In many publications on the Internet, one can find a statement about a very unusual dying phrase of the famous writer. We checked the reliability of this story.

In different sources, the dying phrase of Wilde is mentioned in slightly different formulations: sometimes - "These wallpaper are terrible. One of us should leave", Sometimes - "Either the wallpaper leaves, or I", And sometimes -" "Either I, or these terrible wallpapers". Some publications even specify what kind of wallpaper I didn't like it writer: ""Either I, or these vile wallpaper in a flower".

In 1895, Oscar Wilde, who, by that time, was one of the most famous prose writers and playwrights of Great Britain, was Convicted For “gross obscenities” (this euphemism meant homosexual relations) and was sentenced to a two -year prison term. The trial was extremely loud, therefore, having been released, Wilde chose to leave the UK. He settled in France, and lived under a pseudonym and often moved from place to place to avoid meetings with old acquaintances, journalists or simply curious inhabitants who recognized the scandalous writer. His last address was the Elsas Hotel in the Saint-Germain Quarter Paris (now the hotel is just called "Hotel"). “This poverty really breaks the heart: it is so dirty, so completely depressing, so hopeless,” Wilde described his life in Elsas in one of the letters.

In September 1900, Wilde caught a cold, the disease gave a complication in his ear. His condition worsened every day, and in the end he was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis. In his lecture "The last hours of Oscar Wilde"Professor Joseph Bristow From the University of California, the writer's life was restored in detail. It was based on rare documents, including letters and records of two key witnesses of the last days of Wilde: his friend Reginald Turnernerwho spent the last week of his life with the writer, and the Irish priest Kutbert Dannawho on his deathbed turned Wilde into Catholicism. None of them mentioned the phrase about the wallpaper. According to Bristow, she first appeared in the memoirs of a journalist Claire de PratzPublished in L’Européen magazine almost 30 years after Wilde's death. She claimed that the writer, suffering from poverty, perceived tasteless hotel wallpapers as a symbol of the decline of his life and told her once: “You see, my child, between me and these wallpaper, a deadly duel. One of us should remain here: either they, or me. "

Posthumous photo of Oscar Wilde. Source: Screenshot 1718.ucla.edu

However, the quote investigator portal Curses An earlier source that mentions Wilde's complaints about the wallpaper is the diary of the Irish writer Lady Gregory. In 1928 (a year before the publication of the memoirs of de Pratz), she wrote: “She stumbled upon a letter from Paris, December 1908, from W. B. Yates. He writes that on the eve of Mod Gonn met a friend Oscar Wilde, who told him a strange heroic story about Wilde's death. He died in terrible agony, putting his hand in his mouth to drown out the screams. He lived in deep poverty, often without money for food, and claimed that he was killed by wallpaper. “One of us had to leave,” he said.

However, neither de Pratz nor the unnamed friend of Oscar Wilde claimed that it was precisely the dying words of the writer. De Pratz did not indicate at all exactly when this conversation took place between them. According to Bristow, the writer lived in Elsas for five months, so that these conversations could take place long before he fell ill.

According to The Quote Investigator, the phrase about the wallpaper as the dying words of Oscar Wilde first published the publication Liverpool Echo on November 30, 1950 under the heading of the Echo and Gossip of the Day. A short note, entitled “Wilde's Last Words”, read: “These wallpapers kill me; one of us should leave” - Oscar Wilde on his deathbed on this day 50 years ago. ”

Thus, apparently, Wilde really pronounced the severity of the wallpaper in his room in the Alsace Hotel - perhaps not even once. However, there is no evidence that she became his last words. This phrase is not mentioned in the letters and memoirs of people who were direct witnesses to Wilde's illness and death.

Photo on the cover: screenshot National Portret Gallery