Oscar Wilde
OSCAR WILDE
Philosophical eLibrary Editions
of works by André Gide
Autumn Leaves
The Notebooks of André Walter
Notes on Chopin
White Notebook
A Philosophical eLibrary Edition
OSCAR WILDE
IN MEMORIAM
(REMINISCENCES)
DE PROFUNDIS
by
ANDRÉ GIDE
With a New Introduction by
JEANINE PARISIER PLOTTEL
Translated from the French by
BERNARD FRECHTMAN
PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY
New York
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ANDRÉ GIDE QUOTES
IMAGE GALLERY
OSCAR WILDE QUOTES
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
FOREWORD
IN MEMORIAM
PART I—EARLY PERIOD
PART II—TRAGIC MEMORIES
PART III—“SEBASTIAN MELMOTH”
PART IV—THE KING OF LIFE
PART V—PARIS
APPENDIX
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
André Gide and Oscar Wilde met for the first time when they were at a crossroad of their lives. The year was 1891, a year that was an annus mirabilis for both men. 1 The Frenchman, born on November 22, 1869 was 22 years old and the Irishman, born on October 16, 1854, was 37, fifteen years older. Oscar was already the celebrated author of many works, including poems, stories, criticism, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and near the top of his form—a form that would yield his great plays Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salomé, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest. André became part of the Paris literary milieu with the publication of his first works, Les Cahiers d’André Walter (The Notebooks of André Walter), a book purporting to be a journal and filled with poems, and Traité du Narcisse, a long essay that presents his own version of the myth. 2 He left a copy of the Cahiers at Stéphane Mallarmé’s home, 89 rue de Rome. Mallarmé then invited him to join the famous Tuesday evening group. Oscar, who seems to have been present at Mallarmé’s on Tuesdays in November 1891, 3 may well have met André there. Still, a note in a recent edition of Gide’s Journal indicates the two met for the first time at the home of the poet Henri de Régnier. 4
Be that as it may, André felt at once dazzled and overwhelmed by his new acquaintance. Here, for example, dated November 28, 1891, is the very first written mention he made of Wilde as an esthete: “Oh, an admirable, admirable man.” 5 A few days later, in a December 1891 letter to Valéry (the words “De profundis” appear in front of the day Friday, i.e. “Vendredi”) he wrote: “Wilde is piously intent in killing whatever remains of my soul, because he says that to know an essence, you must stifle it: he wants me to yearn for my soul. Its value depends on how much exertion it takes to destroy it.” 6 In a social whirlwind the two dined several times in December at the home of Princess Ourousoff, the wife of the Russian ambassador to Paris, and they shared other meals with poets Marcel Schwob, Stuart Merrill, 7 Henri de Régnier and the poet/chansonnier Aristide Bruant. 8 On Christmas Eve, Gide found himself apologizing to Valéry for his silence. “Since Wilde,” he wrote, “I exist almost not at all.” 9
The manuscript of Gide’s Journal has evidence of pages torn out, and these are the pages that deal with the three weeks, November to December 1891, presumably with the beginning of the friendship with Oscar. While we can only surmise about their content, their destruction is significant. An echo can be found at the end of Gide’s Les nourritures terrestres, The Fruits of the Earth (which we will take up a little later here), when he beseeches his interlocutor Nathanaël, and also his readers, to destroy the pages and abandon the book. What is certain is that Gide was impressed, not by the literary quality of his elder’s book, but by his legend and the seduction of his conversation and personality. In the essay at hand, In Memoriam, Gide notes that he was wrong to dismiss the literary quality of Wilde’s books.
Wilde’s lessons in hedonism, his praise of evil, his contempt for Christian morality and Victorian values seem to have shaken his would-be-disciple and destroyed all his convictions. Gide’s Journal entry of January 1, 1892 is categorical: “Wilde was, I believe evil for me. With him, I had unlearned how to think. My emotions were more and more diverse, but I didn’t know how to organize them; above all, I could no longer follow other persons’ deductions. A thought, here and there. But my clumsiness in shifting them led me to abandon them. Now I am taking up again, with difficulty, but real pleasure, my history of philosophy, and study the problem of language that I will take up with Müller and Renan.” 10
That is not the whole story. Wilde’s profligacy, his self-indulgence is the source of one of Gide’s important characters, Ménalque—that is to say Menalcas, also a character of Virgil’s Eclogues. Gide published his “Portrait of Ménalque” in the 1896 issue of L’Ermitage. Although he stated it would never be reprinted, 11 it appears in all editions of Les nourritures terrestres. In addition to the famous “Families, I hate you! closed circles round the heart; doors fast shut; jealous possession of happiness,” 12 the Menalcas/Wilde utters other characteristic words. Here is one of its most celebrated passages, one that reflects the lesson Gide drew from Wilde.
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