London

<p dir="ltr">This chapter focuses on various aspects of Wilde’s residence in London and his creative response to the city. First, it documents his life there, his early house-share with the artist Frank Miles, and his marital home in Tite Street, Chelsea, the ‘house beautiful’ that would be sacked and looted by his creditors. Second, it looks briefly at Wilde’s relationship with London’s culture industry, the theatres of the West End and the newspapers and periodicals he wrote for (and edited). Third, it examines how Wilde represented London in his writing. In his plays and fiction (even his fairy tale, ‘The Happy Prince’), London tends to be a backdrop to the activities of its wealthy citizens, but his descriptions of the city also have noticeable affinities with poetry and visual art. Most strikingly, poems such as ‘Impression du Matin’ and ‘Symphony in Yellow’ transform the heavily polluted industrial capital into a work of art. Lastly, the chapter considers how Wilde’s sexual life linked two very different versions of London, performing transgressions of geography and social class that contributed to the shock and horror which greeted the revelation of his activities.</p>