I have just responded to some questions from a high school student for her project on Oscar Wilde. I thought visitors to this site might be interested in reading the interview.

Why did you become interested in Oscar Wilde?

I’ve been interested in the work of Wilde for as long as I can remember. I was motivated to write my book on Wilde as an attempt to do justice to his life and work in the wake of his shameful treatment at the hands of critics and biographers. On the one hand, puritanical critics and biographers had denigrated his achievement because of the scandal surrounding his private life; on the other hand, the prurient critics and biographers had made a virtue of Wilde’s vices, celebrating the scandal in such a way that it had been allowed to eclipse Wilde’s literary legacy. My own book was, therefore, an effort to restore balance and to provide an objective perspective.

How did you find the information you used?

I studied various archives containing original manuscripts of letters from Wilde, including university libraries in Oxford and Wales, and studied the original manuscript of Wilde’s De Profundis in the rare manuscripts collection of the British Library. I also studied many books about Wilde.

Do you believe Wilde was a cynic? If yes, how did he become so cynical? If no, why was his writing so cynical?

Wilde was never simply a cynic, though he struggled with cynicism. The oscillation between cynicism and conventional Christian morality that we see in his work is merely an expression of the moral struggles of his own life. In the chapter of my book entitled “Critic or Artist” I examine the tendency towards cynicism implicit in Wilde’s works of criticism but show that this was always superseded by the conventional morality that predominates in his artistic works, i.e. his literary corpus. We need to remember that the cynicism in Wilde’s literary works, such as that of Lord Illingworth in A Woman of No Importance and Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray, is shown to be evil and results in numerous destructive consequences. In Wilde’s art, if not always in his criticism, Christian morality triumphs over sin and cynicism.   

Why do you believe Oscar Wilde became a writer?

Great writers do not choose to write, they are almost impelled to follow the promptings of the Muse. The creative gift is a calling, a vocation, that should be followed dutifully and with gratitude.

What did Wilde mainly write for, did he write for himself or was his writing for hire?

There is no doubt that Wilde enjoyed the trappings of being a celebrity and was always aware of his audience, and the remunerative rewards that resulted from keeping his audience happy, but it would be wrong to suggest that this led to a prostitution of his gifts. Wilde wrote what he was called to write, whether children’s stories, dramatic comedies, poetry, or his one masterful novel.

What inspiration did Wilde have?

Ultimately inspiration is a gift, which is to say that it is a God-given grace. The gift of creative inspiration, like the gift of life, is freely given by God, even if the recipients of the gift fail to acknowledge it or fail to be thankful for it. On a subsistent level, Wilde was also inspired by other writers, including Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Huysmans, and Newman, but his greatest inspiration appears to have been the figure of Christ in the Gospels and His Presence in the Church. Wilde’s deathbed conversion to Catholicism was merely the final consummation of this lifelong love affair.

Did his childhood or family affect his writing?

There is no doubt that Wilde was hugely influenced by his mother, who was a well-known writer in Ireland when Wilde was a child. Her influence was not always very healthy, especially in her tendency to fabricate “reality” to suit her own convenience.

How would you describe Wilde’s personality, based on your research?

Wilde’s personality was defined by his weakness. For all his great strength as a writer, and his great power as a wit and conversationalist, he was seemingly unable to fulfill his responsibilities to his wife and children and allowed himself to descend into a life that was destructive of his family and his art. There is no way of knowing what great works would have emanated from his illustrious pen if his life and creativity had not been snubbed out so prematurely by his disastrous and destructive self-indulgence.

Is there anything you want the people to know about Oscar Wilde?

Oscar Wilde is to modern literature what St. Mary Magdalene is to the ancient faith. He was a miserable sinner who was ultimately saved from hell by his love for Christ – and, of course, by Christ’s love for him. As such, he is an inspiration to all miserable sinners that nobody is beyond the reach of Christ’s love.