Fascinating account mainly from the perspective of a boy, of life in what is called Le Belle Epoque as we follow the painful transition of the sons of Oscar Wilde from pampered progeny of one of the most gifted artists of his day to the ignominy of having to remove their name tags from their clothes to be replaced my an unfamiliar surname in a foreign land. Such was the revulsion of their class to the homosexual lifestyle of their father that in their first abode after leaving England, a Swiss hotel, they were shortly told to leave after it was known who they were. Eventually landing in Heidelberg and a boarding school for English boys, they discovered the school had no plumbing and each boy was given a "slops" pans for personal hygiene. Bathing was done in a pool where instructors and boys bathed together naked. Vyvyan--the younger of the two brothers, was so bullied he begged his mother to remove him from the school. He was then sent to a Italian Jesuit school in Monaco where when he bathed he had to ware a garment! While these aspects of their lives are secondary it shows the lifestyle of the period.
Eventually they returned to England and university still using their assumed name at the instigation of their relatives.
A final poignant note: Vyvyan's older brother Cyrus was killed in the First World War less than a mile from where Vyvyan was serving as a translator.

This was a very interesting book, but sad. It is terrible that his mother's family was so prejudice that they tried to hard to separate the sons from their father. Years later of course it was declared that Wilde should never have been prosecuted. He simply became a cat's paw to a father who hated his son and a son that was totally unbalanced. Not to mention having no understanding at all of how he ruined so many lives with his selfish behavior. Frankly son and father deserved each other. Another aspect that I found fascinating is the various schools this man attended and their hypocritical attitudes to the prevailing morals and manners of the time. Somethings never change. If you are at all interested in Oscar Wilde or the time period I would definitely recommend this book.

Atrapante y esclarecedora biografía de Oscar Wilde narrada a través de las vivencias de su hijo. Me sacó lágrimas en varias partes por las injusticias sufridas no solo por Wilde sino por su familia. Sus hijos fueron arrancados de la casa familiar, se les cambió el nombre y se los mandó a vivir al extranjero, con la vaga idea de que algo terrible había pasado. El saqueo de la casa, incluyendo sus libros infantiles y juguetes. El hijo mayor llorando mientras arrancaba de la ropa las etiquetas con su nombre con un cortaplumas. El bullying por parte de los adultos. La miseria repentina. Los parientes que se los pasaban de una casa a otra como paquetes molestos tras la muerte de la madre.

Terrible.

Admirers of this sweetly sad book may be interested to know more about Vyvyan's second wife, Thelma (nee Besant). Thelma was a girl from Melbourne, Australia, born in 1910. As a young woman she worked at the Hill of Content bookshop, which still exists in Bourke St, Melbourne. For twelve years she served as beautician to Queen Elizabeth.

In 1943 she married Oscar Wilde's only surviving son, and in 1945 she gave birth to Oscar's only grandson, Merlin. The Hollands lived in Melbourne from 1948-1952. Vyvyan died in 1967. Thelma died in 1995.

In 1981 the Australian satirist Barry Humphries (think "Dame Edna Everage"!) met Thelma at a party in London. Thelma congratulated Barry on naming his son after her father-in-law, but Barry at first had no idea what she was talking about. She then explained who she was, and after they became friends she insisted to Barry that her father-in-law had not been a homosexual. All of those claims against him were, she said, "ghastly" "hearsay" and "slander".

It is hard to think of the intolerance of so-called intellectual society of that day. The author has given an honest and heart warming account of his life when affected by the hypocritical position of his society.

This was an incredibly fascinating read, to get to have the insight of what was considered to be one of the biggest scandals of the fin de siecle from the perspective of Oscar Wilde’s son. It felt pained at times, the way that society and Vyvyans own family wanted the memory of his father to go into oblivion and the everlasting impact it had on Vyvyan’s own life. I am so glad for those such as Robert Ross who helped rebuild and create the legacy that is Oscar Wilde and how he truly was a once in a generation talent. But also to be remembered not only as a caricature but as a loving, kind and funny man that he was.
I would most definitely recommend this!

نبذة ومراجعة:-

مُترفِّعاً عن المغالاة أو المواربة؛ يُعرِّج الابن الأصغر للكاتب الإيرلندي أوسكار وايلد، على فصولٍ من حياته، والتي شكل اختفاء والده المفاجىء منها المنعطَف الأبرز فيها؛ واقعةٌ تكتنفها ضبابية مُفتعَلة جعلت منها أُحجية معقدة بالنسبة لفايفيان بصفة خاصة، فرضت عليه وأخيه حالة من التقوقع والعُزلة الإجبارية، عسى أن تخطئهما سهام الازدراء والنبذ؛ تطوى سنوات طفولتهما ومراهقتهما في كبت وشتات واغتراب.

أُدرِجت ألعابهما في قائمة مزادٍ علني جزاءً لوالدهما عن سلوك أدانه به القضاء، بعد محاكمةٍ وصفها البعض بأنها غير عادلة.

مُنِحا اسمين بَديلَين تطلُّعاً لتمكينهما من تسجيل انطلاقة جديدة، لكن ذاكرتهما كانت عصيّة على الاستجابة لذلك سيما مع استحالة ملأ الفراغ الذي خلّفه تنحية والدهما عن حياتيهما، ما أضفى على شخصيتيهما قدر من الهشاشة؛ لكن فايفيان - رغم كل ذلك - نجح في الوصول إلى مرحلة متقدّمة من السلام النفسي، تمكّن من انتزاع انتصارات حقيقية سواء في العثرات المنخفضة أو المنحدرات الشاهقة، ولم يوفر جهداً في سبيل التشبُّث بكل ��ا يمت لوالده بِصِلة.

كما لم يغفل فايفيان عن استدعاء عدد من الوقائع التي أفرزت انطباعاً لديه في اتجاه ما، مبيناً كيفية انعكاس الظروف المرافقة لميلاده على ثقل حضوره في كيان ووجدان والده، كاشفاً عن جذور معاناته من رهاب الأماكن المغلقة، وملابسات تخلٍّيه مُكرَهاً عن حلمه بدراسة الطب.

نص ينضح بالكثير من القيم الإنسانية والتجارب الملهمة، تتدفق كلماته صدى لصرخات صامتة تنحشر في حناجر آباء وأبناء شُيِّدَت بينهم جدران وقُطٍّعت كلّ سبل التواصل بينهم، أولئك الذين تجرّعوا مرارة اليُتم قبل أن يعدم آباءهم الحياة. فضلاً عن رصيد من معلومات تفصيلية عن المشهد الثقافي، الواقع الاجتماعي، الاتجاهات الدينية، وهيكليّة نظام الحُكم في انكلترا آنذاك.

نصٌّ ينبىء عن موهبة فذة لدى الكاتب ومهارة عالية لدى المترجم، ثراء لغويّ وسرد يخطف الحواس.

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اقتباسات:-

"الخوف والإحباط يحطمان سلام العقل أكثر من أيّ عملية عقلية أخرى". (306).

"الكلمات بوسعها تثبيت الأفكار، المفاهيم، يمكن توظيفها في المنطق، في العلم، لكنّها تفشل بالإمساك بجناح الحياة، تفشل في إعطاء أكثر من لمحة من شيء من الشعور الفني". (223).

"على الرغم من كون أسى الطفولة هو أحيانا أشد وطأة وأقسى ألما ممّا نتعرض له عند نضجنا بعد أن يكتسب المرء قدراً مُعيناً من الفلسفة، فإن قوة المقاومة لدى الطفل كبيرة أيضاً". (168).

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إحصائيات:-

عن منشورات تكوين والرافدين للنشر والتوزيع، صدرت الطبعة الأولى في يوليو 2023، ترجمتها رغد قاسم. يقع الكتاب في 429 صفحة، يضم فهرسا للمحتوى، مقدمة الترجمة، مخطط زمني لحياة أوسكار وايلد، 8 فصول، 5 ملاحق، ونبذة عن المترجم. كما أرفق عدد من الصور الفوتوغرافية، فضلاً عن هوامش إثرائية.

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نص مشابه:-
النسيان. إكتور آباد فاسيولينسي.
أبي فيودور.

لا ارى انه من المنطق ان اقيم حياة ڤايڤان

Un nuovo punto di vista sulla vicenda di Oscar Wilde, quella del secondogenito Vyvyan, che ci fornisce una luce diversa della storia. Un bambino che improvvisamente si ritrova la vita stravolta e non ne comprende a fondo le motivazioni, sa solo che in qualche modo è "colpa" del padre. Un viaggio attraverso i suoi occhi di fronte al quale è impossibile rimanere insensibili.

Libro magnifico. Per me che adoro Oscar Wilde fin da bambina è stato estremamente toccante, ma credo che per chiunque possa essere illuminante.

“On the loom of Sorrow, and by the white hands of Pain, has this my robe been woven.”

Oh man. I laughed, I cried, I sighed, I gasped, I cried some more. This is a raw and insightful glance into the life Wilde and his family were forced to live after his downfall. My heart aches for Vyvyan and Cyril, such a childhood should never be had, although the earlier memories made me smile as much as the later ones with Robbie Ross did. How I wish Robbie had found his way into their lives sooner— but he tried, and he eventually succeeded, and for that I’m glad. I’m glad there were moments of joy scattered throughout. Thank you Robbie, Mrs Carew and friends, your influence and love was palpable through Vyvyan’s recollection of you, you can tell how much you meant to him. Thank you Vyvyan for writing this book. I’m still in tears this was beautiful.

Also “so much for Alfred Douglas” made me laugh. You’re right, Vyvyan, get his ass!

What a fascinating autobiography, and its scope even makes it something of a bildungsroman, but true instead of fictional.

Oscar Wilde's younger son, Vyvyan Holland, tells of his own baffled lifestyle as a child fugitive, following his famous father's imprisonment. Young Vyvyan (what a cool name, especially for the Victorian era) knows that his father, once feted is now hated, but his mother, Constance, conceals the details from him. So does Vyvyan's brother, Cyril, who accidentally discovers the truth but wishes to shield his little brother from the disgrace he feels.

Poor Constance Wilde, fearing harsh public backlash on her innocent sons, rushes them across to the Continent to hide. She changes their surname from Wilde to Holland, after some of her distant relatives. This story is an excellent literary social artifact about the lifestyle of boys in the late Victorian era, and what is expected of them as they become young men in the turn into the twentieth century and Edwardian era. Vyvyan writes differently from his dad, but his detailed memory, wry humour, and interesting incident choices kept me scrolling pages. I was finding that in no time flat, another hour had passed.

He describes the emotionally harmful burden of being forced to deny their father, compounded by their mother's sad, premature death a few years later, while they were still only 11 and 13. Cyril swings reactively to create an identity nothing like their father's, scorning anything he perceives as arty or effeminate. And Vyvyan himself develops a lifelong case of social anxiety and shyness, resulting from his fear and confusion early on. The two boys are hidden victims whose budding personalities are shaped by what happened to the previous generation. Being child pariahs takes a huge toll on them.

Next, Cyril and Vyvyan are left at the mercy of Constance's extended family; a straitlaced bunch who were always offended by Oscar's flamboyant notoriety and hadn't wanted her to marry him in the first place. Rather than seeing their new charges as a couple of vulnerable young boys, they perceive a pair of tinder boxes who might explode in outrageous ways at any time. The brothers are forced to keep the secret of their paternity until one day when Vyvyan is nearly 21, their father's friends discover their existence. To these new faces, the boys are more like holy grails who'd been long sought.

That's one of the lasting impressions this book leaves me with. Same pair of kids, but polar opposite sentiments, depending on others' points of view. It was one of the tragedies of the early 20th century that Oscar's zealous attempts to meet up with his sons after his release from prison were met with a brick wall. Vyvyan had no idea that his father was being told, 'The boys are happier without you in their lives,' since he certainly wasn't thriving with his reluctant guardians. In fact, Vyvyan was led to believe that Oscar was dead.

The publisher's note, in this book published in 1954, refers to Oscar Wilde's 'sexual perversion' and 'misguided way of life.' What would these early readers think, and what would Vyvyan himself think, to see how far the social tide has turned!

Vyvyan is not afraid to call out the worst of Victorian hypocrisy, including the cruelty of some highly acclaimed folk of the time period. I fully agree when he says toward the end:

'I do not try to defend my father's behaviour but I do think that the penalties inflicted upon him were unnecessarily severe. And by that I do not only mean the prison sentence, I mean the virtual suppression of all his works and the ostracism and insults which he had to endure during the remaining years of his life.'
However, I disagree with these words written by Vyvyan in his Preface.

'This is not a very amusing and entertaining story. I think, however that it should be written as part of the whole story of Oscar Wilde.'
He sells himself short there, because in spite of plenty of reflective and serious subject matter, I did find this book on the whole, especially some of the antics he and Cyril get up to, to be vastly amusing and entertaining indeed. I'm sure it'll be up among my ten best books of the year.