Bosie Biography

BOOK REVIEWS Bosie Biography Douglas Murray. Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas. New York: Talk Miramax Books & Hyperion, 2000. χ + 374 pp. $27.50 IN 1988, Knopf published Richard EUmann's biography of Oscar Wilde, noting with quiet pride that the book's author reviewed the proofs shortly before his death. EUmann's Oscar Wilde chronicled the story of an interesting and talented man whose generosity and folly led to unhappiness . In his workmanlike compilation of other sources, Ellmann retold familiar anecdotes with the skill and grace of an accomplished writer who had been practicing his craft for four decades. It was indeed unfortunate that at several points, in an effort to distinguish this Wilde biography from numerous others that had already appeared, Ellmann engaged in ill-advised, unfounded speculation about Wilde's personal life. Nonetheless, these transgressions were easy to forgive because the story of Wilde's life was so interesting. In 2000, Talk Miramax Books published Douglas Murray's biography of Lord Alfred Douglas, making much of the author's age (twenty years old). Like Ellmann, Murray generally relies upon information already in print to tell his story, and the result is a gathering and a recapitulation of incidents quite familiar to scholars who have studied either Wilde or Douglas. Unlike Ellmann, however, Murray's prose style is still evolving, and in consequence he writes in a fashion that would benefit from a degree of careful editing greater than what his editor has cared to devote to this work. Happily, Murray has generally avoided the temptation towards unwarranted speculation that marred EUmann's work. Indeed, he has made use of original research by gaining access to information relating to a 1923 lawsuit involving Douglas and Winston Churchill. Still, the bulk of the book remains a synopsis of received information, without sufficient evidence to provoke a reassessment of general opinions about Douglas. The book's title, Douglas's childhood nickname, and its dust jacket photograph, an undated picture of Douglas as a young man, make a direct appeal to those interested in Douglas's life through the time that he knew Oscar Wilde. This certainly is a valid approach, for many readers have no interest in Murray's subject beyond that association. That only one-third of the volume covers this period strikes me as an unfair quibble . What is of significance, however, is the treatment that Douglas and, to a degree, that Wilde receive in this portion of the biography. Anyone 503 ELT 44 : 4 2001 who has read around in the material relating to Wilde's life or who has examined De Profoundis, Wilde's prison letter to Douglas, will be all too aware of the serious accusations made against Douglas by Wilde, by Wilde's friends, and by numerous scholars. Repetition does not validate these accusations, but it does impose an obligation for those seeking to defend Douglas to face the charges squarely. Too often Murray simply dismisses the allegations of selfishness, insensitivity, brutality, and inconstancy that Ellmann and numerous writers before him have reiterated . Wilde himself has provided in De Profundis and other letters meticulous accounts, corroborated by others, of Douglas's excesses. To justify Murray's representation of Douglas as a young man fundamentally no different than countless others of his class under the influence of an older, more sophisticated seducer, much more evidence needed to be produced. Many, myself included, would not wish to learn that Wilde was anything other than a generous, gentle, and somewhat foolish friend. Nonetheless, most scholars would be open to hearing evidence to the contrary. Murray instead seeks to make his case on speculation and generalizations, and the effort does not prove to be convincing. The remainder of the book covers the final forty-five years of Douglas 's life. Aside from two decades of litigation that only underscores the recklessness of Douglas's nature, little of significance occurs. Murray has reprinted significant amounts of Douglas's poetry, and he works mightily to establish its literary worth. The fact that I remain unconvinced may be attributed to my fondness of the modernist writers for whom Douglas had so much contempt. Nevertheless, if contemporary anthologies are any measure, the...