The Henry James Review

Salamensky, S. I. (Shelley I.)
Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and " Fin-de-Siecle Talk": A Brief Reading
The Henry James Review - Volume 20, Number 3, Fall 1999, pp. 275-281

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Shelley Salamensky - Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and " Fin-de-Siecle Talk": A Brief Reading - The Henry James Review 20:3 The Henry James Review 20.3 (1999) 275-281 Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and " Fin-de-Siècle Talk": A Brief Reading Shelley Salamensky Henry James's first conversations with Oscar Wilde, the premier talker of his time, were less than successful. Reports from a Boston party lionized Wilde's "amusing" talk while lampooning James's as "boring" (Ellmann 178). Their ensuing one-on-one encounter, according to Richard Ellmann, was worse: James remarked, "I am very nostalgic for London." Wilde could not resist putting him down. "Really?" he said. . . . "You care for places? The world is my home.". . . By the end of the interview James was raging. . . . [James] informed Mrs. [Henry] Adams that she was right. "'Hosscar' Wilde is a fatuous fool, tenth-rate cad,' 'an unclean beast.'". . . Mrs. Adams knew what he meant, and spoke of Wilde's sex as "undecided." Some eight years later James would relent and even join in sponsoring Wilde . . . for the Savile Club, but he always insisted he was not one of Wilde's friends. . . . For his part, Wilde had no idea of the hostility he had aroused in James." (178-79) Wilde out-talked James socially, where his skills were hailed as superior, and also privately, where James's simple offering -- a statement of homage to Wilde's city -- was deferred, deflected, and topped by Wilde's flamboyant rejoinder. James seems...