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The Picture of Dorian Gray

An Annotated, Uncensored Edition
By Oscar Wilde
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Picture of Dorian Gray explores the life of a young man whose portrait ages and reveals the consequences of his immoral actions, while he himself remains outwardly youthful and unblemished. This novel marked a departure from Victorian norms, challenging contemporary notions of morality and identity through its daring themes and Wilde's incisive commentary on society.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This edition is essential for readers interested in classic literature, Victorian society, and the evolution of literary censorship. It will particularly appeal to those fascinated by Oscar Wilde's life and works, as well as scholars and students studying queer literature and cultural history.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray altered the way Victorians understood the world they inhabited, heralding the end of a repressive era. Now, more than 120 years after Wilde handed it over to his publisher, Wilde’s uncensored typescript is published here for the first time, in an annotated, extensively illustrated edition.

Nicholas Frankel has done a great service to Oscar Wilde's readers in preparing this new edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. His introduction and annotations deepen our understanding not only of Wilde the writer but of the political and sexual milieu in which he lived and published. This is the kind of scholarship that reminds us why scholarship matters. -- David Leavitt

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The Picture of Dorian Gray altered the way Victorians understood the world they inhabited. It heralded the end of a repressive Victorianism, and after its publication, literature had—in the words of biographer Richard Ellmann—"a different look." Yet the Dorian Gray that Victorians never knew was even more daring than the novel the British press condemned as "vulgar," "unclean," "poisonous," "discreditable," and "a sham." Now, more than 120 years after Wilde handed it over to his publisher, J. B. Lippincott & Company, Wilde's uncensored typescript is published for the first time, in an annotated, extensively illustrated edition.

The novel's first editor, J. M. Stoddart, excised material—especially homosexual content—he thought would offend his readers' sensibilities. When Wilde enlarged the novel for the 1891 edition, he responded to his critics by further toning down its "immoral" elements. The differences between the text Wilde submitted to Lippincott and published versions of the novel have until now been evident to only the handful of scholars who have examined Wilde's typescript.

Wilde famously said that 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, which saw Wilde sentenced to two years' hard labour for gross indecency. The appearance of Wilde's uncensored text is cause for celebration.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780674057920

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 11 April 2011

Country: United States

Imprint: The Belknap Press

Illustration: 78 color illustrations, 1 color map

Contributors:

  • Edited by Nicholas Frankel

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 229.0mm

Height: 241.0mm

Weight: 1021g

Pages: 304

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Oscar Wilde

About the Author

Nicholas Frankel has published many books about Oscar Wilde, including Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years, The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde, The Annotated Prison Writings of Oscar Wilde, The Invention of Oscar Wilde, and The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. He is Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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