Wilde Moves to Paris

After his release from prison, Wilde traveled about Europe for a time, staying with friends in Dieppe. He was reunited  'Bosie' in Rouen, but they separated shortly after and Wilde moved to Paris, taking up residency in the Hôtel d'Alsace, known simply now as L'Hôtel. This room is where he would spend his last days. Wilde famously said of the interior decoration, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” Since his death, his hotel room has been refurbished and is known as "The Writer's Room".

This room is also where Wilde converted to Catholicism. On November 28,1900, as Wilde lay dying on his bed, his friend Robbie Ross called in a Catholic priest, Father Dunne, who gave Wilde a conditional baptism and welcomed him into the Church. This comes at the end of Wilde's long fascination with the Catholic faith, seen both in his works like Dorian Gray and Salome, and also in his personal life and fascination with the aesthetic and ritual of the Catholic Mass.

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