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28-511: The Green Carnation is a novel by Robert Hichens that was first published anonymously in 1894. A satire on contemporary champions of the Aesthetic Movement , it was withdrawn briefly after the scandal of the Oscar Wilde trial in the following year. Later printings followed and it has remained popular for its depiction of the witty personalities of the time. Robert Hichens , a writer on

56-447: A marriage of convenience to him, she could never accept a man whose whole behaviour and conversation is only an imitative pose. Lady Locke then decides to take Tommy to the seaside, while Mr Amarinth and the disgruntled Lord Reggie cut short their week in the country and return together by train to London. Reviews of the novel were generally appreciative of its style but had mixed feelings about its effect. For The Observer , "The book

84-482: A quartet of artistic types. It was not until 2013, however, that Frank J. Morlock based a play on Hichens's novel. Robert Smythe Hichens Robert Smythe Hichens (14 November 1864 – 20 July 1950) was an English journalist, novelist, music lyricist, short story writer, music critic and collaborated on successful plays. He is best remembered as a satirist of the " Naughty Nineties ". Hichens

112-448: A satire about decadent London; The Slave (1899), a fantasy about an amazing emerald; Tongues of Conscience (1900), a collection of five horror stories including "How Love Came to Professor Guildea" (this story is about a supernatural visitation and is thought by some to be Hichens's best fiction – it is frequently anthologised). "How Love Came to Professor Guildea" was not initially well-received, with Frederic Taber Cooper calling

140-422: A satire of Hichens's friends Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas ; since the work made clear Wilde was homosexual it was withdrawn from publication in 1895, but not before helping set the stage for Wilde's public disgrace and downfall. Hichens was also friends with several other writers, including E. F. Benson and Reggie Turner , as well as the composer Maude Valérie White . Hichens's first big success

168-407: A young widow who has only recently returned to England after a ten-year absence. Some days later, Lord Reggie, Mr Amarinth and Lady Locke (together with her nine-year-old son Tommy) are guests at Mrs. Windsor's countryside cottage near Dorking . An additional guest is the mysterious Madame Valtesi whose one good action, she claims, was to marry the only man not in love with her when young. Lady Locke

196-518: Is a classic of its kind", and in the opinion of The World , it is "brimful of good things, and exceedingly clever". The Literary World ' s reviewer thought that "A more telling satire on 'modernity' and the decadent could not easily be written", but in the eyes of the Glasgow Herald that might be a disadvantage: "This book is so terribly actual and up to date that in six months it will be old-fashioned." Others take exception to

224-409: Is initially attracted by Lord Reggie, but becomes increasingly disturbed by his wearing of the green carnation and what it symbolises about his flippant attitude to life. Lord Reggie tells her that Esmé invented the flower, and that it is only worn by a few people who are followers of "the higher philosophy". During their stay in the village of Chenecote, Lord Reggie composes an anthem on a passage from

252-636: The Song of Songs . Together with Mr Amarinth, he flatters the high church curate Mr Smith into allowing him to coach the village choir in singing it at Sunday service and directing them from the church's organ. At the village fete on Monday, held in Mrs Windsor's garden, Mr Amarinth assembles the local schoolchildren and addresses them incomprehensibly in a lecture on "The art of folly", to the outrage of their National school teachers. Though Lord Reggie has no inclination to marry, he has been advised by Mr Amarinth that

280-420: The author, on the grounds that "A man may certainly burlesque himself if he like; in fact, it would be a clever thing to do", he immediately denied the fact: "I invented that magnificent flower. But with the middle-class and mediocre book that usurps its strangely beautiful name I have, I need hardly say, nothing whatsoever to do. The flower is a work of art. The book is not." There are conflicting accounts of how

308-586: The book had been withdrawn from publication following the scandal of the Oscar Wilde trial in 1895. However, a Heinemann edition of 1901 lists an 1896 reissue following the first four editions of 1894-5 and claims 12,000 copies as having been printed in all. The novel is a roman à clef and a gentle parody of aestheticism whose main characters, Esmé Amarinth and Lord Reginald Hastings, are based upon Oscar Wilde and his disciple, Lord Alfred Douglas . It has also been suggested that their hostess, Mrs Windsor, portrays Wilde's faithful friend, Ada Leverson . For most of

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336-492: The decision to omit the author's name from Hichens's subsequent novel. The story that it was to identify wearers as homosexual is an unsubstantiated later invention. In the opening scene, Lord Reggie Hastings slips a green carnation into his evening coat before attending a dinner party at Mrs Windsor's house in Belgrave Square . He converses there with Esmé Amarinth, a married playwright; and Lady Locke (cousin to Mrs Windsor),

364-562: The flower came to be associated with Wilde. Dyed flowers had already been in existence in England for a decade before he adopted it, and green carnations went on to be worn in the US by the Irish to celebrate St Patrick's Day . It is believed that Wilde and some of his supporters wore the flower to the first night of his play Lady Windermere's Fan in 1892, most probably to gain attention – a gesture similar to

392-566: The fringes of the circle about Oscar Wilde, published The Green Carnation with Heinemann in 1894 in the UK and with D. Appleton & Company in the US. First editions were published anonymously on the advice of the English publisher in order to arouse greater interest, although his authorship was acknowledged later. According to the introduction that Hichens wrote for the Unicorn Press reprint in 1949,

420-505: The gathering of wits by the next train." A poem titled "Morbidezza" in the October 1894 number of Punch saw in the novel's device more artificiality than perversion: Caught in Sham's sepulchral mesh Art now raves of Green carnations. A year later, Marc-André Raffalovich , a sympathetic friend of homosexuals though not of Wilde, followed with his sonnet "The Green Carnation", finding in

448-433: The general tone of the discourse. It is, according to The Academy , "an affectation of life and literature, of an abnormality, a worship of abstract and 'scarlet sin'", while The Saturday Review is humorously dismissive: "It was, no doubt, necessary to the author to have a stone wall (represented by Lady Locke) from which the football of his epigrams would rebound with renewed agility; otherwise Lady Locke would have left

476-432: The good-natured and wealthy Lady Locke would make him a useful wife. She is fond of him, yet has realised by now how under the influence of Mr Amarinth Lord Reggie remains, as well as the incompatibility between him and herself and the destabilising influence Reggie is on the hero-worshipping Tommy. At the end of the novel, therefore, she firmly rejects his proposal, telling Lord Reggie that, as well as knowing it would only be

504-503: The greatest stories of its age". Hichens's Felix (1902), is an early fictional treatment of hypodermic morphine addiction, while The Garden of Allah (1904) sold well internationally, and was made into a film three times. Hichens published his memoirs in 1947, Yesterday . Novels Collections Nonfiction Anthologies containing stories by Hichens Short stories Additional sources National school (England and Wales) The schools were eventually absorbed into

532-418: The much larger National Society receiving a proportionally larger share. The grants increased over time, but they were accompanied by inspections and increasing demands from the state. The rigid monitorial system, though economical, came to be viewed by inspectors as limited. The Elementary Education Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 75) provided for the establishment of board schools to supplement those of

560-403: The novel a vulgarisation of homoerotic aestheticism: Never in his chaste or poisonous posies Can love allow this milliner’s creation, This shilling shocker, once a white carnation. In the new century, Noël Coward wrote his operetta Bitter Sweet (1929) as a parody of the dandy's life style and drives the 1890s allusion home with the song "We all wear a green carnation", performed by

588-421: The societies, and allowed for state funding of 50% of the running costs of voluntary schools, but phased out capital funding. The National Society responded by raising £10 million and almost doubling the number of its schools to 12,000 in 15 years. However the schools found it difficult to meet their maintenance costs, and also suffered from competition with board schools. Many schools were closed or handed over to

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616-607: The state system, either as fully state-run schools or as faith schools funded by the state. Prior to 1800, education for poorer children was limited to isolated charity schools. In 1808 the Royal Lancastrian Society (later the British and Foreign School Society) was created to promote schools using the Monitorial System of Joseph Lancaster . The National Society was set up in 1811 to establish similar schools using

644-424: The story "a hideous bit of morbidity" and Edmund Wilson dismissing the story as "trash". Later reviews of the story were more positive; J. A. Cuddon called it "outstanding" and compared it with " The Horla " by Guy de Maupassant and "The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions . Brian Stableford described the story as an "authentic masterpiece of horror fiction", and Jason Colavito called it "possibly one of

672-517: The system of Dr. Andrew Bell , but based on the teachings of the Church of England in contrast to the non-denominational Christian instruction of the Lancastrian schools. The National Society aimed to establish a National school in every parish of England and Wales. The schools were usually next to the parish church, and named after it. From 1833, the state began to pay annual grants to the societies, with

700-527: The time they converse "brilliantly" in the Wildean manner, championing artifice over Nature and defying middle-class orthodoxy in the name of artistic individuality. Wilde had at first been amused by The Green Carnation and had written to Ada Leverson that "I did not think [Hichens] capable of anything so clever". But when the review of the book in the Pall Mall Gazette suggested that Wilde himself could be

728-459: Was An Imaginative Man (1895); set in the city of Cairo , Egypt, a place which fascinated Hichens, it is a study of insanity, in which the hero becomes dangerously obsessed with the Great Sphinx . Other early fiction includes The Folly of Eustace (1896), a collection of stories including some supernatural; Flames (1897), a story resembling Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ; The Londoners (1898),

756-547: Was a great traveller. Egypt was one of his favourite destinations – he first went there in the early 1890s for his health. For most of his later life he lived outside England, in Switzerland and the Riviera . Hichens was a homosexual; he never married. Hichens first novel, The Coastguard's Secret (1886), was written when he was only seventeen. He first became well known among the reading public with The Green Carnation (1894),

784-659: Was born in Speldhurst in Kent, the eldest son of the Rev. Frederick Harrison Hichens, and his wife Abigail Elizabeth Smythe. He was educated at Clifton College , the Royal College of Music and early on had a desire to be a musician. Later in life he would become music critic on The World , taking the place of George Bernard Shaw . He studied at the London School of Journalism . Hichens

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