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Impressions of America
Excerpt:
Oscar Wilde visited America in the year 1882. Interest in the Æsthetic School, of which he was already the acknowledged master, had sometime previously spread to the United States, and it is said that the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, “Patience,”[1] in which he and his disciples were held up to ridicule, determined him to pay a visit to the States to give some lectures explaining what he meant by Æstheticism, hoping thereby to interest, and possibly to instruct and elevate our transatlantic cousins.
He set sail on board the “Arizona” on Saturday, December 24th, 1881, arriving in New York early in the following year. On landing he was bombarded by journalists eager to interview the distinguished stranger. “Punch,” in its issue of January 14th, in a happy vein, parodied these interviewers, the most amusing passage in which referred to “His Glorious Past,” wherein Wilde was made to say, “Precisely—I took the Newdigate. Oh! no doubt, every year some man gets the Newdigate; but not every year does Newdigate get an Oscar.”
Oscar Wilde visited America in the year 1882. Interest in the Æsthetic School, of which he was already the acknowledged master, had sometime previously spread to the United States, and it is said that the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, “Patience,”[1] in which he and his disciples were held up to ridicule, determined him to pay a visit to the States to give some lectures explaining what he meant by Æstheticism, hoping thereby to interest, and possibly to instruct and elevate our transatlantic cousins.
He set sail on board the “Arizona” on Saturday, December 24th, 1881, arriving in New York early in the following year. On landing he was bombarded by journalists eager to interview the distinguished stranger. “Punch,” in its issue of January 14th, in a happy vein, parodied these interviewers, the most amusing passage in which referred to “His Glorious Past,” wherein Wilde was made to say, “Precisely—I took the Newdigate. Oh! no doubt, every year some man gets the Newdigate; but not every year does Newdigate get an Oscar.”
40 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1882
3 people are currently reading
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About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,616 books39.1k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 15, 2018
In 1882, Oscar spend his time in America lecturing on aestheticism. He originally planned to only stay for four months but due to the commercial success of his lectures he continued for almost a year.
In this essay Oscar examines the differences between American and British culture. He notes that Americans are not necessarily well-dressed but rather comfortably dressed. Everybody seems to be in a hurry and, so he says, America is the noisiest country in the world.
It was also interesting to see his take on British vs American education. He argues that the American education is much more practicle which is why the American youth is more acceptive of new ideas. He says that we must give a child a mind before we can instruct the mind (wow!) and that boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something so that they're more appreciative of their surroundings and less apt to destroy. It makes me incredibly happy to see how progressive Oscar was in that regard.
Particularly funny was his recount of his visit to the Niagara falls. Oscar was oddly unimpressed and didn't appreciate that he had to wear 'a yellow oil-skin, which is as ugly as a mackintosh – and I hope none of you ever wears one.' I snorted out loud, upon realizing, that even young Oscar (this essay was written when he was 29) talked like the dandies in his later plays.
It was also interesting to hear of his views on English Puritanism, which he claims is at its best ('and then it is not very good') in America. It becomes very clear that the character of Hester Worley (from: A Woman of No Importance), an American Puritan and an outsider to the British society in the play, was probably inspired by these earlier visits.
He also examined America's gun problem. He states that 'every man carries a revolver. […] I was told if I go there they would be sure to shoot me or my travelling manager', but then adds in an amusing manner that 'nothing they would do to my travelling manager would intimate me.' Oh, Oscar!
The most hilarious moment of this essay is probably his recount of the one time he went to a dancing-saloon where he 'saw the only rational method of art criticism' he ever came across. Over the piano was printed a notice: PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT THE PIANIST. HE IS DOING HIS BEST. – Well, you guessed it, I will hang that quote directly over the piano in my room. Nothing's stopping me.
As you can see there were many hilarious and adorable moments in this essay. Nonetheless, it's also important to talk about Oscar's ignorance. Even though slavery and racism don't take up room in this essay, Oscar notes that 'every man when he gets to the age of twenty-one is allowed to vote' and that 'it is well worth one's while to go to a country which can teach us the beauty of the word FREEDOM and the value of the thing LIBERTY.' These are incredibly ignorant statements which dismiss the position and struggle of (former) African slaves. It's disheartening to see that Oscar's definition of a 'man' apparently doesn't include those minorities.
So as much as I love Oscar and everything he achieved in life and literature, I will never obscure the fact that, especially in his younger years, he didn't care about the struggle of people of colour and wasn't even aware of his own privilege.
In this essay Oscar examines the differences between American and British culture. He notes that Americans are not necessarily well-dressed but rather comfortably dressed. Everybody seems to be in a hurry and, so he says, America is the noisiest country in the world.
The English people give intensely ugly names to places. One place had such an ugly name that I refused to lecture there.Whilst Britain is still focused on Romanticism and the beauty of life, America is the country of science. Oscar notes that Americans are much more progressive in that regard, especially when it comes to the invention of machines.
It was also interesting to see his take on British vs American education. He argues that the American education is much more practicle which is why the American youth is more acceptive of new ideas. He says that we must give a child a mind before we can instruct the mind (wow!) and that boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something so that they're more appreciative of their surroundings and less apt to destroy. It makes me incredibly happy to see how progressive Oscar was in that regard.
Particularly funny was his recount of his visit to the Niagara falls. Oscar was oddly unimpressed and didn't appreciate that he had to wear 'a yellow oil-skin, which is as ugly as a mackintosh – and I hope none of you ever wears one.' I snorted out loud, upon realizing, that even young Oscar (this essay was written when he was 29) talked like the dandies in his later plays.
It was also interesting to hear of his views on English Puritanism, which he claims is at its best ('and then it is not very good') in America. It becomes very clear that the character of Hester Worley (from: A Woman of No Importance), an American Puritan and an outsider to the British society in the play, was probably inspired by these earlier visits.
He also examined America's gun problem. He states that 'every man carries a revolver. […] I was told if I go there they would be sure to shoot me or my travelling manager', but then adds in an amusing manner that 'nothing they would do to my travelling manager would intimate me.' Oh, Oscar!
The most hilarious moment of this essay is probably his recount of the one time he went to a dancing-saloon where he 'saw the only rational method of art criticism' he ever came across. Over the piano was printed a notice: PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT THE PIANIST. HE IS DOING HIS BEST. – Well, you guessed it, I will hang that quote directly over the piano in my room. Nothing's stopping me.
As you can see there were many hilarious and adorable moments in this essay. Nonetheless, it's also important to talk about Oscar's ignorance. Even though slavery and racism don't take up room in this essay, Oscar notes that 'every man when he gets to the age of twenty-one is allowed to vote' and that 'it is well worth one's while to go to a country which can teach us the beauty of the word FREEDOM and the value of the thing LIBERTY.' These are incredibly ignorant statements which dismiss the position and struggle of (former) African slaves. It's disheartening to see that Oscar's definition of a 'man' apparently doesn't include those minorities.
So as much as I love Oscar and everything he achieved in life and literature, I will never obscure the fact that, especially in his younger years, he didn't care about the struggle of people of colour and wasn't even aware of his own privilege.
August 10, 2015
An amazing short book about Wilde´s visit in America and his impressions about this place.
``The first thing that struck me on landing in America was that if the Americans are not the most well-dressed people in the world, they are the most comfortably dressed. Men are seen there with the dreadful chimney-pot hat, but there are very few hatless men.``
``The next thing partivularly noticeable is that everybody seems in a hurry to catch a train. This is a state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance. Had Romeo or Juliet been in a constant state of anxiety about trains, or had their minds been agitated by the questions of return tickets, Shakespeare could not have given us those lovely balcony scenes which are so full of poetry and pathos.``
``We base the education of children entirely on books, but we must give a child a mind before we can instruct the mind.``
``The educated Americans are the best politically educated people in the world. It is well worth one´s while to go to a country which can teach us the beauty of the word FREEDOM and the value of the thing LIBERTY.``
Loved it!!
``The first thing that struck me on landing in America was that if the Americans are not the most well-dressed people in the world, they are the most comfortably dressed. Men are seen there with the dreadful chimney-pot hat, but there are very few hatless men.``
``The next thing partivularly noticeable is that everybody seems in a hurry to catch a train. This is a state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance. Had Romeo or Juliet been in a constant state of anxiety about trains, or had their minds been agitated by the questions of return tickets, Shakespeare could not have given us those lovely balcony scenes which are so full of poetry and pathos.``
``We base the education of children entirely on books, but we must give a child a mind before we can instruct the mind.``
``The educated Americans are the best politically educated people in the world. It is well worth one´s while to go to a country which can teach us the beauty of the word FREEDOM and the value of the thing LIBERTY.``
Loved it!!
May 14, 2020
This would be a really great travel vlog.
June 17, 2024
America it seems did not flatter not appreciate to the full the pronounced artistic expressionism of Wilde. It was not that those in this country could not appreciate it, that they lacked the intellectual capacity for understanding, but rather that they chose not to care for it. The people of America, during the time of Wilde’s visit were too busy building up their vast republic to be concerned with the decadence of a character like Wilde. After all, it was the sort of decadence that Wilde cultivated which brought about the ruin of the Roman republic, and it was the kind of grit which Wilde observed that built it up in the first.
America, our modern day empire.
“So infinitesimal did i find the knowledge of Art, west of the Rocky mountains, that an art patron-one who in his day had been a miner- actually sued the railroad company for damages because the plaster cast of Venus of Milo, which he had imported from Paris, had been delivered minus the arms. And what is more surprising still, he gained his case and the damages.”
America, our modern day empire.
“So infinitesimal did i find the knowledge of Art, west of the Rocky mountains, that an art patron-one who in his day had been a miner- actually sued the railroad company for damages because the plaster cast of Venus of Milo, which he had imported from Paris, had been delivered minus the arms. And what is more surprising still, he gained his case and the damages.”
February 24, 2024
"Everybody seems in a hurry to catch a train.
This is a state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance."
This is a state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance."
June 4, 2025
as one said, "this would've been a really great travel vlog"
Want to read
March 15, 2014Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
March 26, 2016
Oskarku, Ty nadinteligentny i szczwany łotrze. Uwielbiam Cię.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews