Robert Hichens
The Green Carnation
"The Green Carnation" by Robert Hichens is a novel first published anonymously in 1894. This witty satire targets the Aesthetic Movement through its thinly veiled portraits of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. At London dinner parties and country estates, the characters champion artifice over nature through brilliant conversation and studied poses. When a young widow grows disturbed by what the symbolic green carnation represents, she must choose between attraction and principle. Briefly withdrawn after Wilde's scandalous trial, the novel remains a sharp commentary on artistic individualism and affectation.