A love affair with books.

For the past few weeks I've been making my way slowly through the title Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde, and it's wonderful. It's a literary biography about Oscar, told entirely through the lens of the books he read as a child, owned, gave away to others, and had confiscated and sold when he was put into jail.

I never really knew much about Wilde, and reading this book was a lovely way to get up to speed on his life (although reading about his arrest and imprisonment for "gross indecency" and "sodomy"* was anything but lovely--the prison they sent him to didn't sound good at all). But that is only a very small part of the story; author Wright does a splendid job of exploring Wilde's childhood and education through the books he read, explaining how that reading influenced his later life and his own writing:

"The folk tales and Ossianic legends formed the landscape of Wilde's adult imagination. He spoke fondly 'of the beauty and glamour of the old Celtic legends,' and retold Irish folk tales at dinner parties in Paris and London. During these performances Wilde imitated, in an alien urban context, the seanchai [Irish storyteller] he had encountered as a boy in the West of Ireland. When he picked up his pen too, Wilde drew on the reservoir of images, scenes and phrases he had absorbed in his infancy." (p. 25.)

Even if you've never read any Oscar Wilde** (I've started The Picture of Dorian Gray on tape, but I don't know if I'll be able to stick with it), if you're a reader, you should definitely consider this title. And do make sure to read the afterword, which explains the author's own education, following in Wilde's footsteps.

*Mr. CR read a couple of those chapters and thought that perhaps it might have been prudent of Wilde not to have a love affair with the son of the Marquess of Queensberry, a peer of the realm, who was really the one who was determined to put Wilde away. I have told Mr. CR that sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants, but he's not buying it.

**I still don't know him all that well, but I was charmed that one of Wilde's first requests for books from inside prison was for titles by Gustave Flaubert (like Madame Bovary), another author who had been charged with indecency for that very book. That took some chutzpah, I think.

Comments

[Rachael]

CR, I love Oscar Wilde, but I know he's not for everybody. Hi complete works accompanied me to Morocco in college and lasted me almost the entire trip. (Yeah, it was a bit trippy to read him in the desert.) Try reading his stories for children--The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant are outstanding. Even better, rent Wilde and watch Jeeves read them to children (no Wooster, sorry).

[Eva]

I just saw this last week on another blog and immediately put it on the top of my TBR list, but your review makes me want to put it on hold right now! :)

I'm a huge fan of Wilde's fairy tales and plays, but I just read Dorian Gray for the first time last month and was not impressed. So if DG is your first taste of Wilde, be sure to give him another chance!

[Citizen Reader]

Rachael,
Oh, I don't need to know his writing--I like him. I don't think it was probably easy to be his wife and kids but any man who surrounds himself with books is going to appeal to me. I will rent Wilde, thanks, I LOVE me some Stephen Fry. Love him the most with Wooster, of course, but am quite fond of him by himself. Thanks for the suggestion!

Eva,
Yes, I really liked it. It was scholarly but a very easy read; complete with short chapters, which I tend to like in my nonfiction.

It's not that I'm not liking Dorian Gray; I just may not be in the mood to listen to it. Also wish I knew more about it. Sure wish I'd taken some more lit classes in school. Oh well...I think there's a movie of The Picture... coming out, so maybe I'll just rent that too!

[Care]

I loved the movie Dorian Gray - so it's OK to skip the book?
Anyway, if you haven't already flipped thru Alphabet Juice, Mr. Blount comments on the Marquess and Mr. Wilde thing in the 'Q' section.

[Beth]

I read the first half of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much on the plane last night and was completely absorbed. A book for book lovers of all kinds. Great narrative nonfiction.

And I loooove Wilde (and books obviously) so this is now officially on my list.

sidenote: Wilde's tombstone is amazing to visit. It's in Paris, right around the corner from Jim Morrison and Moliere, and it's got a huge Adonis-like carving on it. Admirers kiss the stone and thus there are thousands of lipstick prints all over it. It's incredible. Just thought I'd share ;)

[Citizen Reader]

Beth,
Thank you--I'd never heard of "The man Who Loved Books Too Much," and now I'm going to go get it as soon as possible!!

Very cool about Wilde's tombstone--I knew it was in Paris but I didn't know where, really. Now I have a much better picture of it! Interestingly enough, James Dean's gravestone in Indiana is much the same way--absolutely covered in lipstick marks.