The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Reconstruction of the Uncensored Wording of the Lippincott's Text

Oscar Wilde

Oct 2014 · Elsinor Verlag

About this ebook

"The Picture of Dorian Gray", Oscar Wilde's only novel, was first published on both sides of the Atlantic by the American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Review on 20th June 1890. Not only did this text provoke a heated debate in the British press in the same year, it also became notorious for its being quoted and examined in court in Wilde's three trials in the spring of 1895. As a story, the novel shows how a young man in a Faustian situation wishes for his portrait to age rather than himself. Steeped in sin, which, however, is alluded to rather than spelt out, "Dorian Gray" for Wilde's critics and enemies became an image of the author's own behaviour. - Going back to the typescript of the novel, the editor has restored passages to the text that had been excised or censored by Wilde himself and the editorial committee in America. Danny Morrison has provided a preface placing Wilde in the Irish political context of his own day and beyond.

About the author

Irish playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was born to successful Dublin intellects. This afforded him the opportunity to study at the university level, where he became known for his involvement in the art movement emphasizing the beauty of art rather than the political value. Along with being a playwright, Wilde also wrote essays, novels, and poems, most famous for his play The Importance of Being Earnest, and writings The Picture of Dorian Gray, and De Profundis.