Paris Is the Place: An Exhibit of Artifacts Celebrates Oscar Wilde's Life & Work

Co-curated by Oscar Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland, this new exhibition at Paris's Petit Palais opens on September 28. Via the Guardian:

Paris will hold its first major exhibition on the life and work of Oscar Wilde next month, co-curated by his grandson.

Wilde, who spoke fluent French, was an ardent Francophile who regularly visited the city, eventually dying there in 1900, having been hounded out of England after his conviction for homosexuality. His tomb, in Paris’s Père Lachaise cemetery, is now a place of pilgrimage.

Yet the centenary of Wilde’s death – aged just 46 – was not celebrated in France, even though London honoured him with two exhibitions in 2000, at the British Library and the Barbican Centre. The Irish novelist, playwright and poet has only now been given full cultural recognition.

Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland, who lives in France, told the Guardian: “There has never been a major Paris exhibition on Oscar. Everybody is now saying, ‘well, why not?’ Oscar is going to be plastered all over the Metro and the buses. I think the French are quite surprised … that they never thought of doing this before.”

Manuscripts, photographs, paintings and personal effects are among almost 200 exhibits coming from public and private collections worldwide for the exhibition at the Petit Palais. Together they will tell the story of the creator of masterpieces such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The exhibition will feature a manuscript of the former and the published copy of that play dedicated to his loyal friend Robert Ross with the words “the mirror of perfect friendship: Robbie”.

More at the Guardian. If you find yourself wondering what to do on your lunch break, perhaps a deep read into "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" will do the trick. Enjoy!