Wilde & the Book Arts

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 argument for the value of Douglas's poetry remains to be made. In the end, Murray must content himself with documenting the decline of Douglas into genteel poverty and offering an account of the quotidian domestic joys and tragedies that mark any life. Michael Patrick Gillespie ______________ Marquette University Wilde & the Book Arts Nicholas Frankel. Oscar Wilde's Decorated Books. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. xiv + 222 pp. $47.50 20 illustrations + 4 plates "I HAVE NOTHING to offer you but one of my books, that absurd comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, but I send it to you, in the hopes it may live on one of your bookshelves and be allowed to look at you 504 BOOK REVIEWS from time to time. Its dress is pretty: it wears Japanese vellum, and belongs to a limited family of nine: it is not on speaking terms with the popular edition: it refuses to recognise the poor relations whose value is only seven and sixpence. Such is the pride of birth. It is a lesson." So writes Oscar Wilde to a newly married friend (mid-May 1899). For Wilde, a book has a life of its own. A decorated book produces meaning long before a reader turns the pages. Nicholas Frankel's Oscar Wilde's Decorated Books addresses the drama taking place on the surface of Wilde 's decorated books. This is a welcome addition to Wilde scholarship. It is the first book-length study to chronicle how Wilde's love of fine bindings and printing materializes in the form of beautiful books. Frankel focuses on Wilde's interest in and contributions to artistic book design. He describes Wilde's decorated books as physical objects. His introduction establishes the theoretical framework and the aims of the study; part one establishes a working definition of a key term (a decorated book is a graphic artifact); and part two introduces and describes the role of the graphic designer in the production of Wilde's books. Post-structuralist theory, editorial theory, and cultural studies inform this approach. According to Frankel: "My own approach ... sees Wilde's texts less as scenes of reading, ripe for interpretation, than as scenes of production, collaboration, and inevitable compromise, where message tends to a merger with medium." These "scenes of production" are visible: books are tattooed with meaning. Frankel considers the multiple marks that constitute the body of a book. He encourages readers to consider these as well. Frankel questions the very...