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Wilde's Devoted Friend: A Life of Robert Ross, 1869-1918
Since his death in 1918 Robert Ross has remained something of an enigma. The essence of 'Robbie's' life was his role as Oscar Wilde's devoted friend and dedicated literary executor.
Generous and fearlessly loyal to Oscar in moments of darkest adversity, he later worked tirelessly to restore Wilde's reputation as a writer, only to be subjected to years of harassment and persecution from Wilde's ame damnee, Lord Alfred Douglas, and the moral crusader T.W.H.Crosland. Forced to seek legal redress against their accusations of sodomy, anarchy and solcialism, Ross found - as Wilde had found - that the Law could not protect him.
Generous and fearlessly loyal to Oscar in moments of darkest adversity, he later worked tirelessly to restore Wilde's reputation as a writer, only to be subjected to years of harassment and persecution from Wilde's ame damnee, Lord Alfred Douglas, and the moral crusader T.W.H.Crosland. Forced to seek legal redress against their accusations of sodomy, anarchy and solcialism, Ross found - as Wilde had found - that the Law could not protect him.
319 pages, Hardcover
First published December 31, 1990
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December 2, 2024
It is staggering to look back at the sort of drivel that was allowed to pass as well researched biography at one time. I don't dispute the author's research but she has written a hagiography not biography of Ross. Certainly she neutered Ross as much as possible and covered up, distorted, concealed and misrepresented Ross's, and Wilde's, queerness as if it was a fault or psychological aberation. Did we really allow such bilge to go unchallenged in 1990?
Robbie Ross was a good friend to Wilde, but he was no saint, and I have always thought that there was deliberation in his 'devotion' to Wilde's memory because in securing Wilde's place in literary history he secured his own.
There is also a definite sense that Ross knew how to play Bosie to secure what he wanted. They did have some complicated sexual history together aside from what they shared with Wilde.
There is no concealing that Bosie was a shite of the first order and his life post Wilde is both disreputable and immensely sad. Bosie was already a deeply flawed character when he met Wilde, but Wilde did nothing to reform, educate or develop Bosie. Remember Wilde's speech about the 'love that dare not speak its name':
"The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him."
If you can find in Wilde's relationship with Bosie, or any of the other young men he spent time with, anything that resembles that gloriously hypocritical speech I would be amazed. I am not condeming Wilde I am just throwing bucket of cold water on the mountain obfuscating sanctimonious claptrap that Wilde's sex life has been buried under. Part of that hypocrisy is the way Bosie has been written about and blamed for Wilde's 'fall'. Bosie was Bosie, he was awful, but pretty young, and when older he was awful but nolonger pretty. He was never clever or much of a poet, he wasn't even much of a nobleman (younger son of Scottish peer of the second rank). To blame Wilde's fall on Bosie is disproportionate. Wilde was 41, Bosie 25 but looked, and behaved much younger. Bosie certainly had the 'joy, hope and glamour of life before him' but where was Wilde's 'intellect'? The Socratic ideal was about an older man educating a younger man into adulthood, not about the older man behaving like a schoolboy again.
Which is off point only to the extent that unless you look at Robbie Ross, Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde honestly, not as saints or monsters, you can't write a worthwhile biography of any of them. This 'biography' has 'facts' but it isfar from telling the story of Ross as it is possible.
Robbie Ross was a good friend to Wilde, but he was no saint, and I have always thought that there was deliberation in his 'devotion' to Wilde's memory because in securing Wilde's place in literary history he secured his own.
There is also a definite sense that Ross knew how to play Bosie to secure what he wanted. They did have some complicated sexual history together aside from what they shared with Wilde.
There is no concealing that Bosie was a shite of the first order and his life post Wilde is both disreputable and immensely sad. Bosie was already a deeply flawed character when he met Wilde, but Wilde did nothing to reform, educate or develop Bosie. Remember Wilde's speech about the 'love that dare not speak its name':
"The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him."
If you can find in Wilde's relationship with Bosie, or any of the other young men he spent time with, anything that resembles that gloriously hypocritical speech I would be amazed. I am not condeming Wilde I am just throwing bucket of cold water on the mountain obfuscating sanctimonious claptrap that Wilde's sex life has been buried under. Part of that hypocrisy is the way Bosie has been written about and blamed for Wilde's 'fall'. Bosie was Bosie, he was awful, but pretty young, and when older he was awful but nolonger pretty. He was never clever or much of a poet, he wasn't even much of a nobleman (younger son of Scottish peer of the second rank). To blame Wilde's fall on Bosie is disproportionate. Wilde was 41, Bosie 25 but looked, and behaved much younger. Bosie certainly had the 'joy, hope and glamour of life before him' but where was Wilde's 'intellect'? The Socratic ideal was about an older man educating a younger man into adulthood, not about the older man behaving like a schoolboy again.
Which is off point only to the extent that unless you look at Robbie Ross, Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde honestly, not as saints or monsters, you can't write a worthwhile biography of any of them. This 'biography' has 'facts' but it isfar from telling the story of Ross as it is possible.
April 13, 2017
A worthy effort - the first book I think to exclusively focus on Robbie Ross. The author tries her hardest and is sympathetic but the book for me is marred by homophobic language and a certain amount of cringing at the lives of gay men. It seems Robbie was out to his family quite early on - this is fairly remarkable for a Victorian, and would be of interest to gay readers today. But Borland gives no details or analysis. Throughout, boyfriends and sexual activity are suppressed.
Sometimes her research is too undigested: not every surviving inconsequential letter Robbie ever wrote has to be quoted at length. Sometimes she focusses on bizarre peripheral details and misses the crucial point the reader would like to know. Conversely, she makes stock clichéd summations of characters like Bosie & repeats these far too often.
It is good to read about Ross's work to shepherd Wilde's legacy into posterity, against the strongest efforts of the deplorable Bosie. Borland follows the tangled web of lawsuits and libels fairly well. She also expounds on Robbie's artistic talents: it was he who got Wilde (much against his own judgment) to commission Beardsley to illustrate Salome; and Ross who commissioned the very young Epstein for the Pere Lachaise monument. Both commissions have stood the test of time and arguably have enhanced Wilde's posthumous fame.
Sometimes her research is too undigested: not every surviving inconsequential letter Robbie ever wrote has to be quoted at length. Sometimes she focusses on bizarre peripheral details and misses the crucial point the reader would like to know. Conversely, she makes stock clichéd summations of characters like Bosie & repeats these far too often.
It is good to read about Ross's work to shepherd Wilde's legacy into posterity, against the strongest efforts of the deplorable Bosie. Borland follows the tangled web of lawsuits and libels fairly well. She also expounds on Robbie's artistic talents: it was he who got Wilde (much against his own judgment) to commission Beardsley to illustrate Salome; and Ross who commissioned the very young Epstein for the Pere Lachaise monument. Both commissions have stood the test of time and arguably have enhanced Wilde's posthumous fame.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews