Fiction · 1890
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A young man of remarkable beauty sits for a portrait and, under the influence of a witty and cynical friend, wishes that the picture might age in his place. It does. Oscar Wilde’s only novel appeared in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890 and, revised and lengthened, in book form in 1891.
The book is a Gothic fable, a comedy of epigrams and an argument about art and morality that its author later had to defend in court. Its preface — “All art is quite useless” — is as often quoted as its story.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text of the twenty-chapter version.
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Part of The Gothic Library, Victorian Fiction.
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About the author
1854–1900 · Victorian
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was born in Dublin, studied at Trinity College and at Oxford, and became the most celebrated wit of late-Victorian London. The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890–91), Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest (both 1895) made his reputation. In 1895 he was convicted of gross indecency and served two years’ hard labour; De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol came out of the experience. He died in Paris.
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