The Picture of Dorian Gray

A young man wishes that his portrait would age in his place, then spends eighteen years testing what that wish allows.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s only novel, first appeared as a shorter version in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in July 1890; the novel-length version followed in April 1891. In Victorian London, the painter Basil Hallward portrays the beautiful Dorian Gray, and Lord Henry Wotton’s hedonistic talk leads Dorian to wish that the portrait would age instead of him. The wish comes true, and the picture records every sin.

First published: 1890
Literary form: Novel
Original language: English
Published text languages: English · Vietnamese
Reading time: ≈ 5 h 29 min read

Read · English

Sepia studio photograph of a young man with wavy dark hair seated in a carved chair, cheek resting on one hand, wearing a fur-collared coat and holding a cane. — Related image. Napoleon Sarony, portrait of Oscar Wilde, c. 1882 (albumen print, Library of Congress). A photograph of the author eight years before the novel’s first appearance; it is not an illustration of the book.Napoleon Sarony, Oscar Wilde, c. 1882, albumen print, Library of Congress (cph.3g07095), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Source

Why it matters

The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel. Wikipedia describes it as a philosophical fiction and Gothic horror novel: a shorter version ran in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in July 1890, and the novel-length version was published in April 1891. The painter Basil Hallward portrays Dorian Gray, a young man of great beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, whose view is that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing. Dorian wishes that the portrait would age instead of him. The wish is granted, and for eighteen years he tries every vice while the picture records them. The Guardian listed the book among the 100 best novels ever written in English.

Much of its reputation rests on how it was made and received. The editor of Lippincott’s, J. M. Stoddart, deleted around five hundred words before publication, including passages alluding to homosexual desire. For the 1891 book Wilde expanded the text from thirteen to twenty chapters and added a preface of epigrams that became famous as a manifesto for art for art’s sake. The book met significant controversy on publication, and Wilde was questioned about it at his 1895 trials. The original typescript, with the deleted words, was published in an annotated edition by the Belknap Press in 2011.

Notice how often the novel is about looking: Basil paints, Lord Henry talks, and Dorian watches the picture change. Notice also that Lord Henry’s philosophy corrupts Dorian, while Lord Henry himself seems to take no consequences from his own advice. Content note: the book contains a murder, two suicides, opium-den scenes and Dorian’s cruelty to a young actress, Sibyl Vane, who dies; none of it is shown graphically. Its homoerotic undertone, softened in the 1891 edits, is part of the story’s history. This page uses the 1882 Sarony portrait of Wilde, not an illustration of the book. The English text on this site is Project Gutenberg’s ebook no. 174.

Introduction written for LitMundi with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed below.

Themes

Beauty and moral corruption
The portrait as a record of conscience
Hedonism and its influence on others
Art for art’s sake
Homoerotic undertone and censorship
Cruelty and its consequences

Context

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright, and a key figure in the Aestheticism movement of the late nineteenth century. In the early 1890s he became one of the most successful dramatists in London. In 1895 he was convicted of gross indecency and jailed until 1897; on his release he left for France and never returned to Britain or Ireland; he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) and died in 1900.

Before you read

A short novel with a famous preface; the site shows the English source beside its own Vietnamese version. Content note: murder, suicide, opium-den scenes and cruelty to a young actress who dies, with a homoerotic undertone; nothing is graphic.

Good to know

First published: Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, July 1890 (shorter version); book version April 1891
Original language: English
Author: Oscar Wilde (1854–1900); his only novel
Text: English text from Project Gutenberg, ebook no. 174

Sources for this introduction

All editions

Original · source checked

The Picture of Dorian Gray

English

The Picture of Dorian Gray · English, Project Gutenberg #174

Read

Translation · AI reviewed

Bức chân dung của Dorian Gray

Tiếng Việt

Bản dịch tiếng Việt bằng AI · đánh giá AI v2

Read

Translation availability is still being researched. A draft is not evidence that no translation exists.

← Back to collection