The Picture of Dorian Gray / The Decay of Lying

by Oscar Wilde

The continuing importance of The Picture of Dorian Gray however is primarily as the aesthetic manifestation and mirror of the immense, tragic personality of Oscar Wilde. The brilliant Irishman descended on Oxford in 1874 and published his one and only novel in 1890. It was a commission from Lippincott's Magazine, published in serial form. Wilde's career - as short story writer, playwright and occasional journalist - reached its zenith in the following two years; he was a crucial and imperious figure in the fin de siecle scene that started in the 1880s. During those years, this paradoxical philosopher of the complex relationship between art, human nature and truth walked a tight-rope between fame and scandal... In his Francophile The Decay of Lying, written in 1889, and in many ways foreshadowing Dorian Gray, Wilde warned those readers who might be tempted to recognise him in the characters of Dorian, Wotton or Hallward that art is a veil, rather than a mirror. more than art imitates life: Wilde recounts the anecdote of a certain Hyde coming across a horrific scene from Stevenson's novel in a squalid London street. He calls it accidental imitation, which sheds an ironic light on the last years of his own life. In 1891, Wilde met the young Alfred Douglas, son of the Marquis of Queensberry. Douglas hated his father; the father despised Douglas and Wilde. Their fierce and passionate love for each other, recounted in Wilde's autobiographical work De Profundis, would effectively push the poet to social suicide, prison, exile and premature death in a Paris hotel. This accidental imitation casts a retrospective spotlight - if any is needed - on the quasi-gothic scenes of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

Paperback

First published July 1, 1890

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Leo . · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story. Imagine being immortal. Wow! To still be around after hundreds of years. One thing is true, you would know what really happened in the past. Let's face it you would have witnessed something first hand. And today you would read the modern history books and maybe, just maybe...Lol!

All history is just what it means. His. Story. History was predominantly written by men. Left brain and in a draconian way. Most History was written by monks on behest of the Vatican!
History to me, whomever wrote it, is theory, opinion and conjecture. How one perceives history is down to the individual. One does not know what happened if one was not there to witness it. Yes it can be read in a book but, who wrote it? There are conflicting views of history in all books. Different cultures have differing stories of how events happened. Who knows which is telling the truth? Normally the victors would write whatever they wanted, who could argue? It is only his story after all. That is all well and good but, when it is taught in schools and becomes the mainstream then any other debate that says other wise is ridiculed, attacked and (excommunicated) pushed to one side as pseudoscience. It goes against the grain. Information has to stay linear in a civilized society. It has to be taught in schools and universities so the pupils can graduate, owe the state bucket loads of money, and become good civil servants and carry on with the flow of information they have learned, and repeat it over and over. And teach it to the next generation, and the next. All going the right way. The official way. That is what information is. IN. FORMATION. Linear. Ordered. Left brain. Masculine.
My story is a mystery, unless I tell somebody else, then it becomes His Story. It is still just a story after all.

I always wondered if the word Heresy derives from Her Say, like a woman's view point. It makes sense considering women were persecuted and not allowed to speak back then. The church was a male dominance over the female. How times have changed. Women were not allowed to do anything. They were basically property. There is a reason why the male orientated church suppressed the female, because they are aware that women are the creative of the two genders. The sacred feminine. This is why our history and the world is so riddled with war and violence. Having said that, it is more a spiritual trait. Take Oscar Wilde. He had the more feminine spirit inside of him and he was persecuted for being gay. He was a man but he had the creative essence of the female.🐯👍


Oscar Wilde, he was a gentle man, a creative mind

A genius, a story teller, great prose, he left behind

Persecuted, hounded, sentenced, for being gay

A masterpiece, The Picture Of Dorian Gray

How times have moved on! One might say

How ironic, how this brilliant mind, is revered and celebrated today. 👍🐯

[Betty-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the writing style. Much easier to follow conversations compared to other books written in the same era. I thought there were chapters about Dorian Gray's profession/hobbies that would've been better if it described some of the vices he got up to over the years. It ended splendidly though.

[David Anguiano · Rating 5 out of 5]

It gave me flashes of Crime and Punishment.

The philosophy was entertaining, thought provoking (would be rather engaging if truly a conversation).

The topic of beauty is fascinatingly explored here. Ultimately, at the end of all the discussions I had with myself - I believe the truest beauty is in the pursuit of it. The innocence of merely having is superficial, though real, but will likely lead to the lost benevolence. Beauty is obtained either through grace or vigor. The later, I reflect on Tess of the D'Urbervilles (if I get the title right) who began with an innocent beauty, was admired, had it taken...was ashamed, but then endured arduously a commitment to virtuous living that continued to endorse her truer nature of beauty. How sad it is in this example, and with Mr. Gray when beauty is left without the grace element though. For this, I consider the following. Perfection is perfectly admirable with relevant honor of integrity of complete and fulfilling beauty. In this mortality, we are bread to believe that it is a matter of time for it to be taken or lost - to age or experience. This is why the question of Dorian was posed - it was unnatural for it not to be. This is the "beauty for ashes" that the perfect Christ lived and offers to His disciples. Therefore, the idea that perfection is lost, there remains another beauty that is perfect as long as one pursues it.

Another idea that I've been entranced with is that of the aged and sinful. Both were addressed in this book. First the aged, and was the topic that 'awoke' Dorian initially. I believe near every artist would agree that beauty is not in perfection, rather the elements that give dimension and texture...these tell stories, and conjure memories. A friend of mine once drew the remarkable hands of her mother - wrinkled and worn. They were artistically beautiful. But the art aside, they were the subject of another beauty which is the second point of the book. Is it the first imperfect presentation - whether aesthetic or an indiscretion that mars our soul, or the love of it?

I posed this question in a flippant and direct manner to some hundred people over the last couple months: Do you love old people? The overwhelming response was 'No,' and those who said yes, I perceived a hint often of obligation. Of course they asked me the same, but I had the time to reflect that they did not - so, please do not read too much inhumanity into their responses. So, what is my response? Well, it's hard to write as I too fear this to become a witness of my soul. But here is a taste. I love people - old and young - all of them. However, I struggle at times with those who lose the pursuit of joy. Dorian lost this while a boy, and became essentially prematurely aged. He tried to force the beauty on his soul that his countenance portrayed. Yet, as the author voiced toward the end, and as so many 'old people' reflect - the age of the young is beauty for it's youthful zest, the life, the curious unknown and hopeful potential, the purity of few mistakes, the renewal from preceding attempts (ancestors); even their ignorance of the perils of the world....or in Dorian's words "the perils of beauty."

Therefore, I believe that beauty does not passively remain, nor would it be a gift if it were.

I'm writing this at 1am...so, I reserve the right to read and edit this to more clearly express this review.

[Daniel Tenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oscar Wilde combines 19th century London with art, ethics and philosophy in a genius way.
The exploration of hedonism, morality and secrets among other topics that are as important to consider nowadays as when it was written. And although it is old fashioned prose, it still transmits the message it was intended to in the first place.
After reading it I finally understood why it was a classic, there is much more to it than Dorian and his portrait.

[Vanessa Ledesma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book that made me love reading and Oscar Wilde.