Oscar Wilde, Fernando Pessoa, and the Art of Lying.

Fernando Pessoa was clearly fascinated, if not openly obsessed, by Oscar Wilde. His espólio contains at least thirty-seven manuscript fragments on the aesthete, including comparative horoscopes for himself and Wilde. Seven books either written by Wilde or directly connected to the Wilde story can be found in Pessoa's personal library, and his extensive marginalia reveals an attentive reading of the texts. Much of Pessoa's writing, including some of his best-known poems, are clearly influenced by his predecessor's artistic ideals. This article demonstrates that, far from this influence being a mere consequence of the wider influence Wilde enjoyed over the Modernist generation as a whole, in the case of Pessoa -- particularly in the context of lying in art -- it is both traceable and direct. It outlines the main points of contact between the two writers, and goes on to examine the psychological reasons behind Pessoa's urgent efforts to forge a greater distance between himself and Wilde than in reality exists. Pessoa everywhere attempts to escape the anxiety of Wilde's influence by claiming that the aesthete was nowhere a model, despite quite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]