Oscar Wilde by Louis Kronenberger

Abstract

Reviews 175 is both times called Laufebold. The subjunctive mode of "trennte” (V.11961), abbreviated for konnte trennen, is not reflected in the trans­ lation. These points as well as minor printing mistakes should be cor­ rected at a second printing. As Cyrus Hamlin admits himself, there is “no ideal substitute for access to Goethe’s original German” (p. xi). It is also doubtful that there ever will be only one translation capable of expressing all the connotations, associations, and symbolic references of Goethe’s language, but this one seems to convey the spirit of Goethe’s Faust better than those available till now. In combination with the well chosen critical selections this edition should be ideal for courses in the Humanities, Comparative Literature, German Literature in translation, and for the general reader seriously interested in Goethe’s Faust. EDITH POTTER Scripps College Louis Kronenberger. Oscar Wilde. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1976. Pp. xi + 236. $8.95. One cannot envy the poor soul who feels compelled to write yet another biography of Oscar Wilde. In the face of multitudinous pre­ decessors, some having close associations with Wilde, others making up for a lack of personal acquaintance with extraordinary scholarly diligence, still others compensating for old material by wit and urbanity, a new biographer faces a formidable task. How is he to establish even the slightest beachhead of freshness, originality, relevance? Louis Kronen­ berger would appear to be aware of the problem as he quotes someone (not mentioning whom): “More books have been devoted to him than to any author of modem times” (p. 215). Presumably a new Wilde biography, then, must in some way justify its existence: it must produce new material, rearrange old material in an interesting way, provide fresh emphases, or analyze existing material from an original perspective. Undaunted, the editor of The Library of World Biography series, in which this volume appears, provides a sanguine introduction: Wilde “has never been better served than by Louis Kronenberger” (p. x). Some readers, more cautiously, may be tempted to invoke the ghost of Oscar: “A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies.” For, contrary to his editor’s extravagant praise, Professor Kronenberger neither serves nor serves up Wilde well. The pity of this failure is that it has glimmerings of a potential success. Kronenberger’s critical soundness regarding the plays, tales, essays, and poetry suggests that he might have found a vital approach by making this a critical biography, focusing on Wilde’s life vis-a-vis his art and his public image as a self-conscious work of art. The book makes a respectable feint in this direction, observing that Wilde looked upon life as a theater in which he performed as actor, press agent, scene 176 Comparative Drama designer, costume designer, and ad-libber. It pauses for brief, well-etched critiques of the literature, being especially penetrating in capsule treat­ ments of The Picture of Dorian Gray and the comedies. The Importance of Being Earnest, for example, is perceptively diagnosed as farce and fantasy in which “nothing can seem bogus because nothing pretends to be real” (p. 138). The appraisals are forthright, for the most part sensible, and occasionally cemented with an apt epigram. But despite their general soundness they are more glimpses and jabs than full views or sustained argument. A telling relation might well be drawn between Wilde’s remarkably unstable, inconsistent literary taste which ranged in extremes from bilious to brilliant, and his entire personality, talent, pose, and myth—but Kronenberger does not do so. For the most part the pieces are not integrated. This is a great shame, since Kronenberger is at his best when he does stop to analyze and coalesce, such as in a passage where he assesses Wilde’s snobbishness, character, and wit in the early 1890’s (pp. 86-96), in another where he probes Wilde’s motives for pursuing the dangerous legal action against the Marquess of Queensberry (p. 145), and in his summary section, “Repetitions and Appraisals” (pp. 215-22). Rather than build upon his strengths, however, Kronenberger appears to be constrained by both biographical and editorial matters. On the one hand there are...