Theodore Wratislaw

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Theodore Wratislaw was a decadent poet of the 1890s, most renowned in the twentieth century as the author of the homoerotic poem “To a Sicilian Boy”, published in

The Artist and Journal of Home Culture

(August 1893). More recent research has identified him as the model for the title character of Max Beerbohm’s short story “Enoch Soames” (1916), about a stereotypically maudlin and obscure fin de siècle poet who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for posthumous fame. One of the few writers of the period to appear in both

The Yellow Book

and

The Savoy

, Wratislaw was, if not a friend, then at least friendly with a range of nineties figures, including Beerbohm, Aubrey Beardsley, Lord Alfred Douglas, Lionel Johnson, Arthur Machen, M.P. Shiel, Arthur Symons, and Oscar Wilde.…

1994 words

Citation: Sheppard, D. J.. "Theodore Wratislaw". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15156, accessed 02 December 2024.]

15156 Theodore Wratislaw 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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