‘My grandfather, a convinced feminist, defended women’s rights’

“Unfortunately we have no memory of him – he continues – My father was born in 1886 and the last time he saw his parent he was only 9 years old. And then Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality scandal is unfortunately part of history, Victorian society was terribly closed and repressive in those years. No embarrassment on the part of our family towards what had happened, but many secrets, yes. When my grandfather was sentenced to forced labor – Merlin Holland still remembers – my grandmother Costance was forced to change her surname, for herself, for her two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan.”

“That removal, as I wrote in my book – continues the author of ‘After Oscar. The Legacy of a scandal’ – was almost an obligation linked to the prejudices of society, and not so much to the shame of the ongoing scandal, especially after the three trials in which my grandfather was involved. Two against the Crown, the third against the Marquess of Queensberry. The name of Oscar Wilde, for English society and for high society, was taboo”.

The great writer and playwright, once released from prison and having served his sentence, never saw his wife and two children again. He died alone and in absolute poverty. “Reading my ancestor’s correspondence – he continues in the interview with the French weekly Merlin Holland – my grandparents would have wanted to see each other again, perhaps they could have started a life together again, because after all they were not divorced. But the greatest ostracism came from society, false, hypocritical”.

“My father wrote in his diary, ‘after his painful and frightening experience in prison we may have had to reunite – he still remembers – My father could have healed, he would have found his inspiration again. It didn’t happen and he sank back to the bottom of an endless abyss’. Oscar Wilde never rose from that abyss”, concludes his grandson.