Friday, 17 October 2025

Oscar's Library Ticket


 I suppose it was a nice gesture by the British Library to reinstate Oscar Wilde's reader's pass for what was then the British Museum Reading Room, though it is clear that its original revocation had nothing to do with the nature of his crime (as it then was). It was routine for anyone with a criminal conviction to lose their reader's pass; there is no particular need for expiation. Oscar's library card, with its 1900 expiry date,  has been handed to his grandson Merlin Holland, who, as it happens, has just published After Oscar, a great doorstop of a book about Wilde's later life.
  The British Library has various Wilde manuscripts, including that of De Profundis, which was not published in full until 1962. Merlin Holland seems to think very highly of it, saying that 'people have written to me saying, "In a moment of terrible depression about my own life I read De Profundis, and I just wanted you to know that your grandfather's letter from prison meant so much to me".' I remember reading it myself years ago, and the effect certainly wasn't cheering: it seemed to me an overlong and surprisingly dull exercise in self-justification, and indeed self-aggrandisement (at one point, I seem to recall, Wilde comes close to identifying himself with Christ). And it didn't even cure him of his dangerous addiction to the ghastly Lord Alfred Douglas. 

For something lighter on a Wildean theme, I would suggest seeking out Max Beerbohm's extraordinary early essay, 'A Peep into the Past' – you won't be sorry. 



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