The uncensored picture of Dorian Gray / Oscar Wilde ; edited by Nicholas Frankel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900.

Contributor:

Frankel, Nicholas, 1962-

Standardized Title:

Portrait of Dorian Gray

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Appearance (Philosophy)--Fiction.

Appearance (Philosophy).

Conduct of life--Fiction.

Conduct of life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 260 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores all of the material removed by the novel's first editor. Upon receipt of the typescript, Wilde's editor panicked at what he saw. Contained within its pages was material he feared readers would find "offensive"-especially instances of graphic homosexual content. He proceeded to go through the typescript with his pencil, cleaning it up until he made it "acceptable to the most fastidious taste." Wilde did not see these changes until his novel appeared in print. Wilde's editor's concern was well placed. Even in its redacted form, the novel caused public outcry. The British press condemned it as "vulgar," "unclean," "poisonous," "discreditable," and "a sham." When Wilde later enlarged the novel for publication in book form, he responded to his critics by further toning down its "immoral" elements. Wilde famously said that The Picture of Dorian Gray "contains much of me": Basil Hallward is "what I think I am," Lord Henry "what the world thinks me," and "Dorian what I would like to be-in other ages, perhaps." Wilde's comment suggests a backward glance to a Greek or Dorian Age, but also a forward-looking view to a more permissive time than his own repressive Victorian era. By implication, Wilde would have preferred we read today the uncensored version of his novel.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

TEXTUAL INTRODUCTION

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Notes

APPENDIX. The 1891 Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray

FURTHER READING

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Notes:

Formerly CIP.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780674071896

0674071891

9780674068049

0674068041

OCLC:

979880459