Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker Were in a Literary Love Triangle

Many famous literary stars of the past knew each other and had close, often lifetime relationships you’d never suspect from just reading their works. You have to wonder if that was because creative and intelligent people tended to flock together, or if literary inspiration rubbed off on people who already knew each other. Perhaps both. Lady Jane Wilde was a poet in Ireland, and enjoyed gathering intellectuals in her home, which included Bram Stoker. She was also the mother of Oscar Wilde.

This love triangle started in Dublin in 1875, when both young men fell head-over-heels for a woman named Florence Balcombe. Bram spent that holiday season with the Wilde clan, whose numbers included Oscar. Though the two men weren't super-close, they'd known one another for quite some time. Around that time, Oscar met Flo and they started dating; he described her as "just seventeen with the most perfectly beautiful face I ever saw and not a sixpence of money."

If you don’t already know, you can find out how that relationship turned out at History Buff.