Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

1891 - the first book edition. Illustrated. With author's preface."The Picture of Dorian Gray", moral fantasy novel by Oscar Wilde, published in an early form in "Lippincott's Magazine" in 1890. The novel had six additional chapters when it appeared in book form in 1891. The novel, an archetypal tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul, was a romantic exposition of Wilde's own Aestheticism. Publication of the novel scandalized Victorian England, and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was used as evidence against Wilde in his 1895 trial for homosexuality. The novel became a classic of English literature and was adapted into a number of films, most notably a 1945 version that earned multiple Academy Award nominations. This longer and revised version of book was published in book form in 1891 and featured an aphoristic preface - a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake. The content, style, and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own right, as a literary and artistic manifesto. A key example of Gothic horror fiction, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Oscar Wilde's only novel and a classic of modern literature. Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author's most popular work. Of Dorian Gray's relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be-in other ages, perhaps."