Читать книгу Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters - Оскар Уайльд, Merlin Holland, F. H. Cornish - Страница 89

[Postmark 2 December 1884] 9 Charles Street, Grosvenor Square

My dear Philip, I have sent a photo of myself for you to the care of Mr MacKay which I hope you will like and in return for it you are to send me one of yourself which I shall keep as a memory of a charming meeting and golden hours passed together. You have a nature made to love all beautiful things and I hope we shall see each other soon. Your friend

OSCAR WILDE

Little is known about Griffiths but this letter is significant in that it marks the start of Wilde’s correspondence with young men over the next few years, among them Harry Marillier, Douglas Ainslie, Herbert Horne and Richard Le Gallienne. They were all about ten years his junior and he was clearly attracted by their flattery and adulation, as well as by their looks. Despite the intensity of his letters, though, there is nothing to suggest that his relationship with them was other than platonic.