Summary
Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, is proposed by Will Self, a writer once described as a 'high powered satirical weapon'.
In 1895, and at the height of his success, Wilde began libel proceedings against the Marquess of Queensberry, sparking a disastrous sequence of trials, prison, exile and disgrace. A century later Oscar Wilde is often listed as one of the wittiest Britons who ever lived, but this was a life that ended in tragedy and early death. Joining Will Self and Matthew Parris in the studio is Franny Moyle, author of a biography of Oscar Wilde's wife, Constance, an often overlooked character in Wilde's life. The programme features actor Simon Russell Beale's reading of De Profundis - From The Depths.
The producer is Miles Warde.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this great lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:04.0 | For more information and details of other podcasts, just visit BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | co-dot UK slash radio 4. |
| 0:11.0 | In February 1895, the Marquis of Queensbury, who was mad, called in at the Albemile Club in London |
| 0:19.7 | and left a card. |
| 0:21.9 | It's difficult to be precise about what he scrawled. The |
| 0:24.8 | Marcus's writing was not of the best, but we think it reads, For Oscar Wilde, |
| 0:29.8 | posing somedomite. The consequences for Wild were immense. Trials, prison, exile, disgrace. More |
| 0:37.7 | of that in a while. My guest, whose chosen Oscar Wild today, was once described as a high-powered satirical weapon |
| 0:45.3 | in a New York Times book review. He's an author who has said that he writes in order |
| 0:50.6 | to astonish and who was famously fired from the observer while covering |
| 0:54.9 | John Major's 1997 election campaign, perhaps more of that in a while. |
| 0:59.9 | His books include Walking to Hollywood, Cock and The Book of Dave, while his collection |
| 1:05.1 | of short stories, Tough Tough Toys for Tough Boys, won the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction he is |
| 1:12.0 | Will Self. Why will have you chosen Oscar Wilde I'm a |
| 1:16.8 | fan of the writing I have some misgivings about the life which doubtless will get to. But I think most of all I chose |
| 1:26.7 | him in a way because I think that Richard Elman's biography of Wild is probably the finest work of literary biography that's ever been written. |
| 1:36.2 | And I think that of all the figures I've read about, I feel closest to Wild in a emotional way. I was pleased about this choice because he is a life as well as an |
| 1:48.6 | ervera. He said himself that he said I put my genius into my life and my talent into my work. |
| 1:55.6 | You can't separate him from the life, can you? |
| 1:57.3 | You can't separate him in DiPufundis, this astonishing kind of part, Meaculper, part, reviling of the hypocrisy of English |
| 2:06.2 | society, part confessional that he wrote in prison after losing his libel case against the Marquis of Queensbury. |
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