The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.
The longer and revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface—a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake—based in part …
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.
The longer and revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface—a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake—based in part on his press defences of the novel the previous year. The content, style, and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own right, as a literary and artistic manifesto. In April 1891, the publishing firm of Ward, Lock and Company, who had distributed the shorter, more inflammatory, magazine version in England the previous year, published the revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by Wilde. It exists in several versions: the 1890 magazine edition (in 13 chapters), with important material deleted before publication by the magazine's editor, J. M. Stoddart; the "uncensored" version submitted to Lippincott's Monthly Magazine for publication (also in 13 chapters), with all of Wilde's original material intact, first published in 2011 by Harvard University Press; and the 1891 book edition (in 20 chapters). As literature of the 19th century, The Picture of Dorian Gray "pivots on a gothic plot device" with strong themes interpreted from Faust.
The moral of this story is that if you have a friend who says deplorable things then you should shun them before they corrupt you or your other friends.
A very gay story of a very impressionable and stupid man.
The prose was very purple and also masterbatory at times, making me go cross-eyed trying to slog through those parts. There are racist descriptions, but luckily (hah) Oscar Wilde only discussed non‐white goy except in passing.
The book ends rather abruptly and unsatisfactorily.
Granted I'm sitting on a pretty small sample size, but what few ~Classics~ from Victorian England that I have read, I have enjoyed, and this was largely more of the same with an every so slight paranormal twist. Which is to say I got exactly what I wanted out of this book.
This was a book club read and two of us (including me) read the normal version with 20 chapters, whereas the other two read the Uncensored version which came out a year earlier and was much shorter. It was interesting comparing the differences in real time and the discussion added to my reading experience. Also the particular printing that I read had plenty of helpful footnotes explaining specific references Wilde was making and pointing out individual sentences or paragraphs that were revised/edited from the original uncensored version that also made the read more enjoyable for me; I don't …
Granted I'm sitting on a pretty small sample size, but what few ~Classics~ from Victorian England that I have read, I have enjoyed, and this was largely more of the same with an every so slight paranormal twist. Which is to say I got exactly what I wanted out of this book.
This was a book club read and two of us (including me) read the normal version with 20 chapters, whereas the other two read the Uncensored version which came out a year earlier and was much shorter. It was interesting comparing the differences in real time and the discussion added to my reading experience. Also the particular printing that I read had plenty of helpful footnotes explaining specific references Wilde was making and pointing out individual sentences or paragraphs that were revised/edited from the original uncensored version that also made the read more enjoyable for me; I don't know that I would have liked it as much without the extra context.
There is a lofty chapter right in the middle of the book that acts as a sort of time skip in the overall plot, but it is entirely too long and flowery and gothic where literally no dialogue or dramatic action is taking place. I absolutely would have enjoyed this read more without that substantial speed bump placed right in the middle, but the beginning and end of the story help lift the overall work up.
