Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Devoted Friend - Hardcover

Fryer, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078670781X ISBN 13: 9780786707812

Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub, 2000

Synopsis

Published in time for the hundredth anniversary of Oscar Wilde's death, this unique biography of literary companionship recreates the life of Robbie Ross, Wilde's lover and greatest defender in the wake of the literary master's death.

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Reviews

Fryer (Andr‚ and Oscar: Gide, Wilde and the Gay Art of Living) looks at a minor figure in literary history, Robbie Ross, the object of Oscar Wilde's first homosexual liaison. Wilde's sexual relationship with Ross (1869-1918) began when the latter was a 17-year-old student and Wilde was a 33-year-old married man. Their friendship deepened when Ross moved in with Wilde and his wife, Constance (with whom Wilde was deeply in love and to whom he was still sexually attracted), while Ross was cramming to get into Cambridge. The author also documents the many affairs the two men went on to have both with male members of London's literary circles as well as with lower class "rent boys." Although this biography is ostensibly about Ross, equal or more space is devoted to Wilde's highly successful literary career, as the subtitle suggests, covering such high points as the publication of his then highly sensational novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his ill-fated compulsive love for "Bosie" Davis. Bosie's father, who despised Wilde, was instrumental in having him tried for sodomy. Throughout Wilde's trial, prison term and release, Ross, who maintained a career as a minor writer and art critic, remained a loyal friend and frequently assisted the somewhat irresponsible Wilde financially. Ross was with Wilde when he died several years later; afterward he became Wilde's literary executor and befriended Wilde's sons. He was frequently subjected to vicious attacks from Bosie, who married and repudiated his former life. Written in a style that is fresh and exuberant but not sensational, Fryer's biography is particularly interesting for its in-depth look at London's late Victorian gay society. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)Forecast: 2000 marked the centenary of Wilde's death, and if this is packaged with other recent books on Wilde it might get some sales, but Ross is a minor figure and not likely to attract much attention.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Sometime in 1886--precisely when, where, and under what circumstances remain unknown--Oscar Wilde was seduced by a puckish 17-year-old Canadian, Robert Baldwin Ross, who in 1887 became a paying guest in Wilde's home as he crammed for entrance to Oxford. The die had been cast for host and, years earlier, for guest alike, though each soon moved on to other liaisons. After one near disaster, Ross, youngest son of a prominent attorney, was discreet about his affairs. Wilde, however, wasn't, and his eventual trial and imprisonment for indecency made him one of the most reviled public figures of the nineteenth century. Ross stood by him, became his literary executor, endured years of harassment from Wilde's demented aristocratic lover Lord Alfred Douglas, commissioned rising sculptor Jacob Epstein to make Wilde's memorial stone, and finally, many years after his own death, was interred in that memorial. That that was entirely fitting Fryer's wonderfully readable biography affirms, by detailing not only how Ross helped Wilde but also all Ross did for Constance, Wilde's wife, and for Cyril and Vyvyan, Wilde's sons. Eminently generous and compassionate, he helped many others, too, and was one of the most highly prized dinner guests and beloved friends in London. A chain smoker plagued by ill health, he died at 49 in 1918. Direct those who think that the life of a genuinely good man has to be boring to this unputdownable volume. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

As yet another commemoration of the centennial of Oscar Wilde's death, journalist, broadcaster, and biographer Fryer (Andre and Oscar: The Literary Friendship of Andr Gide and Oscar Wilde) has written a biography of Ross (1869-1918), the writer, critic, and art dealer who as a young man introduced Wilde to homosexual love and later served as his literary executor. Descended from a prominent Canadian family, Ross was raised in England, where he lodged with the Wildes while preparing to study at Cambridge. His friendship with Wilde endured through Wilde's trial and imprisonment resulting from his homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. Present at Wilde's deathbed, Ross successfully revived Wilde's works so that the royalties could pay off his many debts. As much about Wilde as Ross, the book reveals the changing attitudes and mores of late 19th- and early 20th-century England and includes a cast of figures well known in the arts, such as Sassoon, Graves, Beardsley, Gide, Shaw, and Whistler. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.DDenise J. Stankovics, Rockville P.L., Vernon, CT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 078670781X
• ISBN 13: 9780786707812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288