstasy in his presence that moves us to this day (especially knowing how this particular love story ends).
The Morgan library has a copy of the earliest surviving letter from Wilde to Bosie at the very beginning of their relationship. From the website: “Writing on stationery of the Albemarle Club, probably in late 1892, Wilde expresses candid yearning to be with Douglas … and hopes that Douglas likes the visiting-card case he has given him, perhaps for Douglas’s twenty-second birthday. Douglas later destroyed many of the letters Wilde wrote to him. (Virtually all those he retained are now in the Clark Library at UCLA.)”
Wilde tells him in the letter, dated November 1892: “I should awfully like to go away with you somewhere—where it is hot and coloured—” , which is delightful in its wish to escape the cold November of England and travel to a lush, exotic place of warmth where they could smolder at each other like this:
Weeks later, in response to a letter Bosie had sent, Wilde wrote the following:
“My Own Boy,
Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red rose-leaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days.
Why are you alone in London, and when do you go to Salisbury? Do go there to cool your hands in the grey twilight of Gothic things, and come here whenever you like. It is a lovely place and lacks only you; but go to Salisbury first.
Always, with undying love, yours,
Oscar”
Oh, Oscar. I know I wasn’t your type, but you sure know how to melt a girls heart.
His letters to Bosie grew in ardor and urgency and, eventually, in despair and exasperation. We’ll save more of those for later posts. I know, I know, I’m a horrible tease but we have to save some fun for later! Some antici…..pation?
Happy Friday, everyone! If you’re stuck in this heat wave like we are, stay cool (unless you’re reading Wilde’s love letters; then you might need a fan and a cool drink of water)!
11 Thursday Jul 2013
Posted in Letters/Epistolary Art, Literature, Parody
Tags
benedict cumberbatch, dedications, dracula, edgar allan poe, frankenstein, lady audley's secret, madame bovary, oscar wilde, the hound of the baskervilles, the pickwick papers, the scarlet pimpernel, the woman in white, wuthering heights
Just the other day, Katherine and I got into a discussion about writing and procrastination and to whom we would dedicate our works of dubious art. Naturally, this led us back to a) Benedict Cumberbatch and b) musing upon specific dedications in our favorite Victorian novels. We’ve included many transcribed dedications below from our own book collection, added a few that should have been, and, of course, came up with a few of our own.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
To my dear friend, Hommy-Beg
(According to this comment here, “The dedication is to Stoker’s friend Thomas Henry Hall Caine, the popular novelist. Of Manx parentage, and author of the Manxman, Caine was known to intimates by the Manx diminutive ‘Hommy-Beg,’ meaning ‘little Tommy.’ “)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
To William Godwin, author of Political Justice, Caleb Williams, etc, these volumes are repectfully inscribed by the Author.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
My Dear Robinson: It was your account of a west country legend which first suggested the idea of this little tale to my mind. For this, and for the help which you gave me in its evolution, all thanks. Yours most truly, A. Conan Doyle
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (a MUST read; we will review and discuss this in a future post)
To Bryan Waller Procter; From one of his younger brethren in Literature, who sincerely values his friendship, and who gratefully remembers many happy hours spent in his house.
Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Dedicated to the Right Hon. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P., D.C.L., &c., &c., in grateful acknowledgement of literary advice most generously given to the Author.
(This one is particularly excellent, in my personal opinion. Bulwer-Lytton is known for many amazing things, including being the author of The Last Days of Pompeii, and was responsible for the phrases “the pen is mightier than the sword” and the infamous opening lines “it was a dark and stormy night”. There is a magnificent Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest held in his name every year, described as “a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels”. It is truly one of the best things around; pouring through entries of years past is a magnificent time-suck. NB: the inscription I have does not include a hyphenated last name, though every other source seems to indicate that his name, properly spelled, is hyphenated.)
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
To Julia Neilson and Fred Terry, whose genuis created the roles of Sir Percy and Lady Blakeney on the stage, this book is affectionately dedicated.
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Dickens dedicated his volume edition of the Pickwick Papers to Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, M. P.
(Here’s the sweetest part: [Excerpted] “Accept the dedication of this book, my dear Sir, as a mark of my warmest regard and esteem – as a memorial of the most gratifying friendship I have ever contracted, and of some of the pleasantest hours I have ever spent – as a token of my fervent admiration of every fine quality of your head and heart – as an assurance of the truth and sincerity with which I shall ever be, My dear Sir, Most faithfully and sincerely yours, Charles Dickens”
From VictorianWeb: “A mark of the strength of their early friendship was Dickens’s dedicating the September 1837 volume edition of The Pickwick Papers. Some seventeen years older than Dickens, Talfourd was a friend of the great literary lights of the Romantic era: actor-manager William Macready, poets Coleridge and Wordsworth, and the essayist Lamb. By the autumn of 1836 Talfourd was moving in a younger circle of artists and writers, including the painters Maclise and Stanfield, critics Jerdan and Forster, Dickens, and that Romantic hold-over, the editor Leigh Hunt.”)
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
To Marie-Antoine-Jules Senard Member of the Paris Bar, Ex-President of the National Assembly, and Former Minister of the Interior
Dear and Illustrious Friend, Permit me to inscribe your name at the head of this book, and above its dedication; for it is to you, before all, that I owe its publication. Reading over your magnificent defence, my work has acquired for myself, as it were, an unexpected authority.
Accept, then, here, the homage of my gratitude, which, how great soever it is, will never attain the height of your eloquence and your devotion.
Gustave Flaubert, Paris, 12 April 1857
Dedications that Should Have Been:
Oscar Wilde: To Bosie: for being an obnoxious little snot who, though handsome, didn’t deserve my awesomeness, didn’t treat me well, and ultimately wasn’t worth my time (or the time I wasted away in prison). Tell your persecuting and prosecuting father the Marquess to shove off. No Love, Me.
Edgar Allan Poe: To Booze and Darkness: ILU. You complete me. In gratitude forever, E.A. Poe.
George Bernard Shaw: To Warner Bros Films: Really? Casting Audrey Hepburn over Julie Andrews? Wouldn’t have had to dub her singing voice if you’d chosen wisely. I’m not saying; I’m just saying. G.B.S.
Wuthering Heights: To the (not-so-honorable) Stephanie Meyer, and to the future Mr. and Mrs. Cullen: No. Just don’t. Regards, Ellis Bell
Through the Looking Glass: To the reader: It’s drugs. I’m talking about drugs.
The Vicky A’s Do Some Dedicating:
Academic Paper: “To Bendywinks Crumplethong: without whose icy gaze and deadly cheekbones this work might have gotten published quicker and with less sexy procrastinating.”
Cookbook: “For (Eggs) Benedict Batchofcookies, the ultimate stud-muffin.”
Poetry: For Butterscotch Crumplebath, whose very name is poetry in motion.
Science Textbook: To Bunsenburner Cuttlefish: you blinded me with science.
And last, but certainly not least:
Every post on this blog: Dear Husband, Sorry I ignored you last night while writing this. Love, Your Wife
31 Friday May 2013
Posted in Literature, Movies/Television, Parody, Victorian Celebrities
For today’s Wilde Friday, I give you two of the best things in life combined into one incredible video: Oscar Wilde and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Take special note of how amazing Graham Chapman looks as Wilde. Also keep an eye out for Whistler, Bernard Shaw, and other luminaries.
Witty, witty, witty. Happy Friday, lovelies!
24 Friday May 2013
Posted in Literature, Victorian Celebrities
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“People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.”
— Letter from Paris, dated May 1900
Some particularly pertinent Wilde Wisdom on a Friday before several major holidays in the States and in the UK. Happy holiday weekend everyone! Stay safe, hug your loved ones, and do count those chickens BEFORE they hatch. (Also take the time to admire the heck out of his outfit. Breathtaking.)
05 Friday Apr 2013
Posted in Literature, Victorian Celebrities
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“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
Fridays are the best. Happy Friday, everyone!
08 Friday Feb 2013
Posted in Victorian Celebrities
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“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
(He looks so warm here, doesn’t he?) To all of our readers in the path of Nemo, please stay safe and warm, preferably inside your homes with a good book. Why not Wilde on a Wilde Friday?
