Oscar Wilde's Scandalous Summer: The 1894 Worthing Holiday and the Aftermath

by Antony Edmonds

In the summer of 1894 Oscar Wilde spent eight weeks in Worthing, and it was during this family holiday that he wrote his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. The Worthing holiday was a microcosm of Wilde's turbulent life during the three years between his falling in love with Lord Alfred Douglas in 1892 and his imprisonment in 1895. Constance Wilde, lonely and depressed, became emotionally involved with her husband's publisher, to whom she wrote a love letter on the day he visited the Wildes in Worthing. Meanwhile Wilde was spending much of his time with the feckless and demanding Douglas, and with three teenage boys he took out sailing, swimming and fishing. One of these boys was Alphonse Conway, with whom Wilde had a sexual relationship, and about whom he was to be questioned at length and to damaging effect in court six months later when he sued Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for libel.

This book tells for the first time the full story of the Worthing summer, set in the context of the three years of Wilde's life before his downfall. In the final chapter the author reassesses the trials, offering fresh insights into Wilde s attitude to the boys and young men with whom he had sexual relations. There are fifty-six illustrations, over thirty of which are photographs of Worthing as it was in Wilde s time, and three contemporary maps of the town.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 8, 2014

Reviews

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an admirably researched and fascinating book. We all know about the famous exchange between Wilde and Carson at his trial, when asked if he had kissed a certain boy: "Certainly not - he was far too ugly." Amusing in one way, but not in another, when one reflects that it was the turning point in the trial and so an unguarded lapse which was ultimately to cost Wilde two years in prison. But this book gave me a fascinating further insight into the detail behind that flippant jest, and it is a sadder and darker story than I had suspected. The boy was one Walter Grainger, originally the Oxford servant of Lord Alfred Douglas, and supplied by him to Wilde for the purposes of "sexual recreation".

Grainger was indeed ugly, and Wilde may not have kissed him, but he certainly kept him in an adjacent bedroom , and sodomised him on a regular basis. Grainger - a teenager at the time - was not bought fancy clothes and made a fuss of with champagne and fine food in Worthing's best hotels - unlike prettier youths of the same social class - he was, as far as Wilde was concerned, a mere servant, to be used and abused as he desired. In this context, his flippant remark at the trial - which, the author tells us, would certainly have been reported back to Grainger, who was waiting nearby in case called on to testify - was unforgivable.

I am of course an admirer of youthful male beauty and do not have any moral objection to consensual sexual activity between anyone of post-pubertal age. I believe the age of consent is too high in the UK (though not in most of the rest of Europe), and I agree with the author that it is a shocking testimony to the viciousness of our contemporary witch-hunting puritanism that had Wilde received the maximum sentence today for what he did then he would have been looking at fourteen years, not two. But...that boy Grainger...to humiliate someone publicly like that, someone with whom you have had sexual relations - all for the sake of a cheap off the cuff jest - this to me is a far more morally repugnant action than anything that took place between the sheets. So, Oscar, it's great that you brought forth The Importance of Being Earnest that summer in Worthing, and I've had huge enjoyment out of it, as have so many others. But you also sowed the seeds of your own destruction -in that creative, fateful and simmering summer brought vividly to life in this book - and, I'm afraid, I have a lot less sympathy for you than I did before I read it.

[Edmund Marlowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the summer of 1894, England's greatest dramatist of the day, Oscar Wilde, his wife Constance and their two sons rented a house at the seaside resort of Worthing in Sussex, during which time they were much visited by Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the great love of Wilde's life, and once by Wilde's publisher, Arthur Humphreys, with whom the lonely Constance fell platonically in love. It was scandalous because Wilde there seduced a working-class boy of (just) sixteen called Alfonso Conway, whom he had met and befriended on the beach, and in the following spring the evidence of this played an important part in the libel trial that caused Wilde's tragic downfall. Despite the miserable final outcome, the story of Oscar and Alfonso is touching. Their friendship appears warm and genuine, and the scandalous sex, limited as it was to pleasuring of the boy without request for reciprocation, could only shock the most closed-minded.

It is a fascinating story, which due to the short time it covered, Edmonds is able to cover exhaustively. Sandwiched between well-presented introductory and concluding chapters are ones devoted to the place, its festivals, Bosie, Alfonso, Constance and Wilde's greatest play, The Importance of Being Earnest, which he wrote during their stay. Each of these characters, their hopes and their sorrows are beautifully brought to life.

Wilde's sex life was explored at greatest length by Neil McKenna in his Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, a gripping, well-written and well-researched biography marred by homosexual bias and a failure to give sources for its often sensational claims. Edmonds could hardly be more innocent of these faults. Everything is substantiated as far as possible with copious notes, the only slight flaws being a few statements the authority for which turn out to be unsourced claims by McKenna. Though in the end he comes to some unduly harsh conclusions about Wilde that I shall come to, he is otherwise admirably impartial. Probabilities and possible motives are carefully and convincingly weighed up. Speculation is often inevitable, but is clearly differentiated from fact. The result is a book one can trust, and it is the combination of this with the riveting story that makes it so satisfying.

Considering the painstaking efforts the author has made to unearth every known record of Alfonso Conway, the least known of the main characters, it is remarkably unfortunate that he has missed one of the most authoritative and informative: his birth certificate, showing his and his mother's surname was then Payne, not Conway, so that the two interesting and meticulously researched appendices aspiring to have identified his probable parents are misjudged, and another on the name Alphonse needs redrafting. The details of this are likely to bore the general reader, who had better skip the next paragraph.

In case the author or anyone else is interested, since Alfonso (as was after all his original name) was born in Bognor, Sussex in 1878/9 according to the 1891 census, he is hardly likely not have been the only boy born in Sussex in those years with a name resembling Alfonso, and the details given on that boy's birth certificate remove any doubt: his full forenames were "Alfonso Conway [an irresistible coincidence] White", and the place (Bognor), month (July, though on the 13th, not 10th) and mother's forenames (Sarah Julia) all match. Unlike in the baptismal register, no pretence is made that he was legitimate (confirming the author's guess that he was not), so the space for his father's name has a line through it and he then bore his mother's surname of Payne. Hopefully, with this information, more can be found.

Edmonds appears to try hard to be impartial in his judgment of Wilde, but nevertheless makes unfair criticisms of him, of which I shall cite the three most important. First, having coldly defined Greek love as practised in ancient Athens as an exchange in which "the man gave the boy the benefit of his wisdom and experience, and the boy gave the man his body," he says Wilde's famous and more idealistic description of it in his trial "was high-flown hypocrisy ... there was nothing Greek about his relationship with the boys and young men with whom he was involved," because "sexual desire was the driving force." Actually, it is implicit in the Greek word paiderasteia that Greek love was also driven by eros, however much more it generally included, and irrespective of Plato's peculiar ideals. Moreover, Wilde's speech was in direct response to the phrase "the love that dare not speak its name" in his correspondence with Bosie, and their love had early on become platonic, ie. intense and without sex. Finally, it is an extraordinary criticism in view of Edmonds having admitted that even with rent boys Wilde was interested in more than sexual gratification, and his having given a sympathetic and convincing account of the emotional and intellectual appeal for Alfonso of succumbing to seduction. How could Alfonso not benefit in wisdom from tête-à-tête champagne lunches and long expeditions with "the best conversationalist in Europe"? And what about Wilde's strong lifelong friendship with Robert Ross, who aged seventeen had initiated him into homosex?

Secondly, he says "Wilde's prosecution of Queensberry was at best ignoble, at worst wicked" because Queensberry was innocent of libel and could have gone to prison if found guilty. He was legally innocent, yes, but he deliberately goaded Wilde into prosecuting him, and, in doing so, Wilde was acting in self-defence to pre-empt Queensberry from malevolently destroying him through use of an iniquitous law.

Thirdly, he rejects the idea that Wilde was "a martyr to Victorian injustice" on the grounds that society today would be even fiercer in its denunciation of Wilde as evil, on account of his liaisons being with boys, not men. But so what? Why should 19th century people be judged by the common values of the 21st century any more than those of the classical age? If Wilde were here to stand up for himself, he would surely reply that it was Victorian society that was evil, and 21st century society by extension even more so, in their treatment of what he called "the noblest form of love", and he would bring in the Greeks to show how easy it has been for the high-minded to take a radically different view.

Nevertheless, the author's statement that "today men who have sexual relations with boys under sixteen can be sentenced to up to fourteen years in prison, and paying for sex with a boy of sixteen or seventeen carries a sentence of up to seven years. Wilde probably committed the first of these offences, and he was certainly guilty of the second," is true, and important in exposing the dishonesty of the many who seek to make a modern hero out of him by pretending his sexual taste was for young men rather than youths. As it happens, Edmonds need not have added that "probably." In a letter to Robert Ross of 16 April 1900 from Rome, regarding his dalliance with one Giuseppe Loverde, Wilde reported he was "fifteen and most sweet ... He said he never would [forget me]: and indeed I don't think he will, for every day I kissed him behind the high altar." (Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. R. Hart-Davis (OUP, 1979) pp.355-6).

However unfair some of his criticisms of Wilde, it must also be admitted they are untypically mild for one under no illusions as to Wilde's sexuality and writing in today's moral climate. He is at pains to make it clear Wilde was not a child abuser, but a traditional pederast, a lover of teenage boys, which he calls "more complex territory." If only such a grasp of nuance was general amongst writers on the subject!

This is an immensely detailed book, probably too much so for some, but my attention only flagged over the chapter on Worthing Festivals, which in its parochialism jarred oddly with the supremely colourful character of the main protagonist. Definitely recommended.

Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander’s Choice, a story of Greek Love at Eton, https://www.amazon.com/dp/191457107X

[David Corvine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly covers whatever evidence there is concerning this period of Mr Wilde's life, unfortunately this is rather scant and what there is maybe somewhat unreliable. Mr Edmonds has the courage (in the current climate) to take an evenhanded logical view of the book's central theme.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well researched and gives an excellent and detailed insight into the Summer of 1894 in Worthing where Oscar Wilde wrote the Importance of Being Ernest. Great book for anyone with an interest in Oscar Wilde's work or the Trials. The author is clearly a fan of Oscar Wilde and was passionate about the subject matter. The writing style and dependence of reading the appendixes at the back of the book was a bit tiresome.

[Hannah Edmonds · Rating 2 out of 5]

While interesting, I find it despicable that the author tried more than once to excuse Wilde's ephebophilia.

During the summer of 1894, Oscar Wilde and his family spent the summer in Worthing. As soon as Wilde's wife and children left, he invited his longtime lover, Bosie to join him. The two shared teenaged boys and eventually moved on to Brighton for more of the same. This was the beginning of the end of Wilde's career.

Despite him writing arguably his most successful play, The Importance of Being Earnest during this time, everything went quickly downhill after that summer. Wilde was arrested and eventually convicted of the crime of homosexuality.

Wilde's wit was legendary to the point that I think many know very little else about him. He was a complex, deeply flawed but intelligent man. I'm sure he was interesting and likeable for some, but he was also egotistical and hypocritical.

This book is a pretty honest look at that summer and is clearly well researched, but as I say, the author's defence of Wilde's proclivities left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but slight book - the events of the summer holiday in Worthing in 1894 are more then adequately covered in various biographies of Wilde and there is nothing in this book that justifies either covering the events in separate book or in the convoluted length that they get here. Perfectly readable and enjoyable but one for the enthusiast. If you want the juicey bits of Wilde's life then go McKenna's biography, otherwise go back and read Wilde it is by far the most satisfying option.

[Jason Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

Antony Edmonds’s biography of Oscar Wilde concentrates on his family holiday to the Sussex coastal resort of Worthing between August - October 1894. Edmonds notes in his introduction that these eight weeks have only received fleeting coverage in earlier biographies but yet are significant in the development of his later life. Within six months Wilde was in the Old Bailey facing charges of ‘gross indecency’. However, on the evidence of this book, the impression is Edmonds may be over-stating his case.

There is absolutely no doubting Edmonds’s dedication to his thesis and his research is admirable, if exhaustive. And this is perhaps the book’s main flaw. The attention to detail is obsessive and overwhelming, and has a tendency to deaden the narrative fluency - and kill the reader’s interest. A chapter solely on the holiday activities taking place in Worthing at the time is full of boring, irrelevant details about various committee members and their backstories, and lengthy extracts from the local newspaper. All of which could have been succinctly summed up in a few paragraphs to provide the necessary local colour.

‘Scandalous Summer’ has been fashioned from a series of articles, written for The Wildean newsletter. Each chapter deals with a separate aspect of the holiday (‘Bosie’, ‘Constance’, ‘Worthing’) and is self-contained. As a result, there is no flow between the chapters and little attempt to integrate the different strands of the story. It is only in the final chapter dealing with the three trials Wilde faced (the aftermath) that the author seems to relax and produces a fluent, considered, insightful digest of the events. This chapter is tonally different from the rest of the book and stands out. Edmonds also offers a rare honest appraisal of Wilde’s motivations and attitudes during the trials. Wilde’s stand in court is often hailed as his greatest hour, so it is easy to forget that he was actually lying in court, guilty of awful hypocrisy and snobbery, and initially attempted to have an innocent (albeit toxic) man sent to prison. If only the author’s approach to the other chapters was as captivating and his research so lightly worn.

There is also the sense that the book is padded out as there are 50 odd pages of appendices. Edmonds’s research is scrupulously referenced and it is evident he has taken great care and attention with his work. (His notes make entertaining reading for his corrections to ‘facts’ and assertions made by other biographers.) If only he had allowed it to ‘breathe’ a bit more freely. The book’s appeal is likely to be to the Wilde completist (who probably already subscribes to The Wildean), rather than to the general reader interested in Oscar Wilde and his life.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth look at Oscar Wilde's Worthing Holiday in the summer of 1894 during which he wrote what would become his most famous work (the absolutely brilliant The Importance of Being Earnest), less than a year before everything fell apart and he found himself in prison. Edmonds uses this short 8-week period to examine Wilde's relationship with his family, Lord Alfred Douglas, and a boy by the name of Alphonse Conway about whom Wilde would later be questioned extensively during the extremely ill-advised libel trial against the Marquess of Queenberry. Well researched and an interesting read, though occasionally a bit repetitve with not quite necessary trivial information.