Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Last True Friend

Robbie Ross most certainly deserves acknowledgement for demonstrating true friendship to Oscar Wilde when Wilde was in the midst of deepest disgrace and in direst need.As always with biography there is some special pleading in this book.It is not accurate to say that Robbie Ross spoke "the first kind words about their father the boys had ever heard." Vvyan Holland, Wilde's youngest son, would disagree with that statement. Vyvan says in his autobiography that Constance, Wilde's wife, said "Don't hate you father. He hated his and that was much of the problem." Also, in fairness to Constance (who seems to get short shrift from the biographers of the men in the scandal) -- her brothers took over. They insisted that she divorce Oscar Wilde and change her name and that of the sons. At that time WOMEN HAD NO RIGHTS and Constance Wilde (who became Constance Holland) had no choice in this decision. Literally, even if she HAD had money she would not have had control of it. That is not the way English law worked. While we are giving Robbie Ross much deserved credit, let's be accurate in re Constance as well.

Oscar Wilde was author of some of the merriest jests and plays in the English language and subject of one of the saddest banishments and deaths in literature. Oscar was unfortunate in his enemies, and in many of his friends, but he was very fortunate in the friendship of Robbie Ross, a friendship that displayed itself throughout Oscar's successes and worst trials, and for long after Oscar's death. It cannot be said that Ross was a particularly important figure, but as a friend to Wilde, he influenced Oscar in many good ways. Ross is a footnote, but he was an exceptionally good friend and a good man, and now he has a good biography, _Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Devoted Friend_ (Carroll and Graf Publishers) by Jonathan Fryer. It will be a welcome volume for any interested in Oscar's life.As a youth, Robbie met Oscar and introduced him to homosexual lovemaking. Oscar took other lovers afterward, as did Robbie, and Robbie had not the slightest jealousy about Oscar's affections. Throughout Oscar's life, Robbie was there to give him help and good counsel, although Oscar sadly didn't often take his advice. When Oscar wound up in jail, Robbie came back, and made himself indispensable with visits to the jail and with taking up collections from the friends Oscar still had. Robbie received the deserved admiration of Oscar's friends, and of Oscar: "When I see you, I shall be quite happy, indeed I am happy now to think I have such wonderful friendship shown to me," and "Your love, your generosity, your care of me in prison and out of prison are the most lovely things in my life."Robbie oversaw the publication of "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" and of _De Profundis_. He was on hand at Oscar's death, and oversaw the temporary internment and the arrangement of the final resting place in Paris. He befriended Oscar's sons, who from him heard the first kind things about their father since they were taken from him and had their name changed. He was determined that Oscar's work would be read and performed again, and that the sons would get the benefit; his efforts to remove Oscar's estate from bankruptcy were eventually successful. He edited the twelve volume set of Oscar's collected works, and the books were a commercial and critical success.There is much in this affectionate biography about Robbie's writing career, his running an art gallery, or his becoming an influential art critic. He would be forgotten, however, if it were not for his devotion to Oscar, and it is quite possible that we would remember Oscar less vividly if Robbie had not performed him such faithful service. This book is a fit testimony to that service. He was faithful to Oscar's memory until his own end, and when that end came, his ashes were eventually placed, fittingly and sweetly, in the cavity he had requested in the design of Oscar's monument.

Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Last True Friend by Jonathan Fryer is the engrossing story of Oscar Wilde's closest and most loyal friend (excluding of course "Bosie" Douglas who was a more intimate if untrue friend). As well as examining the life of this minor turn of the century writer, Fryer provides insights into the lives of English (and English-Irish) gay men of the comfortable classes in late Victorian and Edwardian society. The story of the Ross/Wilde friendship is very touching and the retelling of Oscar Wilde's odyssey is an engaging one. The years following Wilde's death saw the pathologically immature "Bosie" Douglas descend from selfish lover to vicious loather. His turn to sexual conventionality and his adoption of a shockingly hateful crusade against Ross is a chilling reflection on personal perfidy and the ugliness of social reaction. Douglas was joined in his crusade by horrific anti-gay bigots, and their mad-dog litigation against Ross and others certainly contributed to Ross's ill health and early death at 49. Ross had a mysogynistic side, which we learn about only in passing: his establishment of a modest scholarship for art students was restricted to males, and Fryer lamely posits an excuse. The retelling of this episode here, and the biography's almost complete absence of comments on Ross's political opinions, leads one to wonder about the broader context of Ross's life that is still left to tell, not that this minor figure will ever get another biography. We get only provocative snippets of another life. We're told that Ross felt very strongly about the intense events in Ireland at the time, but are never informed what these feelings are! Ross' mentoring of Wilde's sons and his befriending of the emerging young British poets of the WWI era are also described. For the reader who desires an interesting look at this period in British cultural life, and especially for those not yet familiar with Wilde's story or who seek another angle's view of it, this readable book is highly recommended. Those who wish to learn about Ross and Wilde in a wider social context will find it unsatisfying.