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Green Carnation
First published anonymously in 1894, this wicked and sparkling satirical novel, whose leading characters were based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, was an instant succès de scandale. In an essay-introduction Stanley Weintraub shows how these first widely publicized inferences about Wilde's 'unnatural' side affected he public, affected Wilde himself, and contributed to his downfall.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1894
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About the author
Robert Smythe Hichens
243 books25 followersRobert Smythe Hichens was a satirist and critic, having studied at Clifton College, the Royal College of Music, and the London School of Journalism. He was a friend of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas.
Also wrote as Robert S. Hichens and Robert Hichens
Also wrote as Robert S. Hichens and Robert Hichens
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
October 10, 2021
To the Editor of the
Pall Mall Gazette.
Sir,
Kindly allow me to contradict, in the most emphatic manner, the suggestion, made in your issue of Thursday last, and since then copied into many other newspapers, that I am the author of THE GREEN CARNATION.
I invented that magnificent flower. But with the middle-class, and mediocre book that usurps its strangely beautiful name I have, I need hardly say, nothing whatsoever to do.
The flower is a work of art. The book is not, I remain, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Oscar Wilde
Worthing,
1 October 1894
When The Green Carnation was published anonymously in 1894, it was an immediate sensation, promising unprecedented access to the scandalous, private lives of celebrities like Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. Initial speculation about the book’s origins was rife including a rumour Wilde himself was the one behind it. It was eventually revealed to be the work of prolific, up-and-coming, popular novelist Robert Hichens, later known for his The Paradine Case adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock. Hichens was on the margins of Wilde’s circle, his novel seems to be part fan-fiction homage, part disapproving parody, part means of cashing-in on his access to an increasingly-notorious, public figure. His narrative features a famous writer Mr Amarinth (Wilde) and his younger, intimate friend Reggie Hastings (Douglas). His slender plot hinges on Lady Locke, a wealthy widow newly returned to England. She meets, and is attracted to, Reggie despite feeling he’s “almost monstrously different.” She, Reggie and Amarinth are guests at a house party in an idyllic Surrey village, where the scene’s set for an unorthodox, “Will they? Won’t they?” marriage plot. But Locke’s confused by Reggie’s behaviour and what it might mean. Why, for instance, is he never seen without a green carnation on his lapel?
I’m not sure how far Hichens satisfied his contemporary readers’ lust for scandal and gossip but he includes an eye-watering array of cameo appearances and references to literary London’s inhabitants from George Meredith and Henry James to Olive Schreiner. However, Hichens’s style’s uneven and awkward, his most successful passages display E. F. Benson’s influence, with lines that deliberately echo Benson’s understated, dry wit. This lighter touch’s frequently marred by Hichens’s heavy-handed depiction of Amarinth, whose monologues and would-be, quippy one-liners tend towards the tedious and overblown. I found it difficult to puzzle out exactly where Hichens was coming from here, Lady Locke seems to represent a mainstream common sense and rationality portrayed in stark opposition to Amarinth and Hastings’s narcissistic flights of self-indulgent fancy. Her fascination with the green carnation and her attempts to understand what it means reads like a heavily encoded, less than subtle, means of conveying a sense of the perverse about their partnership. But, at the same time, Hichens appears to be commenting on the hypocrisy of Victorian society, the absurd emphasis on conventional notions of what was or wasn’t natural or acceptable - typified by extensive references to the vacuous moralising of commercial novelists like Mrs Humphrey Ward.
This ambivalence plays out through a series of conversations between Locke and Amarinth, which suggest Hichens was struggling to work out where he stood on these issues. Whether the conflict was personal or not's unclear, Hichens’s own experiences are shrouded in mystery, a confirmed bachelor, it's entirely possible he had clandestine relationships with men but equally that he was simply fascinated by the idea of men who did. Although recent studies of Hichen's fiction have teased out possible, ongoing queer themes - particularly in his body of supernatural stories. The Green Carnation’s a bit of a curio but not an unreadable one, probably more interesting for its unique perspective on late Victorian, literary subcultures than as prose. But Wilde's green carnation remains an iconic, gay symbol, given a recent boost when actor Eliot Page was pictured wearing a similar flower as part of his outfit for a high-profile event.
Rating: 2.5
Pall Mall Gazette.
Sir,
Kindly allow me to contradict, in the most emphatic manner, the suggestion, made in your issue of Thursday last, and since then copied into many other newspapers, that I am the author of THE GREEN CARNATION.
I invented that magnificent flower. But with the middle-class, and mediocre book that usurps its strangely beautiful name I have, I need hardly say, nothing whatsoever to do.
The flower is a work of art. The book is not, I remain, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Oscar Wilde
Worthing,
1 October 1894
When The Green Carnation was published anonymously in 1894, it was an immediate sensation, promising unprecedented access to the scandalous, private lives of celebrities like Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. Initial speculation about the book’s origins was rife including a rumour Wilde himself was the one behind it. It was eventually revealed to be the work of prolific, up-and-coming, popular novelist Robert Hichens, later known for his The Paradine Case adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock. Hichens was on the margins of Wilde’s circle, his novel seems to be part fan-fiction homage, part disapproving parody, part means of cashing-in on his access to an increasingly-notorious, public figure. His narrative features a famous writer Mr Amarinth (Wilde) and his younger, intimate friend Reggie Hastings (Douglas). His slender plot hinges on Lady Locke, a wealthy widow newly returned to England. She meets, and is attracted to, Reggie despite feeling he’s “almost monstrously different.” She, Reggie and Amarinth are guests at a house party in an idyllic Surrey village, where the scene’s set for an unorthodox, “Will they? Won’t they?” marriage plot. But Locke’s confused by Reggie’s behaviour and what it might mean. Why, for instance, is he never seen without a green carnation on his lapel?
I’m not sure how far Hichens satisfied his contemporary readers’ lust for scandal and gossip but he includes an eye-watering array of cameo appearances and references to literary London’s inhabitants from George Meredith and Henry James to Olive Schreiner. However, Hichens’s style’s uneven and awkward, his most successful passages display E. F. Benson’s influence, with lines that deliberately echo Benson’s understated, dry wit. This lighter touch’s frequently marred by Hichens’s heavy-handed depiction of Amarinth, whose monologues and would-be, quippy one-liners tend towards the tedious and overblown. I found it difficult to puzzle out exactly where Hichens was coming from here, Lady Locke seems to represent a mainstream common sense and rationality portrayed in stark opposition to Amarinth and Hastings’s narcissistic flights of self-indulgent fancy. Her fascination with the green carnation and her attempts to understand what it means reads like a heavily encoded, less than subtle, means of conveying a sense of the perverse about their partnership. But, at the same time, Hichens appears to be commenting on the hypocrisy of Victorian society, the absurd emphasis on conventional notions of what was or wasn’t natural or acceptable - typified by extensive references to the vacuous moralising of commercial novelists like Mrs Humphrey Ward.
This ambivalence plays out through a series of conversations between Locke and Amarinth, which suggest Hichens was struggling to work out where he stood on these issues. Whether the conflict was personal or not's unclear, Hichens’s own experiences are shrouded in mystery, a confirmed bachelor, it's entirely possible he had clandestine relationships with men but equally that he was simply fascinated by the idea of men who did. Although recent studies of Hichen's fiction have teased out possible, ongoing queer themes - particularly in his body of supernatural stories. The Green Carnation’s a bit of a curio but not an unreadable one, probably more interesting for its unique perspective on late Victorian, literary subcultures than as prose. But Wilde's green carnation remains an iconic, gay symbol, given a recent boost when actor Eliot Page was pictured wearing a similar flower as part of his outfit for a high-profile event.
Rating: 2.5
Read
June 16, 2018My God this was physically painful. A thinly veiled satire of Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, apparently written by a friends of theirs and lifting loads of lines from their daily chat, and if that is the case I am amazed anyone spoke to either of them. Self-satisfied pretentious drivel under a thin veil of moralising, with bonus anti Semitism and vague fears of paedophilia. Plus a weird plot whereby the Bosie character is trying to persuade a woman to marry him. Pointless and rather poisonous: with friends like this Wilde really didn't need enemies.
May 29, 2014
Let me just start off by refuting the official summary, which states that "Gay men in turn-of-the-century Paris wore green carnations in their buttonholes." Wilde wore a green carnation and encouraged his devotees to wear them on at least one occasion, but it was never a widespread practice and its connotations with homosexuality were established long afterwards. It is tempting to regard Wilde as a prototype gay activist, proudly queer, suffering prison rather than deny his true nature, but like most 19th century homosexuals, Wilde did not make his nature widely known. In fact he perjured himself in his eagerness to deny his homosexuality, and was "outed" by his prison sentence. No one can blame him for lying in a court of law; two years of hard labour was very often fatal, and his friends did not expect him to live more than six months in jail.
Back to the novella. It is a straight-out parody of the Aesthetic Movement and of Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Douglas aka Bosie in particular. No doubt it was more hilarious to the 19th-century reader, much the way today's barbs about hipsters or emo kids will be meaningless in 100 years. But in their day, the Aesthetics were much mocked, and satirical cartoons of Wilde and dismissive reviews of his lectures were published in many newspapers.
The plot is fairly flimsy; the elder society man Esme Amarinth has corrupted young Reggie Hastings until he, too, is intolerable - daring in his wit, sometimes amusing, yet also petulant and shallow and extremely vain about his handsome appearance, which he bolsters with all the care afforded to a young aristocrat. Reggie meets Lady Locke at a country house party; she becomes superficially enchanted with his good looks, but ultimately dissuaded by his shallowness and rejects him.
Hitchens' writing seems to suggest that Hastings was not such a bad sort until he fell in with the degenerate Amarinth. This is somewhat a reversal of the real-life Wilde and Bosie, for, although the former was much older, it was the latter whose lured Wilde into increasingly dangerous waters; "feasting with panthers," as Wilde described his sexual liasons with valets and boot blacks and the lower class of rent boy. Amarinth's dialogue is so derivative of Wilde's quips that he is clearly a parody of the great writer, but unlike Hastings, Bosie was already thoroughly corrupted when he met Wilde and began their famous affair.
There may be some coded references to homosexual but nothing terribly overt, probably more recognizable to the 19th century reader than to the modern one, but the idea of a louche, libertine older man corrupting a fresh-faced younger one is certainly a Victorian trope with strong underpinnings of homosexual threat.
Never averse to a bit of free publicity, Wilde appeared to take the publication of The Green Carnation in good stride, even sending a congratulatory telegram to the young Hitchens. But once disaster struck and Wilde was on trial, Hitchens withdrew the novella immediately, appalled that it might be used to cause further damage to Wilde's reputation. Because of the trial and imprisonment, and what we know today of Wilde's life, The Green Carnation is hopelessly dated. We can never return to that time when the brilliant young Aesthetic Wilde was mocked for his long hair and love of beauty and any hints that he was a "Mary Ann" were mostly harmless. We can't read this book the way it was intended to resonate; inevitably we'll think of Wilde's trial and imprisonment that ensured he died a young but broken man. For that reason, I recommend this for Wilde fans, or scholars of the Aesthetic movement, and not for fans of 19th century fiction.
Back to the novella. It is a straight-out parody of the Aesthetic Movement and of Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Douglas aka Bosie in particular. No doubt it was more hilarious to the 19th-century reader, much the way today's barbs about hipsters or emo kids will be meaningless in 100 years. But in their day, the Aesthetics were much mocked, and satirical cartoons of Wilde and dismissive reviews of his lectures were published in many newspapers.
The plot is fairly flimsy; the elder society man Esme Amarinth has corrupted young Reggie Hastings until he, too, is intolerable - daring in his wit, sometimes amusing, yet also petulant and shallow and extremely vain about his handsome appearance, which he bolsters with all the care afforded to a young aristocrat. Reggie meets Lady Locke at a country house party; she becomes superficially enchanted with his good looks, but ultimately dissuaded by his shallowness and rejects him.
Hitchens' writing seems to suggest that Hastings was not such a bad sort until he fell in with the degenerate Amarinth. This is somewhat a reversal of the real-life Wilde and Bosie, for, although the former was much older, it was the latter whose lured Wilde into increasingly dangerous waters; "feasting with panthers," as Wilde described his sexual liasons with valets and boot blacks and the lower class of rent boy. Amarinth's dialogue is so derivative of Wilde's quips that he is clearly a parody of the great writer, but unlike Hastings, Bosie was already thoroughly corrupted when he met Wilde and began their famous affair.
There may be some coded references to homosexual but nothing terribly overt, probably more recognizable to the 19th century reader than to the modern one, but the idea of a louche, libertine older man corrupting a fresh-faced younger one is certainly a Victorian trope with strong underpinnings of homosexual threat.
Never averse to a bit of free publicity, Wilde appeared to take the publication of The Green Carnation in good stride, even sending a congratulatory telegram to the young Hitchens. But once disaster struck and Wilde was on trial, Hitchens withdrew the novella immediately, appalled that it might be used to cause further damage to Wilde's reputation. Because of the trial and imprisonment, and what we know today of Wilde's life, The Green Carnation is hopelessly dated. We can never return to that time when the brilliant young Aesthetic Wilde was mocked for his long hair and love of beauty and any hints that he was a "Mary Ann" were mostly harmless. We can't read this book the way it was intended to resonate; inevitably we'll think of Wilde's trial and imprisonment that ensured he died a young but broken man. For that reason, I recommend this for Wilde fans, or scholars of the Aesthetic movement, and not for fans of 19th century fiction.
January 24, 2011
This book is one long "Hipsters suck!" rant. Hipsters in 1895 England being dandy aesthetes like Oscar Wilde and Bosie. It's like, "Look at these rich kids, pretending to be *authentic* and being *creative* the privileged bastards. I am seething with... with... envy! No wait, I shouldn't be. At least I am not a gaymo like tbose fags." It was really funny to read. Not funny like it was clever (because it wasn't) but funny like a car crash.
March 11, 2013
I’m not sure why there are so many negative reviews of this book. I could quite easily imagine someone really enjoying it.
I had read on Wikipedia that this book was pulled from the shelves in 1894 after Wilde was imprisoned for the gay content in the book, which is not true. In the 1948 reprint of the book, the author states he pulled the book from the shelves voluntarily after Wilde’s imprisonment as he thought it would be in poor taste to satirize a man facing hard time in jail. The author mentions hearing about unlicensed American reprints in the early 1940’s and deciding to re-issue the book at that time.
The author is famous for his work satirizing the 1890’s, the “naughty nineties” I think they were called, so I was expecting this book to be more of a send up than it was. Wikipedia in defining satire says “its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon” which is what we get here in The Green Carnation.
I was wondering if the author, Hichens, was gay himself, but he died in 1950 so it’s hard to know. He never married, and even Wilde married, so that’s a good indication I suppose.
I had anticipated more of a send up of Wilde, making him look ridiculous, and instead got this book penned by a possibly gay devotee. I will agree that the novel does fit the Wikipedia definition, in that there is a lot of constructive social criticism. In fact that’s pretty much the entire book, with the plot, Wilde et al go to the country and scare the locals, a little lacking.
The book starts off exploring Wilde (as Esme Amarinth) and the world around him:
"I only saw about a dozen in the Opera House to-night, and all the men who wore them looked the same. They had the same walk, or rather waggle, the same coyly conscious expression, the same wavy motion of the head. When they spoke to each other, they called each other by Christian names. Is it a badge of some club or some society, and is Mr. Amarinth their high priest? They all spoke to him, and seemed to revolve round him like satellites around the sun."
And once the group is assembled, Wilde spends most of it pontificating on life:
“Virtue is generally merely a form of deficiency, just as vice is an assertion of intellect.”
"These strawberries are very good," he said. "I should finish them, only I hate finishing anything. There is something so commonplace about it. Don't you think so? Commonplace people are always finishing off things, and getting through things. They map out their days, and have special hours for everything. I should like to have special hours for nothing. That would be much more original."
Much of the book is discussions on sin and virtue. In some cases the book becomes a portent of things to come, such as the following about injustice:
“Good people love hearing about sin. Haven't you noticed that although the sinner takes no sort of interest in the saint, the saint has always an uneasy curiosity about the doings of the sinner?”
"Society only loves one thing more than sinning," said Madame Valtesi, examining the moon magisterially through her tortoise shell eyeglass.
"And what is that?" said Lady Locke.
"Administering injustice."
I had read other reviews that said the gay issue wasn’t apparent, but for 1894, I found it pretty open:
“A man is unnatural if he never falls in love with a woman. A boy is unnatural if he prefers looking at pictures to playing cricket, or dreaming over the white naked beauty of a Greek statue to a game of football under Rugby rules. If our virtues are not cut on a pattern, they are unnatural. If our vices are not according to rule, they are unnatural.”
Followed by:
“To be unnatural is often to be great. To be natural is generally to be stupid.”
In the author’s 1948 introduction he details the three times he met Oscar Wilde before he published the book, and the most interesting part of the book is to picture Wilde pontificating as he must have done at the time. I thought the following, said of Wilde in the guise of Mr. Amarinth, summed it up beautifully:
"I don't care to hear the opinions of Mr. Amarinth," she answered in a low voice. "His epigrams are his opinions. His actions are performed vicariously in conversation. If he were to be silent he would cease to live."
I had read on Wikipedia that this book was pulled from the shelves in 1894 after Wilde was imprisoned for the gay content in the book, which is not true. In the 1948 reprint of the book, the author states he pulled the book from the shelves voluntarily after Wilde’s imprisonment as he thought it would be in poor taste to satirize a man facing hard time in jail. The author mentions hearing about unlicensed American reprints in the early 1940’s and deciding to re-issue the book at that time.
The author is famous for his work satirizing the 1890’s, the “naughty nineties” I think they were called, so I was expecting this book to be more of a send up than it was. Wikipedia in defining satire says “its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon” which is what we get here in The Green Carnation.
I was wondering if the author, Hichens, was gay himself, but he died in 1950 so it’s hard to know. He never married, and even Wilde married, so that’s a good indication I suppose.
I had anticipated more of a send up of Wilde, making him look ridiculous, and instead got this book penned by a possibly gay devotee. I will agree that the novel does fit the Wikipedia definition, in that there is a lot of constructive social criticism. In fact that’s pretty much the entire book, with the plot, Wilde et al go to the country and scare the locals, a little lacking.
The book starts off exploring Wilde (as Esme Amarinth) and the world around him:
"I only saw about a dozen in the Opera House to-night, and all the men who wore them looked the same. They had the same walk, or rather waggle, the same coyly conscious expression, the same wavy motion of the head. When they spoke to each other, they called each other by Christian names. Is it a badge of some club or some society, and is Mr. Amarinth their high priest? They all spoke to him, and seemed to revolve round him like satellites around the sun."
And once the group is assembled, Wilde spends most of it pontificating on life:
“Virtue is generally merely a form of deficiency, just as vice is an assertion of intellect.”
"These strawberries are very good," he said. "I should finish them, only I hate finishing anything. There is something so commonplace about it. Don't you think so? Commonplace people are always finishing off things, and getting through things. They map out their days, and have special hours for everything. I should like to have special hours for nothing. That would be much more original."
Much of the book is discussions on sin and virtue. In some cases the book becomes a portent of things to come, such as the following about injustice:
“Good people love hearing about sin. Haven't you noticed that although the sinner takes no sort of interest in the saint, the saint has always an uneasy curiosity about the doings of the sinner?”
"Society only loves one thing more than sinning," said Madame Valtesi, examining the moon magisterially through her tortoise shell eyeglass.
"And what is that?" said Lady Locke.
"Administering injustice."
I had read other reviews that said the gay issue wasn’t apparent, but for 1894, I found it pretty open:
“A man is unnatural if he never falls in love with a woman. A boy is unnatural if he prefers looking at pictures to playing cricket, or dreaming over the white naked beauty of a Greek statue to a game of football under Rugby rules. If our virtues are not cut on a pattern, they are unnatural. If our vices are not according to rule, they are unnatural.”
Followed by:
“To be unnatural is often to be great. To be natural is generally to be stupid.”
In the author’s 1948 introduction he details the three times he met Oscar Wilde before he published the book, and the most interesting part of the book is to picture Wilde pontificating as he must have done at the time. I thought the following, said of Wilde in the guise of Mr. Amarinth, summed it up beautifully:
"I don't care to hear the opinions of Mr. Amarinth," she answered in a low voice. "His epigrams are his opinions. His actions are performed vicariously in conversation. If he were to be silent he would cease to live."
December 6, 2018
I see a lot of negative reviews here, and I can understand the criticisms--there's not much of a plot and none of the characters are particularly likable. However, as a Wildean interested in Wilde's influences, it was fun for me to read, perhaps even more fun than I anticipated. I just read Teleny and Des Grieux, so, well this was so much more readable.
One reviewer labeled it 'real life fan fiction' and I think that's pretty accurate. Many of the epigrams were pulled straight from Wilde, or were so similar they might as well have been and that was one highlight of the book. A line like this one would fit just as well in Earnest as it does in Hichens's work: "Moods are delightful. I have as many as I have dresses, and they cost me nearly as much."
I took particular interest in the lines that spoke directly about Wilde, the decadent movement, and influence/artificiality. Throughout, the book makes many (like, sooo many) allusions to decadence, and it is interesting to me that these references are ambivalent in tone. On one hand, Hichens is obviously parodying the Wilde circle and decadent aesthetics with the silliness of the aesthetes in contrast with the morally-upright and sensible Lady Locke. Also, (spoiler alert) the way Lord Reggie is rejected and makes excuses for it is a pathetic scene and moral indictment of his character. On the other hand, though, any humor and readability stems from the aesthetic characters. Without them, there'd be no novel. Notably, they have the last word with Esmé chattering off to narrate the final pages, as if they would be the ones—for all their delusions—who truly outlast/outsmart the "healthy" Lady Locke and her insufferable child.
Additionally, some of the lines having to do with influence and echoes seem to me to be rather clever pieces of self-reference. For instance, when Lady Locke insults Reggie for being merely an echo, he replies “An echo is often more beautiful than the voice it repeats.” As a direct take-off of Wilde’s work, Hichens seems to say here that he can do it better than Wilde. But Lady Locke still rejects Reggie for basically being an echo of nothing but a pose—as having, essentially, no substance of character. But, again, though it’s a rejection/criticism and Reggie is hurt by it, it’s hard to see this as an unfettered victory of common sense over those silly aesthetes. Reggie obviously wouldn’t have been happy with Lady Locke and not marrying her means that he doesn’t change or grow as a character but stays the same and continues his dandified lifestyle. Neither Lady Locke or Reggie ultimately win this battle; they just decide to stop playing the game.
So, I think Hichens achieved something here—a good example, at least, of parody that is, in part, a loving homage to its subject.
One reviewer labeled it 'real life fan fiction' and I think that's pretty accurate. Many of the epigrams were pulled straight from Wilde, or were so similar they might as well have been and that was one highlight of the book. A line like this one would fit just as well in Earnest as it does in Hichens's work: "Moods are delightful. I have as many as I have dresses, and they cost me nearly as much."
I took particular interest in the lines that spoke directly about Wilde, the decadent movement, and influence/artificiality. Throughout, the book makes many (like, sooo many) allusions to decadence, and it is interesting to me that these references are ambivalent in tone. On one hand, Hichens is obviously parodying the Wilde circle and decadent aesthetics with the silliness of the aesthetes in contrast with the morally-upright and sensible Lady Locke. Also, (spoiler alert) the way Lord Reggie is rejected and makes excuses for it is a pathetic scene and moral indictment of his character. On the other hand, though, any humor and readability stems from the aesthetic characters. Without them, there'd be no novel. Notably, they have the last word with Esmé chattering off to narrate the final pages, as if they would be the ones—for all their delusions—who truly outlast/outsmart the "healthy" Lady Locke and her insufferable child.
Additionally, some of the lines having to do with influence and echoes seem to me to be rather clever pieces of self-reference. For instance, when Lady Locke insults Reggie for being merely an echo, he replies “An echo is often more beautiful than the voice it repeats.” As a direct take-off of Wilde’s work, Hichens seems to say here that he can do it better than Wilde. But Lady Locke still rejects Reggie for basically being an echo of nothing but a pose—as having, essentially, no substance of character. But, again, though it’s a rejection/criticism and Reggie is hurt by it, it’s hard to see this as an unfettered victory of common sense over those silly aesthetes. Reggie obviously wouldn’t have been happy with Lady Locke and not marrying her means that he doesn’t change or grow as a character but stays the same and continues his dandified lifestyle. Neither Lady Locke or Reggie ultimately win this battle; they just decide to stop playing the game.
So, I think Hichens achieved something here—a good example, at least, of parody that is, in part, a loving homage to its subject.
January 31, 2013
Reading The Green Carnation is like reading Real Person Fanfic about Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Not Real Person Slash, as the novel is too insistently discreet in its codings of homosexuality to explore their relationship to any great extent beyond mentor/mentee, although there are many references to Lord Reggie's inability to really love women. Hichens knew Wilde and Douglas socially, and at first his satire seems fond, but a harsher critique is made through the vehicle of Lady Locke, a wealthy young widow who, despite her fondness for Lord Reggie, rather judgementally (though prudently) declines his marriage proposal. The approximations of Wilde's and Douglas's conversation, in the persons of Esme Amarinth and Lord Reggie, aren't bad, though clearly parodic; there's also a dowager who seems to have drifted in from one of Wilde's plays. Worth reading for Wilde fans who can handle some bitchiness directed in the great wit's direction.
October 14, 2016
*Life imitates art--so do I*
The green carnation, Oscar Wilde’s attribute, as we know, though his favorite colour was vermillion, this artificial flower appears in books here and there. Many writers have a dig at it as well as its owners--“It is said, a wild flower smells warmer if it’s smashed”--and the green carnation has become the first symbol of people, who declare their homosexuality, a precursor to the rainbow flag.
Despite the widespread opinion, the green carnation became a gay emblem after Oscar’s death and not before. Wilde's descendent Merlin Holland (in his “Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess”) adduces the logical argument: if the carnation were used as a symbol for a declaration of the sort in Wilde’s lifetime, then the Marquis of Queensberry, in his prosecution of Wilde, had no need to prove anything, searching hints between lines of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The green carnation could do what the white lilies and sunflowers could not--the flowers which made Wilde a target of caricaturists and which were but creations of nature. The green carnations as such did not exist in Wilde’s times. As far as I know, usual carnations were placed in a special nutritive liquid, which lent them the “Irish” colour. A good example of ennobling Life by Art. According to Richard Ellmann, the green carnation first came into being or rather appeared in public at the premiere of Lady Windermere's Fan in 1892, February 20. That night Wilde asked several friends and an actor to put green carnations in their buttonholes. “What does it mean?” asked Robertson. Wilde replied: “Nothing. Let everyone rack brains over it.” [my inverse translation:]
In 1894 was first published the scandalous novel The Green Carnation by Robert Hichens whose lead characters are closely based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas (aka Bosie). The book features the characters of Esme Amarinth (Wilde), and Lord Reginald (Reggie) Hastings (Douglas). The words put in the mouths of the hero and his young friend in the story are mostly gathered from the sayings of their originals. Robert Hichens spent nearly a year "in the company of the men" and was able to accurately recreate the atmosphere and relationship between Oscar and Bosie. The book was believed to be a satire to aestheticism, and at the same time it proved to be a non-fiction depicting, an uncomplimentary characterization of the “chevalier of the green carnation”, however, this did not prevent many from ascribing its authorship to Wilde, which necessitated him to write an official refutation: “…Yes, I’ve invented this delightful flower. But I have nothing to do with the common second-rate book that has misappropriated the flower’s weirdly beautiful name. The flower is a work of art. The book is not by any means.” [my inverse translation:]
The weird flower took root not only in Britain; in the 1900s, describing exteriors of Russian aesthetes, the Moscow reporters frequently mentioned the green carnations in ears or hair.
The book The Green Carnation was withdrawn from circulation in 1895, but by that time the harm had been done. Wilde soon stood three consecutive trials for Gross Indecency and was sentenced to two years at hard labor. The book was one of the works used against him by the prosecution. The Green Carnation was republished in 2006 as a hardcover.
The green carnation, Oscar Wilde’s attribute, as we know, though his favorite colour was vermillion, this artificial flower appears in books here and there. Many writers have a dig at it as well as its owners--“It is said, a wild flower smells warmer if it’s smashed”--and the green carnation has become the first symbol of people, who declare their homosexuality, a precursor to the rainbow flag.
Despite the widespread opinion, the green carnation became a gay emblem after Oscar’s death and not before. Wilde's descendent Merlin Holland (in his “Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess”) adduces the logical argument: if the carnation were used as a symbol for a declaration of the sort in Wilde’s lifetime, then the Marquis of Queensberry, in his prosecution of Wilde, had no need to prove anything, searching hints between lines of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The green carnation could do what the white lilies and sunflowers could not--the flowers which made Wilde a target of caricaturists and which were but creations of nature. The green carnations as such did not exist in Wilde’s times. As far as I know, usual carnations were placed in a special nutritive liquid, which lent them the “Irish” colour. A good example of ennobling Life by Art. According to Richard Ellmann, the green carnation first came into being or rather appeared in public at the premiere of Lady Windermere's Fan in 1892, February 20. That night Wilde asked several friends and an actor to put green carnations in their buttonholes. “What does it mean?” asked Robertson. Wilde replied: “Nothing. Let everyone rack brains over it.” [my inverse translation:]
In 1894 was first published the scandalous novel The Green Carnation by Robert Hichens whose lead characters are closely based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas (aka Bosie). The book features the characters of Esme Amarinth (Wilde), and Lord Reginald (Reggie) Hastings (Douglas). The words put in the mouths of the hero and his young friend in the story are mostly gathered from the sayings of their originals. Robert Hichens spent nearly a year "in the company of the men" and was able to accurately recreate the atmosphere and relationship between Oscar and Bosie. The book was believed to be a satire to aestheticism, and at the same time it proved to be a non-fiction depicting, an uncomplimentary characterization of the “chevalier of the green carnation”, however, this did not prevent many from ascribing its authorship to Wilde, which necessitated him to write an official refutation: “…Yes, I’ve invented this delightful flower. But I have nothing to do with the common second-rate book that has misappropriated the flower’s weirdly beautiful name. The flower is a work of art. The book is not by any means.” [my inverse translation:]
The weird flower took root not only in Britain; in the 1900s, describing exteriors of Russian aesthetes, the Moscow reporters frequently mentioned the green carnations in ears or hair.
The book The Green Carnation was withdrawn from circulation in 1895, but by that time the harm had been done. Wilde soon stood three consecutive trials for Gross Indecency and was sentenced to two years at hard labor. The book was one of the works used against him by the prosecution. The Green Carnation was republished in 2006 as a hardcover.
June 26, 2011
Well! Clearly we've come pretty far in 100 years. Hard to believe this disjointed and oblique parody of Oscar Wilde's style and lifestyle played any part in Wilde's getting sentenced to 2 years' hard labor and effectively being expelled from his homeland for the rest of his life. The only harm I could imagine this book causing anybody nowadays is it causing them to fall dead asleep. The wink-wink cloaked references to homosexuality are SO cloaked as to be nonlegible -- I mean, Middlemarch reads gayer than this, and unlike this book, Middlemarch doesn't save its most damning criticism for a cruel takedown of, of all things, CHOIRBOYS. There's no plot, no momentum, no society intrigue, and little to no humor (I LOL'ed once; compare this to an onstage version of "The Importance of Being Earnest" I saw earlier this week, where I was basically LOL'ing nonstop). Worst of all, the baroque epigrammaticness of it all is so totally over the top and inserted so unnecessarily it gets to the point of seeming completely random.
The extra star is for the only redeeming part of the book -- the Mrs. Valtesi character, whose sole purpose seems to be to act like some sort of Wildean color commentator for the reader, keeping a running sarcastic commentary on all the sarcastic comments being made by the other characters.
The extra star is for the only redeeming part of the book -- the Mrs. Valtesi character, whose sole purpose seems to be to act like some sort of Wildean color commentator for the reader, keeping a running sarcastic commentary on all the sarcastic comments being made by the other characters.
August 10, 2016
I know a lot about Oscar and Bosie; I really do and have researched and divulged into their lives for a while now. I bought this book with extremely high hopes; after all, this was an important piece of evidence used in Oscar's trail! I fail to see how at all this book was used against Oscar. He even said himself how poorly written this was. While it was interesting merely due to the fact it was a rather realistic portrayal of the men and how they interacted, the plot was dry and the book is not one I would recommend or reread. There is honestly nothing in this novel that could make you think "This has some homosexual subtext, does it not?" That is coming from someone who finds gay subtext in almost EVERYTHING. I do think Robert Hichens writes well but maybe I think that due to the fact he was impersonating Oscar's style.
Bottom line, I would not suggest buying. I am someone who actually prefers character driven plots opposed to action ones, but this book didn't have much character OR action!
Bottom line, I would not suggest buying. I am someone who actually prefers character driven plots opposed to action ones, but this book didn't have much character OR action!
January 14, 2020
This novel is a wonderfully wicked window into its era. It loosely lampoons Oscar Wilde, Bosie, and the late Victorian decadent crowd with their aphorisms and their arch wit. The title refers to green carnations as a corsage, this style having been taken up in the 1890s in reference to queer sexuality and decadence. Make no mistake, this success de scandale is Victorian junk food, but it is delicious.
December 2, 2012
Una novela satírica cuyos personajes principales están basados en Oscar Wilde y Lord Alfred Douglas. Constituyó un escándalo en el Londres victoriano y contribuyó a la caída de Wilde, aunque se retirara su venta durante los juicios del célebre dramaturgo.
La novela en sí es entretenida, pero su interés radica en leer entre líneas. Si se quiere disfrutar realmente, basta con conocer un poco de la relación Wilde/Bosie y su repercusión en la época. Esto la hace mucho más divertida.
La novela en sí es entretenida, pero su interés radica en leer entre líneas. Si se quiere disfrutar realmente, basta con conocer un poco de la relación Wilde/Bosie y su repercusión en la época. Esto la hace mucho más divertida.
September 26, 2017
A creditable endeavor and some very pretty writing in parts. Hichens took a lot of Oscar Wilde's epigrams and close observations of him and created Esme in his image. Also, Lord Reggie stands in for Lord Alfred Douglas. Suitable for those looking to expand their understanding of Wilde and his milieu.
August 22, 2017
A very beautifully written book, but at times I felt it had no plot line. Well, thats what I get for reading books from the 1800s.
November 12, 2014
This is an audiobook on LibriVox.
https://librivox.org/the-green-carnat...
https://librivox.org/the-green-carnat...
September 28, 2024
[I read this edition of the book - except it was not an ebook but a physical copy; I was unable to find an edition that was the right publisher, date, and length of pages, while also being a physical book and hardcover, not an ebook.]
This was an interesting read. If you’re unaware, it’s a parody of Wilde and Douglas written during Wilde’s hey-day, before the libel trial—with Esme Amarinth as Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas as Lord Reginald “Reggie” Hastings, and The Picture of Dorian Gray as “The Soul of Bertie Brown”. There is actual mention of the name “Oscar Wilde” within the book, perhaps as a misdirection, but if you’ve even the slightest knowledge of Wilde’s life, it’ll be blindingly apparent that this book is about Wilde and Bosie. It’s honestly a bit cruel; a total caricature of them, distorted and recognisable but ugly. The Wildean epigrams are noticeable but far inferior to the originals and very much imitative, and the whole thing starts to feel unpleasant to read after a certain point. Reading this will give you an understanding of the way Victorian society perceived Wilde and Bosie, and perhaps you’ll perceive, then, exactly why it eventually treated Wilde so cruelly. The prose is readable and mildly entertaining but feeble, and the speeches “Esme” gives are caricatural and read like an idiot heard Wilde speak and tried to imitate his epigrammatic and paradoxical wit. Esme says lots of meaningless but purple phrases that try to ape Wilde’s own beautiful language, and the word “exquisite” is extremely over-used in his mouth. This book does have a vague plot, but its main purpose is to display the characters of Esme and Reggie and have them talk—it completely revolves around them, and the plot, the bit of it that exists, is subsidiary. Basically, the plot is the two staying at some prominent woman’s vacation home with several other people, a bit like camping but bougie and for the purposes of talking and having tea or whatever, and Reggie considers proposing to a woman, Lady Locke, who’s there, as she’s very rich and he, despite his title, is not; eventually, he does so, near the end of the book, and then is rejected, because though Reggie is beautiful and fascinates Lady Locke, she disapproves of his morals and finds him an echo of Esme, who’s whole personality is a “pose”, in her view. That’s about it. Besides Wilde and Douglas, I’m sure several other real-life figures were caricatured in this, but I’m unable to recognise them, unfortunately. I suspect Ada “The Sphinx” Leverson is one of the characters, though I’m unsure who.
I’ve provided two quotations that display the author’s perception of Wilde and give you an idea of the tone of this book:
“Mr. Amaranth especially created a sensation; but he always expected to do that. Ever since he had made a name for himself by declaring that he was pleased with the Equator, and desired its further acquaintance*, he had been talked about. Whenever the public interest in him showed signs of flagging he wrote an improper story, or published an epigram in one volume, on hand-made paper, with immense margins, or produced a play full of other people’s wit, or said something scandalous about the North Pole. He had ruined the reputation of more than one eminently respectable ocean* which had previously been received everywhere, and had covered Nature with confusion by his open attacks on her. Just now he was living upon his green carnation, which had been freely paragraphed in all the papers; and when that went out of vogue he had some intention of producing a revised version of the Bible, with all the inartistic passages cut out, and a rhymed dedication to Mr. Stead, whose Review of Reviews always struck him as only a degree less comic than the books of the arch-humorist Miss Edna Lyall, or the bedroom imaginings of Miss Olive Schreiner.” (164-5)
*These are references to when, after getting off of his ship to America, which he came to for a series of lecture tours, Oscar Wilde declared to some journalists that he was disappointed by the Atlantic Ocean.
“‘I have been an aesthete. I have lain upon hearth-rugs and eaten passion-flowers. I have clothed myself in breeches of white samite, and offered my friends yellow jonquils instead of afternoon tea. But when aestheticism became popular in Bayswater—a part of London built for the delectation of the needy rich—I felt that it was absurd no longer, and I turned to other things. It was then, one gold summer day, among the flowering woods of Richmond, that I invented a new art, the art of preposterous conversation. A middle-class country has prevented me from patenting my exquisite invention, which has been closely imitated by dozens of people much older and much stupider than myself; but nobody so far has been able to rival me in my own particular line of business, and my society “turns” at luncheon parties, dances, and dinners are invariably received with an applause which is almost embarrassing, and which is scarcely necessary to one so admirably conceited as myself.’” (196)
This was an interesting read. If you’re unaware, it’s a parody of Wilde and Douglas written during Wilde’s hey-day, before the libel trial—with Esme Amarinth as Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas as Lord Reginald “Reggie” Hastings, and The Picture of Dorian Gray as “The Soul of Bertie Brown”. There is actual mention of the name “Oscar Wilde” within the book, perhaps as a misdirection, but if you’ve even the slightest knowledge of Wilde’s life, it’ll be blindingly apparent that this book is about Wilde and Bosie. It’s honestly a bit cruel; a total caricature of them, distorted and recognisable but ugly. The Wildean epigrams are noticeable but far inferior to the originals and very much imitative, and the whole thing starts to feel unpleasant to read after a certain point. Reading this will give you an understanding of the way Victorian society perceived Wilde and Bosie, and perhaps you’ll perceive, then, exactly why it eventually treated Wilde so cruelly. The prose is readable and mildly entertaining but feeble, and the speeches “Esme” gives are caricatural and read like an idiot heard Wilde speak and tried to imitate his epigrammatic and paradoxical wit. Esme says lots of meaningless but purple phrases that try to ape Wilde’s own beautiful language, and the word “exquisite” is extremely over-used in his mouth. This book does have a vague plot, but its main purpose is to display the characters of Esme and Reggie and have them talk—it completely revolves around them, and the plot, the bit of it that exists, is subsidiary. Basically, the plot is the two staying at some prominent woman’s vacation home with several other people, a bit like camping but bougie and for the purposes of talking and having tea or whatever, and Reggie considers proposing to a woman, Lady Locke, who’s there, as she’s very rich and he, despite his title, is not; eventually, he does so, near the end of the book, and then is rejected, because though Reggie is beautiful and fascinates Lady Locke, she disapproves of his morals and finds him an echo of Esme, who’s whole personality is a “pose”, in her view. That’s about it. Besides Wilde and Douglas, I’m sure several other real-life figures were caricatured in this, but I’m unable to recognise them, unfortunately. I suspect Ada “The Sphinx” Leverson is one of the characters, though I’m unsure who.
I’ve provided two quotations that display the author’s perception of Wilde and give you an idea of the tone of this book:
“Mr. Amaranth especially created a sensation; but he always expected to do that. Ever since he had made a name for himself by declaring that he was pleased with the Equator, and desired its further acquaintance*, he had been talked about. Whenever the public interest in him showed signs of flagging he wrote an improper story, or published an epigram in one volume, on hand-made paper, with immense margins, or produced a play full of other people’s wit, or said something scandalous about the North Pole. He had ruined the reputation of more than one eminently respectable ocean* which had previously been received everywhere, and had covered Nature with confusion by his open attacks on her. Just now he was living upon his green carnation, which had been freely paragraphed in all the papers; and when that went out of vogue he had some intention of producing a revised version of the Bible, with all the inartistic passages cut out, and a rhymed dedication to Mr. Stead, whose Review of Reviews always struck him as only a degree less comic than the books of the arch-humorist Miss Edna Lyall, or the bedroom imaginings of Miss Olive Schreiner.” (164-5)
*These are references to when, after getting off of his ship to America, which he came to for a series of lecture tours, Oscar Wilde declared to some journalists that he was disappointed by the Atlantic Ocean.
“‘I have been an aesthete. I have lain upon hearth-rugs and eaten passion-flowers. I have clothed myself in breeches of white samite, and offered my friends yellow jonquils instead of afternoon tea. But when aestheticism became popular in Bayswater—a part of London built for the delectation of the needy rich—I felt that it was absurd no longer, and I turned to other things. It was then, one gold summer day, among the flowering woods of Richmond, that I invented a new art, the art of preposterous conversation. A middle-class country has prevented me from patenting my exquisite invention, which has been closely imitated by dozens of people much older and much stupider than myself; but nobody so far has been able to rival me in my own particular line of business, and my society “turns” at luncheon parties, dances, and dinners are invariably received with an applause which is almost embarrassing, and which is scarcely necessary to one so admirably conceited as myself.’” (196)
December 1, 2021
The book opens with a chapter describing Lord Reginald Hastings’s languid and self-adhering preparation for going out. It is a portrayal that makes him unsympathetic.
Reggie visits the Belgrave Square home of Mrs. Windsor, whose other guests include Esmé Amarinth. Both he and Mrs. Windsor hope to secure Reggie’s indolent life of beauty by marrying him to the riches of the other guest that evening, Lady Locke, Mrs. Windsor’s young widowed cousin. And Reggie, not disinclined, undertakes a diffident courtship of Lady Locke when the scene shifts to the country, where Mrs. Windsor invites them for a week in her cottage.
Lady Locke soon catches on and prepares herself for the expected proposal. At first, she’s amenable, although her feelings toward Reggie are more maternal than amorous. But, above all, Reggie confuses her. Early on, she says to herself: “I can’t understand him. . . . He seems to be talented, and yet an echo of another man, naturally good-hearted, full of horrible absurdities, a gentleman, and yet not a man at all. He says himself that he commits every sin that attracts him, but he does not look wicked. What is he? Is he being himself, or is he being Mr. Amarinth, or is he merely posing, or is he really hateful, or is he only whimsical, and clever, and absurd? What would he have been if he had never seen Mr. Amarinth?”
Her feelings turn to fury when she overhears Reggie promising her son, Tommy, a green carnation (Reggie and Esmé wear a fresh one in the lapel each day).
The green carnation is, of course, a potent symbol. Green is the color most closely associated with nature, but in a carnation, it is unnatural.
The green carnation was also, notoriously, concocted by Oscar Wilde. Indeed, the two men in the novel are modeled on Wilde and his notorious young companion, Lord Alfred (“Bosie”) Douglas. Moreover, the conversation abounds in Wildean epigrams, many of them, I learned after finishing the book, overheard on the lips of Wilde and Lord Douglas by Hichens.
Amarinth is depicted as an effete aesthete and playwright of minor achievement.
The novel tries to be light-hearted, but by making a brave choice—in England, 1894—to tackle “unnatural vice,” it makes its task difficult. In addition, some of the modest pleasure I took from the book was diminished when I learned that it was introduced as evidence when Wilde was put on trial two years after this book’s publication.
And as for Lady Locke’s speculation that Amarinth has corrupted Reggie—well, in the case of Oscar and Bosie, let’s say that is open to interpretation.
Reggie visits the Belgrave Square home of Mrs. Windsor, whose other guests include Esmé Amarinth. Both he and Mrs. Windsor hope to secure Reggie’s indolent life of beauty by marrying him to the riches of the other guest that evening, Lady Locke, Mrs. Windsor’s young widowed cousin. And Reggie, not disinclined, undertakes a diffident courtship of Lady Locke when the scene shifts to the country, where Mrs. Windsor invites them for a week in her cottage.
Lady Locke soon catches on and prepares herself for the expected proposal. At first, she’s amenable, although her feelings toward Reggie are more maternal than amorous. But, above all, Reggie confuses her. Early on, she says to herself: “I can’t understand him. . . . He seems to be talented, and yet an echo of another man, naturally good-hearted, full of horrible absurdities, a gentleman, and yet not a man at all. He says himself that he commits every sin that attracts him, but he does not look wicked. What is he? Is he being himself, or is he being Mr. Amarinth, or is he merely posing, or is he really hateful, or is he only whimsical, and clever, and absurd? What would he have been if he had never seen Mr. Amarinth?”
Her feelings turn to fury when she overhears Reggie promising her son, Tommy, a green carnation (Reggie and Esmé wear a fresh one in the lapel each day).
The green carnation is, of course, a potent symbol. Green is the color most closely associated with nature, but in a carnation, it is unnatural.
The green carnation was also, notoriously, concocted by Oscar Wilde. Indeed, the two men in the novel are modeled on Wilde and his notorious young companion, Lord Alfred (“Bosie”) Douglas. Moreover, the conversation abounds in Wildean epigrams, many of them, I learned after finishing the book, overheard on the lips of Wilde and Lord Douglas by Hichens.
Amarinth is depicted as an effete aesthete and playwright of minor achievement.
The novel tries to be light-hearted, but by making a brave choice—in England, 1894—to tackle “unnatural vice,” it makes its task difficult. In addition, some of the modest pleasure I took from the book was diminished when I learned that it was introduced as evidence when Wilde was put on trial two years after this book’s publication.
And as for Lady Locke’s speculation that Amarinth has corrupted Reggie—well, in the case of Oscar and Bosie, let’s say that is open to interpretation.
March 7, 2020
"Robert Smythe Hichens (1864-1950) was tot 1894 een vrij onbekende verhalenschrijver en journalist. In de winter van 1893-1894 vertoefde hij voor zijn gezondheid in Egypte, waar hij Lord Alfred Douglas ontmoette, die hem introduceerde in de kringen van zijn vriend Oscar Wilde. De decadente levensstijl van deze toen beroemde auteur inspireerde Hichens tot het schrijven van de briljante satirische roman The Green Carnation." Zo begint de uitleg op de achterflap van wat in 2005 door Zsuzsó Pennings in het Nederlands vertaald werd als De groene anjer en uitgegeven door Uitgeverij Voltaire.
Nu zal u, mocht u dat willen, vruchteloos zoeken naar Uitgeverij Voltaire. Voor zover ik weet, heeft ze na het uitgeven van nogal wat vertalingen van oudere werken de geest gegeven. En, eerlijk gezegd, ook de werken van Hichens zijn niet meer onder de levenden. Ja, u vindt nog wel korte pagina's op de diverse Wikipedia's over de schrijver, maar er zijn geen clubjes meer die zich bezig houden met 's mans werken, geen verenigingen die zijn nalatenschap in ere houden, geen fans die een of andere webpagina over hem bij mekaar gepend hebben.
Waarom? Wellicht omdat een satire die moet onderdoen voor het origineel niet bijzonder interessant is. En dat is het geval met De groene anjer. Ja, wellicht leidde de roman onbedoeld - want Hichens liet het boek uit de handel halen toen dat gebeurde omdat het hem "van een zeer slechte smaak [leek] te getuigen een dergelijk schotschrift tegen een beroemd man te blijven verkopen wanneer die man in moeilijkheden is geraakt" - tot de gevangenisstraf van Oscar Wilde wegens homofilie, maar je moet al stekeblind zijn om die homofilie niet even goed tussen de lijnen door te kunnen lezen in de werken van Wilde zélf. En Wilde schreef gewoon beter.
Conclusie: als je werken wil lezen uit de zogenaamde Naughty Nineties, ga dan gewoon voor die van Oscar Wilde.
Nu zal u, mocht u dat willen, vruchteloos zoeken naar Uitgeverij Voltaire. Voor zover ik weet, heeft ze na het uitgeven van nogal wat vertalingen van oudere werken de geest gegeven. En, eerlijk gezegd, ook de werken van Hichens zijn niet meer onder de levenden. Ja, u vindt nog wel korte pagina's op de diverse Wikipedia's over de schrijver, maar er zijn geen clubjes meer die zich bezig houden met 's mans werken, geen verenigingen die zijn nalatenschap in ere houden, geen fans die een of andere webpagina over hem bij mekaar gepend hebben.
Waarom? Wellicht omdat een satire die moet onderdoen voor het origineel niet bijzonder interessant is. En dat is het geval met De groene anjer. Ja, wellicht leidde de roman onbedoeld - want Hichens liet het boek uit de handel halen toen dat gebeurde omdat het hem "van een zeer slechte smaak [leek] te getuigen een dergelijk schotschrift tegen een beroemd man te blijven verkopen wanneer die man in moeilijkheden is geraakt" - tot de gevangenisstraf van Oscar Wilde wegens homofilie, maar je moet al stekeblind zijn om die homofilie niet even goed tussen de lijnen door te kunnen lezen in de werken van Wilde zélf. En Wilde schreef gewoon beter.
Conclusie: als je werken wil lezen uit de zogenaamde Naughty Nineties, ga dan gewoon voor die van Oscar Wilde.
January 16, 2021
I suppose you have to be in the mood for this to enjoy it, but I was surprised by how funny it was in places (Lord Reggie playing the organ had me laughing out loud). That every second line is an epigram does eventually get a bit tiresome, but at least there were several enjoyable ones thrown in.
I went into this with no preconceived notions, and was rather surprised to find myself initially reading slightly malious Oscar Wilde/Bosie fan fiction - I suppose another word for that would be satire - which became strangely meta once Oscar Wilde himself was name-dropped.
Having recently rewatched the film Wilde (Stephen Fry/Jude Law), I did rather enjoy Lord Reggie's nonesense about his own beauty and cleverness at the beginning.
I also found Lady Locke's character suprisingly sympathetically drawn, and enjoyed her POV.
In short, a slightly malicious parody of something that might have been written by Oscar Wilde, mildly entertaining, but only if you are in the mood for such nonesense.
I went into this with no preconceived notions, and was rather surprised to find myself initially reading slightly malious Oscar Wilde/Bosie fan fiction - I suppose another word for that would be satire - which became strangely meta once Oscar Wilde himself was name-dropped.
Having recently rewatched the film Wilde (Stephen Fry/Jude Law), I did rather enjoy Lord Reggie's nonesense about his own beauty and cleverness at the beginning.
I also found Lady Locke's character suprisingly sympathetically drawn, and enjoyed her POV.
In short, a slightly malicious parody of something that might have been written by Oscar Wilde, mildly entertaining, but only if you are in the mood for such nonesense.
June 15, 2025
This is hard to rate, but I think I would go for a 3.5. This is a satire/parody of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas (called Esmee Amarinth and Lord Reggie Hastings in this book), this was published at the end of 1894 by Robert Hichens who was a friend of both Wilde and Douglas.
This works well as a parody and satire of Wilde and Douglas, but also of the decadent and aesthetic movement and some of the lines themselves are even parodies of specific things Wilde had said or written. It also mentions people like Aubrey Beardsley who were associated with the movement too. From this perspective it is worth a read and also if you are generally interested in Oscar Wilde. Otherwise it is not great as a work of literature in its own right and some parts are a bit dull and also I think without knowledge of Wilde, Douglas and the aesthetic movement I think you would not appreciate the funny parts so may just be boring.
This works well as a parody and satire of Wilde and Douglas, but also of the decadent and aesthetic movement and some of the lines themselves are even parodies of specific things Wilde had said or written. It also mentions people like Aubrey Beardsley who were associated with the movement too. From this perspective it is worth a read and also if you are generally interested in Oscar Wilde. Otherwise it is not great as a work of literature in its own right and some parts are a bit dull and also I think without knowledge of Wilde, Douglas and the aesthetic movement I think you would not appreciate the funny parts so may just be boring.
June 23, 2017
I'm not certain how I found this book other than having been referred to it through some of my readings on Oscar Wilde. I've read others' reviews and was surprised that most of the reviews were so negative. Yes, I agree it is not as well-written as it could have been, nor as witty, but I loved the character of Lady Locke who though condemned as "ordinary" is the only sensible character in the book! While every other adult seemed to be spoiled children, she was the responsible adult of the group.
Read
October 11, 2021I can't see a comment button for Alwynne's review. So I write here:
You say: "recent studies of Hichen's fiction have teased out possible, ongoing queer themes"
Can you name these studies? (I am a bit out of the university.)
And secondly, I thought it's proven that Hitchens was homosexual? So it is not? I actually see "codes" or queer temes in two novels, the only ones I have read so far. Next one is THE IMAGINATIVE MAN. (Hopefully it's better than the others.)
Thanks for your brilliant review.
You say: "recent studies of Hichen's fiction have teased out possible, ongoing queer themes"
Can you name these studies? (I am a bit out of the university.)
And secondly, I thought it's proven that Hitchens was homosexual? So it is not? I actually see "codes" or queer temes in two novels, the only ones I have read so far. Next one is THE IMAGINATIVE MAN. (Hopefully it's better than the others.)
Thanks for your brilliant review.
August 16, 2022
Download it from the Internet Archive, avoid the Createspace print edition.
This edition by Createspace is printed in minute font, maybe size 4 or size 6, with 211 pages of the original condensed into 58. It causes eyestrain reading it. I'm unable to comment on the content as I can't read it. The seller refused to refund my money on the grounds that they had advertised it at 61 pages long so presumably I should have known I would not be able to read it.
Download it for free on the Internet Archive.
This edition by Createspace is printed in minute font, maybe size 4 or size 6, with 211 pages of the original condensed into 58. It causes eyestrain reading it. I'm unable to comment on the content as I can't read it. The seller refused to refund my money on the grounds that they had advertised it at 61 pages long so presumably I should have known I would not be able to read it.
Download it for free on the Internet Archive.
February 10, 2025
The final chapter was genuinely terrible and heartbreaking. The misogyny of gay men, and on the other hand the homophobia of a straight woman. Very weird. I genuinely don’t feel even remotely connected to any of the characters, but I am fascinated by the use of a green carnation as a queer code at that time and the analogy of Nature’s imitation.
July 21, 2020
I found this novel very impersonal and philosophical, I spent so much time reading a couple of pages and leaving it, then coming back and reading expecting to get interested but I did not get the connection. Maybe its me, not the author.
November 4, 2021
I love to read a good satire and this novel is a satirical picture of noble society in Victorian England. It's funny and bizare, with many references to prominent people and important events of the time.
January 5, 2022
Lettura singolare che ho affrontato per curiosità e a scopo di conoscenza. Le bizzarre modalità della conversazione tra persone di rango sono interessanti da scoprire. E Hichens scrive di Wilde con uno stile perfettamente aderente a quello di Wilde stesso.
November 25, 2024
'it was so interesting to be wonderful'
February 14, 2025
I dont know how to explain, but i really enjoyed this book. It feels like a wise gay elder talking to you. Just read it, u wont regnet. Also, u can read it for free on Wikimedia.
May 15, 2025
✒️ Uproariously fatuous.
📕Published — 1872. In the public domain.
જ⁀🟢Read on ρ𝕣ꪮ𝕛ꫀᥴ𝕥 ᧁꪊ𝕥ꫀꪀ᥇ꫀ𝕣ᧁ.
༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻
📕Published — 1872. In the public domain.
જ⁀🟢Read on ρ𝕣ꪮ𝕛ꫀᥴ𝕥 ᧁꪊ𝕥ꫀꪀ᥇ꫀ𝕣ᧁ.
༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews