Lecture 14 January 2026 Wilde about Oscar: famous for being famous and infamous by Simon Whitehouse

A frosty morning in January did not deter members and visitors to the Horsham Arts Society’s first lecture of the year. Most of us know about Oscar Wilde’s life, his rise to fame as a playwright, his witticisms and his tragic demise. However, as with all great stories, it is the way they are told and we were totally captivated by our knowledgeable and vivacious raconteur Simon Whitehouse.

We learnt about Wilde’s Irish roots in Dublin of privileged Anglo-Protestant upbringing. His father was a specialist surgeon who enjoyed royal patronage. His mother was a published poet and a fierce Irish Nationalist. Oscar was nurtured from a young age in the milieu of the literary salon. The boy’s precociousness was evident - fluent in French by the age of 9 and went on to study at Trinity College, Dublin. Oscar continued his academic life at Oxford where he was influenced by Aestheticism which advocated art for its sake and beauty.

This was the flowering of Oscar Wilde, a time of self-image making and an aesthetic life style of idiosyncratic fashion and blue china! As his literary reputation grew he attracted celebrities from the artistic and theatrical circles of the day including Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry, and Richard D’Orly Carte who commissioned a comic opera from Gilbert and Sullivan - “Patience”, a satire of the aesthetic movement and sent Oscar on a year long trip in America where he lectured on home interior decoration to the masses!

Oscar’s return to England marked a turning point in his life. He married Constance Lloyd and had two sons. They moved to fashionable Chelsea, among famous residents the like of John Singer Sargent. Oscar kept a day job as editor of “Women’s World” but led a double life of homosexual practice which was illegal at the time. Oscar ventured into the clandestine world of male brothels. Through these illicit liaisons, he met Lord Alfred Douglas, “Bosie”, and they embarked on a destructive relationship which spelled the beginning of the end of Oscar’s career and life. Ironically, some of Oscar’s best works were written and performed during this time - “A Woman of No importance”, “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, “The importance of being Earnest”, “An Ideal Husband”, and the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.

Oscar’s fate was sealed when he filed the ill-judged libel case against Bosie’s father, The Marquis of Queensberry, as the evidence was already stacked against him. Poignantly, only months before, his play “The Importance of being Earnest” opened to rave reviews. A sensational trial followed Oscar’s arrest when his libel case collapsed and Oscar spent 18 months of hard labour at Reading gaol. He left prison broken and impoverished, ending his days in France at the derelict Hotel d’Alsace where he died on 30 November 1900, aged only 46 years.

We were reminded of Oscar Wilde’s artistic legacies that continue into our time and celebrated by contemporary actors, artists and pop icons. His most performed, most translated play “The Importance of being Earnest” continues to be performed in theatres worldwide.

Our lecture ended with a rapturous applause, perhaps echoing Oscar’s first art lecture or the first night of “The Importance of Being Earnest” at curtain fall? Simon’s brilliant narration and eloquent delivery of Wilde’s famous quotes struck a perfect pitch in illustrating the flamboyant, creative, yet tragic life of a genius who was famous for being famous and infamous!

“Nothing to declare but my genius …” Oscar Wilde (on entering the US at New York Customs)