- 127
Wilde, Oscar
Description
- Wilde, Oscar
- Poems. London: David Bogue, 1881
- paper
Literature
Catalogue Note
The 'New Woman' novelist Julia Constance Fletcher, who wrote under the pen name "George Fleming", was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1858, but spent most of her life in Italy. She and Wilde met on Wilde's first visit to the Mediterranean in 1877, and soon afterwards spent time together in Italy, where they developed an intimate friendship. Soon after arriving in Britain Fletcher completed a three volume novel, Mirage, in which Wilde appears as the character Claude Davenant. This was the first time Wilde had been represented in fiction. Wilde reciprocated by dedicating Ravenna to her, and publishing her in Woman's World in 1889. Wilde's copy of Mirage was still in his library at the time of his bankruptcy. Fletcher was also a close friend of the artist and critic Eugene Benson.