L'Hôtel, Rue des Beaux-Arts: Oscar Wilde's Last Room
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of number 13, a narrow, discreet hotel with a small plaque on the wall. It is called simply L'Hôtel today, but in 1900 it was the Hôtel d'Alsace, a cheap lodging house, and the man in its back room was one of the most famous writers in Europe... living under a false name.
Key Facts
| Place | L'Hôtel, Rue des Beaux-Arts: Oscar Wilde's Last Room |
|---|---|
| Address | 13 Rue des Beaux-Arts, 75006 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.85630, 2.33520 |
| Part of Walk | Ink, Coffee and Revolution: A Literary Walk Through Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of number 13, a narrow, discreet hotel with a small plaque on the wall. It is called simply L'Hôtel today, but in 1900 it was the Hôtel d'Alsace, a cheap lodging house, and the man in its back room was one of the most famous writers in Europe... living under a false name.
Oscar Wilde had been the toast of London: The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, epigrams quoted in every drawing room. Then, in 1895, he was convicted of gross indecency for his relationships with men and sentenced to two years of hard labour. When he came out in 1897 he was ruined, his health broken, his name unspeakable. He crossed to France and called himself Sebastian Melmoth.
In Paris he drifted from café to café, borrowing money from friends, writing almost nothing. The owner of this hotel let him run up debts and looked after him kindly. Wilde said he was dying beyond his means. And of the hideous wallpaper in his room, he is reported to have said that one of them had to go.
He died here on the thirtieth of November 1900, of meningitis, at the age of forty-six. Hours before, he was received into the Catholic Church, something he had flirted with all his life. Only a handful of mourners followed the coffin. He was buried first in a modest grave outside the city, and moved some years later to a famous monument in a great Paris cemetery.
Today the hotel is quietly luxurious, and the room is decorated in his memory, the wallpaper finally on his side. Writers and musicians come to sleep where he died, which he might have found very funny. Now continue to the end of the street, turn right down Rue de Seine and right again into Rue Jacob, and look for a tiny square with lanterns on your left.