Oscar was not the brightest star in the Wilde dynasty — his father was
OUTSIDE No 1 Merrion Square in Dublin there is a plaque which honours an extraordinary man, an “aural and ophthalmic surgeon, archaeologist, ethnologist, antiquarian, biographer, statistician, naturalist, topographer, historian, and folklorist”. Yet Sir William Wilde is remembered not for these things but for being the father of Oscar Wilde, a negation of his considerable achievements finally remedied by this group biography, the story of the Wilde family across seven generations from which the complex Sir William emerges as the standout figure.
Teasing out the veiled origins of the dynasty in this country — it was founded by English builders attracted by the boom of the early 18th century — Gerard Hanberry deftly creates the broad context of an Ireland in crisis, out of which Oscar Wilde’s intellect would eventually emerge. “I inherited from my father and mother a name of high distinction in literature and in art,” he once said, an uncharacteristic display of modesty given that his mother, Lady Jane, stirred a nation as the fiery revolutionary poet “Speranza”, while his father enjoyed a 30-year publishing career of his own.
