The Picture of Dorian Gray: Difference between revisions

1890 novel by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine.^[1][2] The novel-length version was published in April 1891.

The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian’s and an artist infatuated with Dorian’s beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and is soon enthralled by the aristocrat’s hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and visually records every one of Dorian’s sins.^[3]

Wilde’s only novel, it was subject to much controversy and criticism in its time but has come to be recognized as a classic of Gothic literature.

Origins[edit]

In 1889, J. M. Stoddart, an editor for Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, was in London to solicit novellas to publish in the magazine. On 30 August 1889, Stoddart dined with Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and T. P. Gill^[4] at the Langham Hotel, and commissioned novellas from each writer.^[5] Doyle promptly submitted The Sign of the Four, which was published in the February 1890 edition of Lippincott’s. Stoddart received Wilde’s manuscript for The Picture of Dorian Gray on 7 April 1890, seven months after having commissioned the novel from him.^[5]

In July 1889, Wilde published “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.“, a very different story but one that has a similar title to The Picture of Dorian Gray and has been described as “a preliminary sketch of some of its major themes”, including homosexuality.^[6][7]

Publication and versions[edit]

1890 novella[edit]

The literary merits of The Picture of Dorian Gray impressed Stoddart, but he told the publisher, George Lippincott, “in its present condition there are a number of things an innocent woman would make an exception to.”^[5] Fearing that the story was indecent, Stoddart deleted around five hundred words without Wilde’s knowledge prior to publication. Among the pre-publication deletions were: (i) passages alluding to homosexuality and to homosexual desire; (ii) all references to the fictional book title Le Secret de Raoul and its author, Catulle Sarrazin; and (iii) all “mistress” references to Gray’s lovers, Sibyl Vane and Hetty Merton.^[5]

It was published in full as the first 100 pages in both the American and British editions of the July 1890 issue, first printed on 20 June 1890.^[8] Later in the year the publisher of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, Ward, Lock and Company, published a collection of complete novels from the magazine, which included Wilde’s.^[9]

1891 novel[edit]

For the fuller 1891 novel, Wilde retained Stoddart’s edits and made some of his own, while expanding the text from thirteen to twenty chapters and added the book’s famous preface. Chapters 3, 5, and 15–18 are new, and chapter 13 of the magazine edition was divided into chapters 19 and 20 for the novel.^[10] Revisions include changes in character dialogue as well as the addition of the preface, more scenes and chapters, and Sibyl Vane’s brother, James Vane.^[11]

The edits have been construed as having been done in response to criticism, but Wilde denied this in his 1895 trials, only ceding that critic Walter Pater, whom Wilde respected, did write several letters to him “and in consequence of what he said I did modify one passage” that was “liable to misconstruction”.^[12][13] A number of edits involved obscuring homoerotic references, to simplify the moral message of the story.^[5] In the magazine edition (1890), Basil tells Lord Henry how he “worships” Dorian, and begs him not to “take away the one person that makes my life absolutely lovely to me.” In the magazine edition, Basil focuses upon love, whereas, in the book edition (1891), he focuses upon his art, saying to Lord Henry, “the one person who gives my art whatever charm it may possess: my life as an artist depends on him.”

Wilde’s textual additions were about the “fleshing out of Dorian as a character” and providing details of his ancestry that made his “psychological collapse more prolonged and more convincing.”^[14] The introduction of the James Vane character to the story develops the socio-economic background…