Author: Greve, Felix Paul, 1879-1948.

Title: Oscar Wilde [photocopy] / von Felix Paul Greve. --

Published: Berlin : Gose & Tetzlaff, Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1903.

Description: 47 p.

Note: Original issued in series: Moderne Essays zur Kunst, Literatur, und Wissenschaft ; Heft 29.

Including this photocopy in the Spettigue Collection, the UM Archives own four versions in various formats of this 1903 key-text by Felix Paul Greve/Frederick Philip Grove:
one of two Microfilm copies (negative) of this text was prepared by the NL of Canada for its Historical Microfilm Collection [CHIM], the other by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1977.
The latter was donated by Henry Makow (RBR/Archives Mf 1) in the late 1970s.

An English translation by Barry Asker was published by William Hoffer, Vancouver, in 1984. The two last mentioned editions are available in RBR's FPG (Greve/Grove) Collections, the CHIM ed. are in Dafoe Microfilms.

Annotation:
This is the first of three long articles by Felix Paul Greve about Oscar Wilde, many of whose works he had translated. It was written in Palermo, just 2 months before he was sentenced for fraud in Bonn, in late May, 1903. --

On the last page of the text (p. 41, signed "Palermo, im Marz 1902 / F. P. G."), Greve claims to have gained biographical information from Wilde's personal friends, and refers to 3 published sources: Gide's article in L'Ermitage, June 1902 ; Ernest La Jeunesse's in La Revue Blanche, Dec. 15. 1900, and R. H. Sherard's book which Greve judges a clumsy and poor attempt to defend O. Wilde.

In a bibliographical note (pp. 42-43), Greve points out the difficulties of obtaining Wilde's works on the bookmarket, but that editions in England (Wright & Jones), America, and in Germany are in preparation to reverse this trend. He then lists 23 numbered works by Wilde, and notes his own translations under entries for "Dorian Gray" and "Intentions" [tr. as Fingerzeige].

Axel Knönagel, in his published Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. Edmonton, was the first to document FPG's change of attitude towards Wilde during and after his prison term in 1903/4:
- the March 1903 OW essay was written in Palermo, whereto Greve had "eloped" with Else Endell in late Jan. 1903. It differs significantly from the October 1903 one, which was written in Bonn's jail.
[see A. K., Nietzschean philosophy in the works of Frederick Philip Grove, Lang, 1990]. --

In A. Gide's "Conversation avec un allemand" [June 1904], Greve explicitly reverses Wilde's decadent "art-pour-l'art" poles by declaring:"Je préfère la vie."
[see Gaby Divay's e-Ed. of this amzing document]

Local Note: This document is part of the D. O. Spettigue Collection in Archives & Special Collections (Mss 57, Box 14, Fld. 3).

Related Works:
Greve, Felix Paul, 1879-1909. Randarabesken zu Oscar Wilde (Bonn, Oktober 1903).
Greve, Felix Paul, 1879-1909. Oscar Wilde und das Drama (1905).

Subjects: Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900 Criticism and interpretation, German.

Holdings: UM Archives, Mss 57 Box 14 Fd. 3