Merlin Holland in front of his grandfather Oscar Wilde's tomb at Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, on September 26. AXEL AUREJAC FOR M LE MAGAZINE DU MONDE
He calls him by his first name and maintains a kind of posthumous camaraderie. Merlin Holland's relationship with his grandfather, Oscar Wilde, was forged de profundis – literally from beyond the grave. "When I'm passing through Paris, I come to check if he's doing well," said the energetic and gentle 79-year-old when we met him on a cold October morning at Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, where his ancestor rests.
Retired in Burgundy, where he lives with his second wife, he came to spend the day in the capital for a meeting with the Irish ambassador to discuss the arrangements for the commemoration, on Sunday, November 30, of the 125th anniversary of the death of the Irish writer and playwright (1854-1900).
For years, Holland has maintained good relations with his grandfather's country of birth: British by birth, he has acquired Irish citizenship and, with the help of the Office of Public Works (the Irish government agency responsible for public works), 14 years ago, he managed to get a tall Plexiglas screen erected around the Parisian grave of the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde's admirers had developed a habit of covering the grave with kisses, leaving lipstick marks whose oils slowly damaged the stone.
