![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Apparently the publisher of Wetherell’s *Wide, Wide World* was unsure about publishing this work, but his mother urged him to print it as it was so pious. It went on to be a run-away best seller, which I find incomprehensible as it consists of a man grooming a girl for marriage through the use of religious coercion.
The only work I’ve read that was similar was a short story in the collection where Bosy printed his ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ poem that helped bring Wilde down. I haven’t reread it for years but my memory is that it is about a creepy priest who preys on his altar boy, leading to them both committing suicide. I agree with 19th century moralists that it was depraved, though obviously for different reasons.
Basically, nineteenth century writers, why are creepy relationships with older men idealised so much? (Cough, *Twilight*).
The only work I’ve read that was similar was a short story in the collection where Bosy printed his ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ poem that helped bring Wilde down. I haven’t reread it for years but my memory is that it is about a creepy priest who preys on his altar boy, leading to them both committing suicide. I agree with 19th century moralists that it was depraved, though obviously for different reasons.
Basically, nineteenth century writers, why are creepy relationships with older men idealised so much? (Cough, *Twilight*).
