Theodore Wratislaw: Fragments of a Life - Hardcover

D.J. Sheppard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1904201245 ISBN 13: 9781904201243

Publisher: Rivendale Press, 2016

Synopsis

Theodore Wratislaw is one of the most biographically elusive figures of the 'decadent' 1890s. Though invariably named in accounts of the period, he remains a marginal figure, crowded out by more notorious contemporaries. When noticed, it is usually as an imposter who, whilst adopting the decadent - and, on occasion, homoerotic - pose in his poetry, lived the convention-bound life of a civil servant. The accusation of insincerity has stuck, and had a deleterious impact on the assessment of his work. As the present volume reveals, however, the accusation is based on a mistaken view of his life. Contrary to John Betjeman's assessment of the 'buttoned up figure obviously longing to burst out of his narrow neatness,' Wratislaw's struggle was to maintain some semblance of bourgeois respectability rather than to escape it. Besides recurring mental illness, he experienced trials and tribulations in his private life on a scale to rival almost any of his peers included amongst Yeats's 'tragic generation.'

About this title

Review

"[a] careful, articulate and entertaining study" TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

"[A] deeply researched and wonderfully engaging biography, which more than justifies Sheppard's opening argument that there is great worth in carefully tracing the movements of marginal figures." - Edwardian Culture Network

"Theodore Wratislaw may not have made the second eleven of 1890s writers, yet he contributed to the iconic 'Yellow Book' and 'Savoy'. His flagging reputation afterwards cost him, until now, a biography, a gap effectively and readably redeemed by D.J. Sheppard." - English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920

About this edition

• Publisher: Rivendale Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1904201245
• ISBN 13: 9781904201243
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 291