Author: Nina Antonia

Nina Antonia is here to discuss her new book Dancing with Salomé: Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends. Dancing with Salomé unmasks the occult aspects of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated tome The Picture of Dorian Gray, whilst exploring how the unseen manifested not just in the famous author’s life but in that of his love interest, Lord Alfred Douglas. Through a series of interlinking essays, Nina Antonia takes us to meet the Decadent demi-monde of the 1890’s with whom Wilde and Douglas mingled. Whilst eroticism and mysticism were key themes of the Decadents, there was also a surge of interest in ritual magic, enabled by the flowering of the “Golden Dawn.” Wilde’s wife, Constance, was a member, as was W.B. Yeats, alongside Aleister Crowley. All would play a part, directly or indirectly, in the drama of Oscar Wilde’s enchanted & accursed life. store.trapart.net/details/00178

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May 22nd: www.morbidanatomy.org/events-tickets…-clint-burnham

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Image: cover of Dancing with Salomé: Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends: store.trapart.net/details/00178

Uncanny Aspects of Oscar Wilde: “Dancing With Salome: Decadence & the Supernatural” by Nina Antonia and “Activating Wilde’s World View” by Robert Podgurski. LECTURE ON ZOOM. 

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Date: Sunday, April 24
Time: 2 pm EST

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A recent conversation between Nina and Creative Historian Brian Chidester. With a background in journalism and documentary filmmaking, Brian has written for publications including  ‘L.A Weekly’ & ‘The Village Voice.’ He has also curated such exhibitions as ‘Beyond the Pleasuredome: The Occult Works of Burt Shonberg.’ This was great news for Nina who has long appreciated Shonberg’s work, especially the paintings of the haunted Usher family featured in Roger Corman’s cinematic retelling of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’ Brian’s main interest is in collating the experiences of those artists and authors who exist outside of the mainstream yet are still influential

Watch above or directly on YouTube.

***With signed bookplate by Nina Antonia***
£14.50 plus £2.50 P&P UK Only

Through a series of interlinking essays, Nina Antonia takes us to meet the Decadent demi-monde of the 1890’s with whom Wilde and Douglas mingled. Whilst eroticism and mysticism were key themes of the Decadents, there was also a surge of interest in ritual magic, enabled by the flowering of the “Golden Dawn” – the most significant esoteric order in England’s history. Wilde’s wife, Constance, was a member, as was W.B. Yeats, alongside Aleister Crowley and Arthur Machen. All would play a part, directly or indirectly, in the drama of Oscar Wilde’s enchanted & accursed life.
Dancing with Salomé unmasks the occult aspects of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated tome The Picture of Dorian Gray, whilst exploring how the unseen manifested not just in the famous author’s life but in that of his love interest, Lord Alfred Douglas. The gilded backdrop to their ill-fated liaison was the Decadent movement, a literary and artistic feast of the divine and debauched which redefined the lines of male beauty. Curiously, Aubrey Beardsley, the most renowned illustrator of the Decadents, refused to keep any of Oscar Wilde’s books in his home, as he believed, like many of his friends, that the playwright was accursed. Beardsley’s theory is not as far-fetched as it seems if one takes into account the doomed lineages from which both Oscar and Lord Alfred Douglas were descended.

In lieu of being able to do a book signing at the legendary Atlantis bookshop www.theatlantisbookshop.com the equally legendary proprietor & worker of wonders, Geraldine, has sent some bookplates for me to sign. A stone’s throw from the ‘Dilly, a footstep & heartbeat from the British Museum, one feels certain that Wilde & Pals must have sauntered down these streets when the stars were so much brighter, the absinthe was green as carnations and the moon was made for beguiling glances. We may not be able to gather to celebrate the publication of ‘Dancing with Salome – Courting The Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends’ but we can still be beguiled. Copies are available at Atlantis, via Trapart Books www.trapart.net or can be purchased at the link below. The link for ordering the book is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9198692003

Mark Valentine reviews Dancing with Salomé: Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends by Nina Antonia in Wormwoodiana. READ HERE. 

Dancing with Salomé: Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends by Nina Antonia is featured in Oscariana: The Oscar Wilde Society e-Newsletter (#78 December 2021).

To read the complete newsletter, please GO HERE.

Nina Antonia’s new book – ‘Dancing With Salomé – Courting the Uncanny with Oscar Wilde & Friends’

Available now at Amazon in Hardcover, Paperback, and Kindle

A decadent treat comprising a portmanteau of essays exploring the uncanny in the life of Oscar Wilde and his circle. Growing up in the glory days of Amicus & Hammer Films left me with a yearning to utilise the word ‘portmanteau’ in at least one project. Make no mistake there is an aspect of horror inherent in ‘Dancing with Salome’ though it is of the strange and glittering kind which artist Eli John has captured so elegantly in his cover artwork, featuring Wilde’s love interest, Lord Alfred Douglas, morphing into Dorian Gray. 

Each of the essays were initially housed by independently produced publications including ‘Wormwood’ ‘Fiddler’s Green’ ‘Egaeus Press’ and ‘Fenris Wolf’. There is more creative freedom outside of mainstream media and none more so than in the field of supernatural literature. When commercial publishers recall the phantasmagorical (another favourite word) they go no further than reprinting the tried and tested, Dickens, M.R James and if you are exceedingly lucky, Arthur Machen. The supernatural is regarded as a tricky field, the unseen at odds with an era pledged to ‘reality’. As Oscar Wilde once opined ‘Leave us with some unreality!’ The 1890’s was the decade of Peacocks and Sphinx’s, the forerunner to the ‘Swinging Sixties’ only infinitely more enticing and well mannered. It seems no accident that just at the point of Wilde’s imminent success with ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ that the Golden Dawn, the most significant esoteric lodge in England’s history, should also bloom. The initiated included Wilde’s wife, Constance, W.B Yeats, Aleister Crowley and Arthur Machen, all of whom would play a part, either directly or indirectly in the drama of Oscar Wilde’s enchanted and accursed life.  

Nina Antonia was interviewed recently for issue 3 of Mashzine. To purchase, please go here.