From Stoker to Wilde

Celebrating some of my favorite Irish authors

Legion is the only way to describe the pantheon of Irish authors. What is it about the "Land of Saints and Scholars" that inspires such poetry, prose, and lyric? Blarney, delt with a heavy hand, or the verdant hills and bogs; perhaps the people crushed by war and occupation, like the shamrock tread upon the sod, caused protesting lips to sing and hands to write? From Jonathan Swift's tales of adventure, to James Joyce and his modernist retelling of The Odyssey, Ulysses, to the poetry of Seamus Heaney, Ireland has contributed more than her leaven share to our most beloved literature.

Two of my favorite authors of Irish nationality are Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker. The writing of one terrorized my childhood dreams, while the wit of another made me howl with laughter, and faithfully supplied an oft-needed riposte. Both men were tied to the theater, and the staging, direction, and timing of those performances flavor their written work. Both men were born in Dublin, and about the same time; both were born into middle-class families with intellectual pretentions. Wilde and Stoker missed knowing each other by one year while attending Trinity College, Dublin in the 1870s. They even shared a sweetheart, who's heart was won and wed by Bram Stoker. For all of these early similarities, differences in personal manners, dress, and pursuits, would dramatically vary during the relatively short lives each led.

London society drew Wilde and Stoker, where both had entrée due to various family connections. Through his role as business manager for the Lyceum Theater, Stoker met such notables as the painter James Whistler, and the writer Hall Caine, to whom the novel Dracula was dedicated. Wilde had been building his "brand" since his university days at Magdalen College through his ardent involvement in the Aesthetic Movement, which espoused a philosophy that art should exist independent of religion or social interpretation. The décor of his lodgings included peacock feathers, sunflowers, and was centered around the perceived expectations of his favored blue chinaware. When all of this is considered, of course his reputation preceded him into the drawing rooms of London.

Each found inspiration in the colorful characters of new acquaintance. An early muse for Oscar Wilde was the world-famous actress Lillie Langtry. She considered Wilde a "fascinating, compelling, and clever character." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a distant cousin of Bram Stoker, was instrumental in influencing the writing style, and subject matter of Stoker's work. Wilde and Stoker both toured the United States and were enthralled with the culture and people whom they met. The poet Walt Whitman was so taken with Bram Stoker that he sent him a letter full of thinly veiled sexual advances. Oscar Wilde took a year-long sojourn in the U.S., arriving on the ship S.S. Arizona, which included a whisky drinking competition with the miners of Leadville, Colorado.

Places also had a profound influence on the work of Stoker and Wilde. Cruden Bay in Scotland, and Whitby, England were used as settings in several works by Bram Stoker, including The Mystery of the Sea and Dracula. Indeed, the forbidding sea-side ruins of Slains Castle in Scotland were the model for Castle Dracula. London, and the great country houses of late 19^th century England, were the influence, and canvas on which Wilde painted his characters and scenes. The idle, effete gentlemen, the monumental, august dowagers, naïve young men, and pretty ingenues, which populated his life found their way into his work, all set against the backdrop of drawing rooms and rural estates. The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Lady Windermere's Fan, are a penetrating glimpse into the milieu of the author.

Alas, neither man was spared the vicissitudes of life. Bram Stoker suffered from overwork and poor health. It was widely rumored in his later years that Stoker was a carrier of Syphilis, and medical records confirm that he was treated for a vague illness called 'Locomotor Ataxia' which was a delicate euphemism for the disease. One stroke followed another, resulting in his death in April of 1912. Of Oscar Wilde, it can be said that he died of answered prayers. Success bred fame, which turned to notoriety and scorn. "The love which dare not speak its name" lead to criminal indictment, and a cruel prison sentence of hard labor for Wilde. The Ballad of Reading Gaol recounts these difficult years of his life. Exile in France would follow, allowing only one brief interlude in Naples, Italy with Lord Alfred Douglas, the man for whom Wilde would endure so much. Death would follow in 1900, and his famous tomb in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France is a famous tourist attraction.

The work of Bram Stoker has lead to a booming industry of dark tales of vampire horror and seduction. Likewise, latter-day raconteurs, such as Noel Coward and Truman Capote, tread the path to success and infamy laid for them by Oscar Wilde.

Read more by William Shelton