The destruction of Oscar Wilde

On February 18, 1895 a well-known and very wealthy member of the British upper class entered the building of the "Albemarle Club" in Dover Street in London ...:



It is Lord John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry ...:



Sholto-Douglas asks about the famous writer Oscar Wilde ...



... is a member of this club and desires to speak to it.

The butler of the house expresses his deep regret to his lordship, no, unfortunately Mr. Wilde was not present (which Sholto-Douglas knows exactly because one of his servants had previously observed the club).

Because the Lord has not come to have a conversation with Wilde, rather we are witnessing a carefully planned provocation of the blue blood, which has nothing less than the goal of destroying Oscar Wilde socially and existentially!

Lord Sholto-Douglas now also expresses his regrets to the butler and hands him - as was customary at the time - his calling card with the request that he hand it over to Mr. Wilde at the next opportunity.

Then - as if something occurred to him at the last moment - he pulls his pen out of the inside pocket
and quickly scribble a few more words on the business card ...:

"For Oscar Wilde posing Somdomite" ...:



Then his lordship withdraws.

"Sodomit" was a common swear word for homosexuals at the time - and Oscar Wilde is gay!

He is married and has a son Cyrill with his wife Constance ...



... but that's just a facade!

Wilde has been in a relationship with the 16 years younger Lord Alfred Douglas (called "Bosie") for a long time ...





... and this is the lord's son, whose business card is now on the butler's table in the "Arbmarle Club".

Homosexuality was socially outlawed in Great Britain at the time (as in pretty much every other country in the world) - but as long as it was practiced more or less secretly, it was silent about it.

If practiced homosexuality became public, however, then there was danger! Because since 1885 the "Criminal Law Amendment Act" threatened gays with severe penal sentences ...:



Oscar Wilde talks to his lover Alfred Douglas, who advises him to sue his father for defamation - and the writer is stupid enough to do so!

Because he is doing exactly what Lord Sholto-Douglas expected and wants to achieve with his provocation.

His lordship has had evidence of Oscar Wilde's past life gathered for years and is well prepared for a trial.

In court, Sholto-Douglas turns the tables, so to speak, and Oscar Wilde turns from plaintiff to accused!



His lordship can present evidence and sworn testimony for almost every "misconduct" of the writer over many years - because Wilde lived out his sexual orientation very intensively.

Sensible friends advise Oscar Wilde to flee abroad in good time, but the writer is too proud for that!

On May 25, 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years in hard labor in prison. The decisive factor is not his relationship with Alfred Douglas (whose father managed to keep his son's name out of the process as far as possible!), But Wilde's dealings with male prostitutes, some of whom are heard as witnesses.

Wilde is incarcerated in "The Causeway" prison in the London borough of Wandsworth ...



... and has to do the heaviest forced labor ...



... repeatedly interrupted by stays in the infirmary.

Badly ill in health, Wilde was released from prison on May 19, 1897, and fled to France on the same day to face further revenge from Lord Sholto-Douglas.

Unsteadily traveling around Europe, ill and impoverished, he spends the last three years of his life under the pseudonym "Sebastian Melmoth" (based on the novel "Melmoth the Wanderer" by his great-uncle Charles Robert Maturin) in almost complete isolation.

One day, however, that changes: Wilde meets his former lover "Bosie" again in Naples and they live together for a few months - until they finally end their relationship.

Oscar Wilde remains alone from now on.

These are the last pictures by Oscar Wilde: They were taken in Rome in 1900, a few months before his death ...:





His last stay is the "Hotel d'Alsace" a cheap dump in the Rue des Beaux-Arts in Paris - and there the now completely destitute experiences real humanity again ...:



The owner of the hostel, who knows who "Sebastian Melmoth" really is, accommodates him in his best room - provides him with excellent food and wine free of charge.

One of Oscar Wilde's last words was supposedly: "I am dying beyond my means".

Oscar Wilde dies on November 30, 1900.

The hotel still stands today, is still a hotel and has kept its name ...:





Oscar Wilde is buried in the famous "Pere Lachaise" cemetery in Paris - his tombstone was donated by friends and admirers ...:



The grave is protected by a bulletproof glass pane that has to be cleaned weekly, because it has become a ritual for gays to visit Wilde's grave site and kiss the pane ...:



The vengeful Lord Sholto-Douglas saw how Oscar Wilde was released from prison and traveled to Europe. His son broke with him.

Sholto Douglas dies on January 31, 1900 - ten months before Oscar Wilde.

The case against "Bosie" for "unnatural inclinations" was put down for "minor guilt" (Daddy just had connections!) - but Alexander Douglas was not spared prison:

He had gotten quite strange now (probably shizophrenia).

In 1923 "Bosie" had to serve six months on charges of defamation because he had accused Winston Churchill of being part of a "Jewish conspiracy" responsible for the death of British War Minister Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener of Omdurman.

Lord Kitchener ...



... died when he was on a meeting with the highest Russian military during the First World War and the ship on which he was traveling to Saint Petersburg, the armored cruiser HMS "Hampshire" ...



... ran into a German mine in the North Sea on June 5, 1916 and sank .

Of the more than 600 people on board, only twelve survived.

"Bosie" married, became a Catholic - and blossomed into one of Great Britain's leading anti-Semites. He never lived to see the death of his great role model Adolf Hitler - Alfred Douglas died on March 20, 1945, one month before Hitler evaded his responsibility.

Fascinating insight into a shameful episode in history. Thanks for this. I for one am glad the world has moved on.

Thanks Martin. Sad business all round. As Moonraker says, we've moved on, and in today's society, Wilde would be treated with respect, and rightly so.

Phil