Wilde Times

by C. Margery Kempe

I'm just back from Dublin, another writer's town. Honestly, is there any town in Ireland that's not full of writers? I begin to think no. Dublin is particularly special as the birthplace of Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. For many Oscar offers the epitome of witty repartee. What I have always admired is his ability to make it all look effortless. I know that it took hard work, but when you hear those immortal lines, it seems as if the words could never have been any other way.

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."

"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

"The very essence of romance is uncertainty."

Here's the suitably louche statue of Wilde in Merrion Square, a very posh area of Dublin, just across the street from his former home. Merrion Square is a lovely park and many famous folk lived on its edge including Sheridan LeFanu, Wiliam Butler Yeats, Eric Schrodinger, and AE.

There are two other pillars nearby that feature smaller statues and are covered with quotes by Wilde. People tend to think only of the wit of Wilde and forget that most of his plays are about romance and its obstacles, whether it's the secrets upstanding and idealistic partners keep from each other or the desperate lengths we go to try to win someone's love (like being re-christened with a new name).

from A Woman of No Importance, Act 4 –

Hester: You know I have loved him always.

Mrs. Arbuthnot: But we were very poor.

Hester: Who, being loved, is poor? Oh, no one. I hate my riches. They are a burden. Let him share it with me.

Mrs. Arbuthnot: But we are disgraced. We rank among the outcasts. Gerald is nameless. The sins of the parents should be visited on the children. It is God's only law.

Hester: I was wrong. God's law is only Love.

Around the corner from Oscar's monument lies an homage to another son of the city: James Joyce. This lovely statue also features the words of the writer, radiating out from his image. The statue stands in the interior garden of the Hotel Merrion — a very swanky place indeed. If you need a fancy spa getaway, you will be pampered there.

Filed under: C. Margery Kempe, contemporary romance, erotic romance, inspiration, Kit Marlowe, Noble Romance, Settings, What inspires you?, Writer's Life