The Picture of Dorian Gray, by oscar Wilde, is part of the
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including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of
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Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of
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oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social
observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his
dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth
and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged—petulant,
hedonistic, vain, and amoral—while a painting of him ages and grows
increasingly hideous with the years, has been horrifying,
enchanting, obsessing, even corrupting readers for more than a
hundred years.
Taking the reader in and out of London drawing rooms, to the
heights of aestheticism, and to the depths of decadence, The
Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a melodrama about moral
corruption. Laced with bon mots and vivid depictions of upper-class
refinement, it is also a fascinating look at the milieu of Wilde’s
fin-de-siècle world and a manifesto of the creed “Art for Art’s
Sake.”
The ever-quotable Wilde, who once delighted London with his
scintillating plays, scandalized readers with this, his only novel.
Upon publication, Dorian was condemned as dangerous, poisonous,
stupid, vulgar, and immoral, and Wilde as a “driveling pedant.” The
novel, in fact, was used against Wilde at his much-publicized
trials for “gross indecency,” which led to his imprisonment and
exile on the European continent. Even so, The Picture of Dorian
Gray firmly established Wilde as one of the great voices of the
Aesthetic movement, and endures as a classic that is as timeless as
its hero.
Camille Cauti, Ph.D., is an editor and literary critic who lives
in New York City. She is a specialist in the Catholic conversion
trend among members of the avant-garde in London in the 1890s.
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