So we go inside and we gravely read the stones

Dave2006

Well-Known Member
I read this little piece in the Metro news whilst on the tram yesterday:

Rupert Everett helps unveil Oscar Wilde gravesite renovation
Actor Rupert Everett and Oscar Wilde’s grandson have unveiled a makeover of the Irish writer’s gravesite on the 111th anniversary of his death.
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Everett, who is writing about the poet’s life, spoke at a podium bearing a poster of the pre-renovation tomb covered in notes and lipstick at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

The tomb is such a well-loved pilgrimage site – and has been so well-kissed – that it needed renovation. A glass screen now separates visitors from the stone.

Everett said: ‘The Irish government have taken it upon themselves to renovate the [Jacob] Epstein gravestone, which is being eaten away by lipstick, with endless women kissing it.’

Everett said: ‘I find him very inspiring and touching, not just for his genius, also for his stupidity in a way. He was a human being and made mistakes like everyone.’

Wilde died in Paris in 1900, aged 46, from cerebral meningitis.​


Like many other Smiths fans I've been to Pere Lachaise and visited Wilde's tomb... and read all the scrawls of "Keats and Yeats are on your side, Wilde is on mine". Now we wont be able to... read the scrawl, not add to it :thumb:

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Dave
 
No problem

The tomb looks lovely now that it is clean

Dave
 
So now are the ladies kissing the glass that contains it?
 
...Just out of interest, was its original "Male appendage, and accompanying testicular sculpturage "replaced?? I couldn't read the full article/link, but i heard it was chiselled off a good few years ago, either because some people were offended, or it was taken by somebody as a souvenir...
 
...Just out of interest, was its original "Male appendage, and accompanying testicular sculpturage "replaced?? I couldn't read the full article/link, but i heard it was chiselled off a good few years ago, either because some people were offended, or it was taken by somebody as a souvenir...

I think that the story is that the gardener / caretaker at the cemetery was offended by it and chipped it off - and that he used it for years as a paper weight.

Dave
 
Like many other Smiths fans I've been to Pere Lachaise and visited Wilde's tomb... and read all the scrawls of "Keats and Yeats are on your side, Wilde is on mine". Now we wont be able to... read the scrawl, not add to it :thumb:
Dave

I don't understand how if you go there (not you, just saying) and that quote is already there...why would people write it again? People are strange.

I remember the first time I went to Fairmount, where James Dean grew up and the Suedehead video was shot...in those days (1993) the high school was still there. There was so much Morrissey graffiti it was silly.

I can't remember what I added to it. Probably the Jack The Ripper coda, I think it was.
 
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