,,oscar ,,wilde ,,art and ,,morality ,a ,defence of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray ,edited by ,,stuart ,,mason ,what the public calls an unhealthy novel is always a beautiful and healthy work of art4 ,london3 ,j4 ,jacobs1 ,edgware ,road1 ,w4 #aijh4 ,the ,editor wishes to express his indebtedness to the proprietors of the various journals from which the reviews contained in this volume are re-produced4 ,in some instances he has not been able to trace the owner of the copyright1 owing to the journal having changed hands or become extinct1 and if he has infringed in any case he trusts that this acknowledgment will be accepted4 ,the copyright of the eight letters by ,oscar ,wilde is the property of his literary executor1 with whose permission they are included in this book4 ,,stuart ,,mason4 ,,contents4 ,,introduction ,a ,,study ,,in ,,puppydom ,,mr4 ,,wilde',s ,,bad ,,case 7,,letter ,i47 ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde ,,again 7,,letter ,,ii47 ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,defence 7,,letter ,,iii47 ,,letter ,,from ,a ,,london ,,editor ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,defence 7,,letter ,,iv47 ,,the ,,daily ,,chronicle ,,on ,,dorian ,,gray ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,reply 7,,letter ,v47 ,,the ,,scots ,,observer',s ,,review ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,replies 7,,letter ,,vi47 7,,letter ,,vii47 7,,letter ,,viii47 ,,profuse ,,and ,,perfervid ,a ,,spiritualistic ,,review ,,punch ,,on ,,dorian ,,gray ,a ,,revulsion ,,from ,,realism ,,the ,,romance ,,of ,,the ,,impossible ,,walter ,,pater ,,on ,,dorian ,,gray ,,the ,,ath,,neum ,,on ,,dorian ,,gray ,,the ,,morality ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray ,,mr ,,robert ,,buchanan ,,on ,,pagan ,,viciousness ,,comparative ,,table ,,of ,,chapters ,,passages ,,which ,,appear ,,in ,,the #ahij ,,edition ,,only ,,bibliography ,,original ,,editions ,,unauthorised ,,editions ,,translations ,,dutch ,,french ,,german ,,italian ,,polish ,,russian ,,swedish 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the whole1 an artist in ,england gains something by being attacked4 ,his individuality is intensified4 ,he becomes more completely himself4 ,of course1 the attacks are very gross1 very impertinent1 and very contemptible4 ,but then no artist expects grace from the vulgar mind1 or style from the suburban intellect4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,art ,,and ,,morality ,why do you always write poetry8 ,why do you not write prose8 ,prose is so much more difficult4 ,these were the words of ,walter ,pater to ,oscar ,wilde on the occasion of their first meeting during the latter's undergraduate days at ,oxford4#a ,those were days of lyrical ardours and of studious sonnet-writing1 wrote ,wilde1 in reviewing one of ,pater's books some years later1#b days when one loved the exquisite intricacy and musical repetitions of the ballade1 and the vilanelle with its linked long-drawn echoes and its curious completeness2 days when one solemnly sought to discover the proper temper in which a triolet should be written2 delightful days1 in which1 ,i am glad to say1 there was far more rhyme than reason4 ,oscar ,wilde was never a voluminous writer--writing bores me so1 he once said to ,andr ,gide--and at the time of which he speaks he had published little except some occasional verses in his ,university magazines4 ,then1 in #ahha1 came his volume of collected poems1 followed at intervals during the next nine or ten years by a collection of fairy stories and some essays in the leading reviews4 ,i did not quite understand what ,mr4 ,pater meant1 he continues1 and it was not till ,i had carefully studied his beautiful and suggestive essays on the ,renaissance that ,i fully realised what a wonderful self-conscious art the art of ,english prose-writing really is1 or may be made to be4 ,it has been suggested that it was his late apprenticeship to an art that requires life-long study which rendered ,wilde's prose so insincere1 resembling more the conscious artifice of the modern ,french school than the restrained1 yet jewelled style of ,pater1 whom he claimed as his master in prose4 ,it was not till #ahij that he published his first and only novel1 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 with its strangeness of colour and its passionate suggestion flickering like lightning through the gloom of the subject4 ,the ,puritans and the ,philistines1 who scented veiled improprieties in its paradoxes1 were shocked2 but it delighted the connoisseur and the artist1 wearied as they were with the hum-drum accounts of afternoon tea parties and the love affairs of the curate4 ,that such a master of prose and scholarship as ,pater should have written in terms of commendation of ,dorian ,gray is sufficient to prove how free from offence the story really is4 ,in the original version of the story one passage struck ,pater as being indefinite and likely to suggest evil to evil minds4 ,this paragraph ,wilde elaborated1 but he refused to suppress a single sentence of what he had written4 ,no artist is consciously wrong1 he declared4 ,a similar incident is recorded as early as #ahgh4 ,shairp1 the ,professor of ,poetry at ,oxford1 suggested some improvements in ,wilde's ,newdigate ,prize ,poem ,ravenna4 ,wilde listened to all the suggestions with courtesy1 and even took notes of them1 but he went away and had the poem printed without making a single alteration in it4 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray first appeared on ,june #bjth1 #ahij1 in ,lippincott's ,monthly ,magazine for ,july4 ,it was published in ,america by the ,j4,b4 ,lippincott ,company of ,philadelphia simultaneously with the ,english edition of the same magazine issued by ,messrs4 ,ward1 ,lock and ,co4 ,a few weeks before the publication of his romance ,wilde wrote a letter to a publisher stating that his story would appear in ,lippincott's on the following #bjth of ,june1 and that after three months the copyright reverted to him4 ,the publication of ,dorian ,gray would create a sensation1 he wrote2 he was going to add two additional chapters1 and would the publishing house with whom he was corresponding care to consider it8 ,unfortunately the letter bears no indication of the house to which it was sent4 ,however1 on the #ast of ,july in the following year ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray was published in book form by ,messrs4 ,ward1 ,lock and ,co4 ,in this form it contained seven new chapters4 ,the binding was of a rough grey paper1 the colour of cigarette ash1 with back of parchment vellum4 ,the gilt lettering and design was by ,charles ,ricketts4 ,a sumptuous dition de luxe1 limited to two hundred and fifty copies1 signed by the author1 was also issued1 the covers being similar to the ordinary edition but the gilt tooling more elaborate4 ,in ,march1 #ahia1 ,wilde had written ,a ,preface to ',dorian ,gray' in the ,fortnightly ,review1 in which he enunciated his creed as an artist4 ,this preface is included in all impressions of ,dorian ,gray which contain twenty chapters4 ,wilde was indeed a true prophet when he foretold that his story would create a sensation4 ,though it occupied but a hundred pages in a monthly periodical1 it was reviewed as fully as any chef d'oeuvre of a leading novelist4 ,in one of his letters ,wilde says that out of over two hundred press cuttings which he received in reference to ,dorian ,gray he took public notice of only three4 ,but it is impossible to doubt but that he was thinking of his critics when he gave vent to his views on journalists1 and the attitude of the ,british public towards art1 in his essay on ,the ,soul of ,man a few months later4 ,a work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament1 he writes4 ,its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is4444 ,the moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want1 and tries to supply the demand1 he ceases to be an artist4 ,he considers it to be an impertinence for the public 7represented by the journalist7 who knows nothing about art to criticise the artist and his work4 ,in this country1 he declares that the arts that have escaped best from the aggressive1 offensive and brutalising attempts on the part of the public to interfere with the individual as an artist1 are the arts in which the public takes no interest4 ,he gives poetry as an instance1 and declares that we have been able to have fine poetry because the public does not read it1 and consequently does not influence it4 ,but1 ,in the case of the novel and the drama1 arts in which the public does take an interest1 the result of the exercise of popular authority has been absolutely ridiculous4 ,no country produces such badly written fiction1 such tedious1 common work in the novel-form4444 ,it must necessarily be so4 ,the popular standard is of such a character that no artist can get to it4 ,it is at once too easy and too difficult to be a popular novelist4 ,it is too easy1 because the requirements of the public as far as plot1 style1 psychology1 treatment of life1 and treatment of literature are concerned are within the reach of the very meanest capacity and the most uncultivated mind4 ,it is too difficult1 because to meet such requirements the artist would have to do violence to his temperament1 would have to write not for the artistic joy of writing1 but for the amusement of half-educated people1 and so would have to suppress his individualism1 forget his culture1 annihilate his style1 and surrender everything that is valuable in him4444 ,the one thing that the public dislikes is novelty4 ,any attempt to extend the subject-matter of art is extremely distasteful to the public2 and yet the vitality and progress of art depend in a large measure on the continual extension of subject-matter4 ,the public dislikes novelty because it is afraid of it4444 ,a fresh mode of ,beauty is absolutely distasteful to the public1 and whenever it appears it gets so angry and bewildered that it always uses two stupid expressions--one is that the work of art is grossly unintelligible2 the other1 that the work of art is grossly immoral4 ,when the public says a work is grossly unintelligible1 it means that the artist has said a beautiful thing that is new2 when the public describes a work as grossly immoral1 it means that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is true4 ,the former expression has reference to style2 the latter to subject-matter4 ,but it probably uses the words very vaguely1 as an ordinary mob will use ready-made paving-stones4 ,there is not a single real poet or prose-writer of this 7the nineteenth7 century on whom the ,british public has not solemnly conferred diplomas of immorality4444 ,of course1 the public is very reckless in the use of the word4444 ,an artist is1 of course1 not disturbed by it4 ,the true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself1 because he is absolutely himself4 ,but ,i can fancy that if an artist produced a work of art in ,england1 that immediately on its appearance was recognised by the public1 through its medium1 which is the public press1 as a work that was quite intelligible and highly moral1 he would begin seriously to question whether in its creation he had really been himself at all1 and consequently whether the work was not quite unworthy of him1 and either of a thoroughly second-rate order or of no artistic value whatsoever4 ,wilde then goes on to discuss the use of other words by journalists seeking to describe the work of an artist4 ,these are the words exotic1 unhealthy1 and morbid4#c ,he disposes of each in turn4 ,briefly he says1 that the public is morbid1 the artist is never morbid4 ,the word exotic merely expresses the rage of the momentary mushroom against the immortal1 entrancing and exquisitely lovely orchid4 ,and1 he concludes1 what the public calls an unhealthy novel is always a beautiful and healthy work of art4 #a ,oscar ,wilde matriculated at ,magdalen ,college1 ,oxford1 ,october #ag1 #ahgd1 and took his ,b4,a4 degree on ,november #bh1 #ahgh4 ,pater was at the time a ,fellow and ,tutor of ,brasenose4 #b ,the ,speaker1 ,vol ,i41 ,no4 #ab1 page #cai4 ,march #bb1 #ahij4 #c ,the ,times1 ,february #bcrd1 #ahic1 in reviewing ,salome1 said3 ,it is an arrangement in blood and ferocity1 morbid1 bizarre1 repulsive and very offensive4 ,wilde replied 7,times1 ,march #bnd71 ,the opinions of ,english critics on a ,french work of mine have1 of course1 little1 if any interest for me4 ,in ,the ,soul of ,man he wrote3 ,to call an artist morbid because he deals with morbidity as his subject matter1 is as silly as if one called ,shakespeare mad because he wrote ',king ,lear4' 99 99 99 99 99 ,one of the results of the extraordinary tyranny of authority is that words are absolutely distorted from their proper and simple meaning1 and are used to express the obverse of their right signification4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a ,,study ,,in ,,puppydom4#d ,time was 7it was in the '#gj's7 when we talked about ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde2 time came 7it was in the '#hj's7 when he tried to write poetry and1 more adventurous1 we tried to read it2 time is when we had forgotten him1 or only remember him as the late editor of the ,woman's ,world--a part for which he was singularly unfitted1 if we are to judge him by the work which he has been allowed to publish in ,lippincott's ,magazine1 and which ,messrs4 ,ward1 ,lock and ,co41 have not been ashamed to circulate in ,great ,britain4 ,not being curious in ordure1 and not wishing to offend the nostrils of decent persons1 we do not propose to analyse ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray3 that would be to advertise the developments of an esoteric prurience4 ,whether the ,treasury or the ,vigilance ,society will think it worth while to prosecute ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde or ,messrs4 ,ward1 ,lock and ,co41 we do not know2 but on the whole we hope they will not4 ,the puzzle is that a young man of decent parts1 who enjoyed 7when he was at ,oxford71 the opportunity of associating with gentlemen1 should put his name 7such as it is7 to so stupid and vulgar a piece of work4 ,let nobody read it in the hope of finding witty paradox or racy wickedness4 ,the writer airs his cheap research among the garbage of the ,french ,dcadents like any drivelling pedant1 and he bores you unmercifully with his prosy rigmaroles about the beauty of the ,body and the corruption of the ,soul4 ,the grammar is better than ,ouida's2 the erudition equal3 but in every other respect we prefer the talented lady who broke off with pious aposiopesis when she touched upon the horrors which are described in the pages of ,suetonius and ,livy--not to mention the yet worse infamies believed by many scholars to be accurately portrayed in the lost works of ,plutarch1 ,venus1 and ,nicodemus1 especially ,nicodemus4 ,let us take one peep at the young men in ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde's story4 ,puppy ,no4 #a is the painter of the picture of ,dorian ,gray2 ,puppy ,no4 #b is the critic 7a courtesy lord1 skilled in all the knowledge of the ,egyptians and aweary of all the sins and pleasures of ,london72 ,puppy ,no4 #c is the original1 cultivated by ,puppy ,no4 #a with a romantic friendship4 ,the ,puppies fall a-talking3 ,puppy ,no4 #a about his art1 ,puppy ,no4 #b about his sins and pleasures and the pleasures of sin1 and ,puppy ,no4 #c about himself--always about himself1 and generally about his face1 which is brainless and beautiful4 ,the ,puppies appear to fill up the intervals of talk by plucking daisies and playing with them1 and sometimes by drinking something with strawberry in it4 ,the youngest ,puppy is told that he is charming2 but he mustn't sit in the sun for fear of spoiling his complexion4 ,when he is rebuked for being a naughty1 wilful boy1 he makes a pretty moue--this man of twenty6 ,this is how he is addressed by the ,blas ,puppy at their first meeting3 ,yes1 ,mr4 ,gray1 the gods have been good to you4 ,but what the gods give they quickly take away4444 ,when your youth goes1 your beauty will go with it1 and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you4444 ,time is jealous of you1 and wars against your lilies and roses4 ,you will become sallow1 and hollow-cheeked1 and dull-eyed4 ,you will suffer horribly4#e ,why1 bless our souls6 haven't we read something of this kind somewhere in the classics8 ,yes1 of course we have6 ,but in what recondite author8 ,ah--yes--no--yes1 it was in ,horace6 ,what an advantage it is to have received a classical education6 ,and how it will astonish the ,yankees6 ,but we must not forget our ,puppies1 who have probably occupied their time in lapping something with strawberry in it4 ,puppy ,no4 #a 7the ,art ,puppy7 has been telling ,puppy ,no4 #c 7the ,doll ,puppy7 how much he admires him4 ,what is the answer8 ,i am less to you than your ivory ,hermes or your silver ,faun4 ,you will like them always4 ,how long will you like me8 ,till ,i have my first wrinkle1 ,i suppose4 ,i know now that when one loses one's good looks1 whatever they may be1 one loses everything4444 ,i am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me4 ,why should it keep what ,i must lose8444 ,oh1 if it was only the other way6 ,if the picture could only change1 and ,i could be always what ,i am now6#f ,no sooner said than done6 ,the picture does change3 the original doesn't4 ,here's a situation for you6 ,thophile ,gautier could have made it romantic1 entrancing1 beautiful4 ,mr4 ,stevenson could have made it convincing1 humorous1 pathetic4 ,mr4 ,anstey could have made it screamingly funny4 ,it has been reserved for ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde to make it dull and nasty4 ,the promising youth plunges into every kind of mean depravity1 and ends in being cut by fast women and vicious men4 ,he finishes with murder3 the ,new ,voluptuousness always leads up to blood-shedding--that is part of the cant4 ,the gore and gashes wherein ,mr4 ,rider ,haggard takes a chaste delight are the natural diet for a cultivated palate which is tired of mere licentiousness4 ,and every wickedness of filthiness committed by ,dorian ,gray is faithfully registered upon his face in the picture2 but his living features are undisturbed and unmarred by his inward vileness4 ,this is the story which ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde has tried to tell2 a very lame story it is1 and very lamely it is told4 ,why has he told it8 ,there are two explanations2 and1 so far as we can see1 not more than two4 ,not to give pleasure to his readers3 the thing is too clumsy1 too tedious1 and--alas6 that we should say it--too stupid4 ,perhaps it was to shock his readers1 in order that they might cry ,fie6 upon him and talk about him1 much as ,mr4 ,grant ,allen recently tried in the ,universal ,review to arouse1 by a licentious theory of the sexual relations1 an attention which is refused to his popular chatter about other men's science4 ,are we then to suppose that ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde has yielded to the craving for a notoriety which he once earned by talking fiddle faddle about other men's art1 and sees his only chance of recalling it by making himself obvious at the cost of being obnoxious1 and by attracting the notice which the olfactory sense cannot refuse to the presence of certain self-asserting organisms8 ,that is an uncharitable hypothesis1 and we would gladly abandon it4 ,it may be suggested 7but is it more charitable87 that he derives pleasure from treating a subject merely because it is disgusting4 ,the phenomenon is not unknown in recent literature2 and it takes two forms1 in appearance widely separate--in fact1 two branches from the same root1 a root which draws its life from malodorous putrefaction4 ,one development is found in the ,puritan prurience which produced ,tolstoi's ,kreutzer ,sonata and ,mr4 ,stead's famous outbursts4 ,that is odious enough and mischievous enough1 and it is rightly execrated1 because it is tainted with an hypocrisy not the less culpable because charitable persons may believe it to be unconscious4 ,but is it more odious or more mischievous than the frank ,paganism 7that is the word1 is it not87 which delights in dirtiness and confesses its delight8 ,still they are both chips from the same block--,the ,maiden ,tribute of ,modern ,babylon and ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray--and both of them ought to be chucked into the fire4 ,not so much because they are dangerous and corrupt 7they are corrupt but not dangerous7 as because they are incurably silly1 written by simple poseurs 7whether they call themselves ,puritan or ,pagan7 who know nothing about the life which they affect to have explored1 and because they are mere catchpenny revelations of the non-existent1 which1 if they reveal anything at all1 are revelations only of the singularly unpleasant minds from which they emerge4 #d ,st4 ,james's ,gazette1 ,june #bdth1 #ahij4 #e ,pp4 #af1 #ag4 #f p4 #ai4 99 99 99 99 99 ,who can help laughing when an ordinary journalist seriously proposes to limit the subject-matter at the disposal of the artist8 99 99 99 99 99 ,,mr4 ,,wilde',s ,,bad ,,case4 ,to the ,editor of the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette4#g ,sir1--,i have read your criticism of my story1 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 and ,i need hardly say that ,i do not propose to discuss its merits and demerits1 its personalities or its lack of personality4 ,england is a free country1 and ordinary ,english criticism is perfectly free and easy4 ,besides1 ,i must admit that1 either from temperament or taste1 or from both1 ,i am quite incapable of understanding how any work of art can be criticised from a moral standpoint4 ,the sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate2 and it is to the confusion between the two that we owe the appearance of ,mrs4 ,grundy1 that amusing old lady who represents the only original form of humour that the middle classes of this country have been able to produce4 ,what ,i do object to most strongly is that you should have placarded the town with posters on which was printed in large letters3-- ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,latest ,,advertisement3 ,a ,,bad ,,case4 ,whether the expression ,a ,bad ,case refers to my book or to the present position of the ,government1 ,i cannot tell4 ,what was silly and unnecessary was the use of the term advertisement4 ,i think ,i may say without vanity--though ,i do not wish to appear to run vanity down--that of all men in ,england ,i am the one who requires least advertisement4 ,i am tired to death of being advertised--,i feel no thrill when ,i see my name in a paper4 ,the chronicle does not interest me any more4 ,i wrote this book entirely for my own pleasure1 and it gave me very great pleasure to write it4 ,whether it becomes popular or not is a matter of absolute indifference to me4 ,i am afraid1 ,sir1 that the real advertisement is your cleverly written article4 ,the ,english public1 as a mass1 takes no interest in a work of art until it is told that the work in question is immoral1 and your rclame will1 ,i have no doubt1 largely increase the sale of the magazine2 in which sale1 ,i may mention1 with some regret1 ,i have no pecuniary interest4 ,i remain1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,oscar ,,wilde4 #af1 ,tite ,street1 ,chelsea1 ,june #beth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,to this the following ,editorial note was appended3-- ,in the preceding column will be found the best reply which ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde can make to our recent criticism of his mawkish and nauseous story1 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,mr4 ,wilde tells us that he is constitutionally unable to understand how any work of art can be criticised from a moral standpoint4 ,we were quite aware that ethics and sthetics are different matters1 and that is why the greater part of our criticism was devoted not so much to the nastiness of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 but to its dulness and stupidity4 ,mr4 ,wilde pretends that we have advertised it4 ,so we have1 if any readers are attracted to a book which1 we have warned them1 will bore them insufferably4 ,that the story is corrupt cannot be denied2 but we added1 and assuredly believe1 that it is not dangerous1 because1 as we said1 it is tedious and stupid4 ,mr4 ,wilde tells us that he wrote the story for his own pleasure1 and found great pleasure in writing it4 ,we congratulate him4 ,there is no triumph more precious to your sthete than the discovery of a delight which outsiders cannot share or even understand4 ,the author of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray is the only person likely to find pleasure in it4 #g ,june #bfth1 #ahij4 99 99 99 99 99 ,why should an artist be troubled by the shrill clamour of criticism8 99 99 99 99 99 ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde ,,again4 ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde continues to carry on the defence of his novelette1 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,writing to us under yesterday's date#h1 he says3-- ,in your issue of to-day you state that my brief letter published in your columns is the best reply ,i can make to your article upon ,dorian ,gray4 ,this is not so4 ,i do not propose to discuss fully the matter here1 but ,i feel bound to say that your article contains the most unjustifiable attack that has been made upon any man of letters for many years4 ,the writer of it1 who is quite incapable of concealing his personal malice1 and so in some measure destroys the effect he wishes to produce1 seems not to have the slightest idea of the temper in which a work of art should be approached4 ,to say that such a book as mine should be chucked into the fire is silly4 ,that is what one does with newspapers4 ,of the value of pseudo-ethical criticism2 in dealing with artistic work ,i have spoken already4 ,but as your writer has ventured into the perilous grounds of literary criticism ,i ask you to allow me1 in fairness not merely to myself1 but to all men to whom literature is a fine art1 to say a few words about his critical method4 ,he begins by assailing me with much ridiculous virulence because the chief personages in my story are puppies4 ,they are puppies4 ,does he think that literature went to the dogs when ,thackeray wrote about puppydom8 ,i think that puppies are extremely interesting from an artistic as well as from a psychological point of view4 ,they seem to me to be certainly far more interesting than prigs2 and ,i am of opinion that ,lord ,henry ,wotton is an excellent corrective of the tedious ideal shadowed forth in the semi-theological novels of our age4 ,he then makes vague and fearful insinuations about my grammar and my erudition4 ,now1 as regards grammar1 ,i hold that1 in prose at any rate1 correctness should always be subordinate to artistic effect and musical cadence2 and any peculiarities of syntax that may occur in ,dorian ,gray are deliberately intended1 and are introduced to show the value of the artistic theory in question4 ,your writer gives no instance of any such peculiarity4 ,this ,i regret1 because ,i do not think that any such instances occur4 ,as regards erudition1 it is always difficult1 even for the most modest of us1 to remember that other people do not know quite as much as one does one's self4 ,i myself frankly admit ,i cannot imagine how a casual reference to ,suetonius and ,petronius ,arbiter can be construed into evidence of a desire to impress an unoffending and ill-educated public by an assumption of superior knowledge4 ,i should fancy that the most ordinary of scholars is perfectly well acquainted with the ,lives of the ,csars and with the ,satyricon4 ,the ,lives of the ,csars1 at any rate1 forms part of the curriculum at ,oxford for those who take the ,honour ,school of ,liter ,humaniores2 and as for the ,satyricon it is popular even among pass-men1 though ,i suppose they are obliged to read it in translations4 ,the writer of the article then suggests that ,i1 in common with that great and noble artist ,count ,tolstoi1 take pleasure in a subject because it is dangerous4 ,about such a suggestion there is this to be said4 ,romantic art deals with the exception and with the individual4 ,good people1 belonging as they do to the normal1 and so1 commonplace type1 are artistically uninteresting4 ,bad people are1 from the point of view of art1 fascinating studies4 ,they represent colour1 variety and strangeness4 ,good people exasperate one's reason2 bad people stir one's imagination4 ,your critic1 if ,i must give him so honourable a title1 states that the people in any story have no counterpart in life2 that they are1 to use his vigorous if somewhat vulgar phrase1 mere catchpenny revelations of the non-existent4 ,quite so4 ,if they existed they would not be worth writing about4 ,the function of the artist is to invent1 not to chronicle4 ,there are no such people4 ,if there were ,i would not write about them4 ,life by its realism is always spoiling the subject-matter of art4 ,the superior pleasure in literature is to realise the non-existent4 ,and1 finally1 let me say this4 ,you have reproduced1 in a journalistic form1 the comedy of ,much ,ado about ,nothing and have1 of course1 spoilt it in your reproduction4 ,the poor public1 hearing from an authority so high as your own1 that this is a wicked book that should be coerced and suppressed by a ,tory ,government1 will1 no doubt1 rush to it and read it4 ,but1 alas1 they will find that it is a story with a moral4 ,and the moral is this3 ,all excess1 as well as all renunciation1 brings its own punishment4 ,the painter1 ,basil ,hallward1 worshipping physical beauty far too much1 as most painters do1 dies by the hand of one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurd vanity4 ,dorian ,gray1 having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure1 tries to kill conscience1 and at that moment kills himself4 ,lord ,henry ,wotton seeks to be merely the spectator of life4 ,he finds that those who reject the battle are more deeply wounded than those who take part in it4 ,yes1 there is a terrible moral in ,dorian ,gray--a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it1 but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy4 ,is this an artistic error8 ,i fear it is4 ,it is the only error in the book4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,editor added to this letter3-- ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde may perhaps be excused for being angry at the remarks which we allowed ourselves to make concerning the moral tale of the ,three ,puppies and the ,magic ,picture2 but he should not misrepresent us4 ,he says we suggested that his novel was a wicked book which should be coerced and suppressed by a ,tory ,government4 ,we did nothing of the kind4 ,the authors of books of much less questionable character have been proceeded against by the ,treasury or the ,vigilance ,society2 but we expressly said that we hoped ,mr4 ,wilde's masterpiece would be left alone4 ,then1 ,mr4 ,wilde 7like any young lady who has published her first novel at the request of numerous friends7 falls back on the theory of the critic's personal malice4 ,this is unworthy of so experienced a literary gentleman4 ,we can assure ,mr4 ,wilde that the writer of that article had1 and has1 no personal malice or personal feeling towards him4 ,we can surely censure a work which we believe to be silly and know to be offensive1 without the imputation of malice--especially when that book is written by one who is so clearly capable of better things4 99 99 99 99 99 ,as for the critical question1 ,mr4 ,wilde is beating the air when he defends idealism and romantic art in literature4 ,in the words of ,mrs4 ,harris to ,mrs4 ,gamp1 ,who's deniging of it8 ,heaven forbid that we should refuse to an author the supreme pleasure of realising the non-existent2 or that we should judge the sthetic from the purely ethical standpoint4 ,no2 our criticism starts from lower ground4 ,mr4 ,wilde says that his story is a moral tale1 because the wicked persons in it come to a bad end4 ,we will not be so rude as to quote a certain remark about morality which one ,mr4 ,charles ,surface made to ,mr4 ,joseph ,surface4 ,we simply say that every critic has the right to point out that a work of art or literature is dull and incompetent in its treatment--as ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray is1 and that its dulness and incompetence are not redeemed because it constantly hints1 not obscurely1 at disgusting sins and abominable crimes--as ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray does4 #h ,june #bfth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a true artist takes no notice whatever of the public4 ,the public is to him non-existent4 ,he has no poppied or honeyed cakes through which to give the monster sleep or sustenance4 ,he leaves that to the popular novelist4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,defence4 ,to the ,editor of the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette4#i ,sir1--,as you still keep up1 though in a somewhat milder form than before1 your attacks on me and my book you not only confer upon me the right1 but you impose on me the duty of reply4 ,you state1 in your issue of to-day1 that ,i misrepresented you when ,i said that you suggested that a book so wicked as mine should be suppressed and coerced by a ,tory ,government4 ,now1 you did not propose this1 but you did suggest it4 ,when you declare that you do not know whether or not the ,government will take action about my book1 and remark that the authors of books much less wicked have been proceeded against in law1 the suggestion is quite obvious4 ,in your complaint of misrepresentation you seem to me1 ,sir1 to have been not quite candid4 ,however1 as far as ,i am concerned1 this suggestion is of no importance4 ,what is of importance is that the editor of a paper like yours should appear to countenance the monstrous theory that the ,government of a country should exercise a censorship over imaginative literature4 ,this is a theory against which ,i1 and all men of letters of my acquaintance1 protest most strongly2 and any critic who admits the reasonableness of such a theory shows at once that he is quite incapable of understanding what literature is1 and what are the rights that literature possesses4 ,a ,government might just as well try to teach painters how to paint1 or sculptors how to model1 as attempt to interfere with the style1 treatment and subject-matter of the literary artist1 and no writer1 however eminent or obscure1 should ever give his sanction to a theory that would degrade literature far more than any didactic or so-called immoral book could possibly do4 ,you then express your surprise that so experienced a literary gentleman as myself should imagine that your critic was animated by any feeling of personal malice towards him4 ,the phrase literary gentleman is a vile phrase1 but let that pass4 ,i accept quite readily your assurance that your critic was simply criticising a work of art in the best way that he could1 but ,i feel that ,i was fully justified in forming the opinion of him that ,i did4 ,he opened his article by a gross personal attack on myself4 ,this1 ,i need hardly say1 was an absolutely unpardonable error of critical taste4 ,there is no excuse for it except personal malice2 and you1 ,sir1 should not have sanctioned it4 ,a critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author4 ,this1 in fact1 is the beginning of criticism4 ,however1 it was not merely his personal attack on me that made me imagine that he was actuated by malice4 ,what really confirmed me in my first impression was his reiterated assertion that my book was tedious and dull4 ,now1 if ,i were criticising my book1 which ,i have some thoughts of doing1 ,i think ,i would consider it my duty to point out that it is far too crowded with sensational incident1 and far too paradoxical in style1 as far1 at any rate1 as the dialogue goes4 ,i feel that from a standpoint of art there are true defects in the book4 ,but tedious and dull the book is not4 ,your critic has cleared himself of the charge of personal malice1 his denial and yours being quite sufficient in the matter2 but he has done so only by a tacit admission that he has really no critical instinct about literature and literary work1 which1 in one who writes about literature is1 ,i need hardly say1 a much graver fault than malice of any kind4 ,finally1 ,sir1 allow me to say this4 ,such an article as you have published really makes me despair of the possibility of any general culture in ,england4 ,were ,i a ,french author1 and my book brought out in ,paris1 there is not a single literary critic in ,france on any paper of high standing who would think for a moment of criticising it from an ethical standpoint4 ,if he did so he would stultify himself1 not merely in the eyes of all men of letters1 but in the eyes of the majority of the public4 ,you have yourself often spoken against ,puritanism4 ,believe me1 ,sir1 ,puritanism is never so offensive and destructive as when it deals with art matters4 ,it is there that it is radically wrong4 ,it is this ,puritanism1 to which your critic has given expression1 that is always marring the artistic instinct of the ,english4 ,so far from encouraging it1 you should set yourself against it1 and should try to teach your critics to recognise the essential difference between art and life4 ,the gentleman who criticised my book is in a perfectly hopeless confusion about it1 and your attempt to help him out by proposing that the subject-matter of art should be limited does not mend matters4 ,it is proper that limitation should be placed on action4 ,it is not proper that limitation should be placed on art4 ,to art belong all things that are and all things that are not1 and even the editor of a ,london paper has no right to restrain the freedom of art in the selection of subject-matter4 ,i now trust1 ,sir1 that these attacks on me and my book will cease4 ,there are forms of advertisement that are unwarranted and unwarrantable4 ,i am1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,oscar ,,wilde4 #af1 ,tite ,street1 ,s4,w41 ,june #bgth4 #i ,june #bhth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the public 444 is always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else 444 quite oblivious of the fact that if he did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist4 99 99 99 99 99 ,once more the ,editor attempted to justify his reviewer's trenchant criticism3-- ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde makes his third and1 we presume1 his final reply to the criticism which we published on ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,somewhat grudgingly1 but in sufficiently explicit terms1 he withdraws the charge of personal malice which he brought against the critic1 and which1 we may again assure him1 is absolutely unfounded4 ,but he adheres to the other charge of critical incapacity4 ,mr4 ,wilde assures us that his book1 so far from being dull and tedious1 is full of interest2 an opinion which is shared 7see the letter we print on another page to-day7 by his publishers' advertising agent-in-advance4 ,well1 we can only repeat that we disagree with ,mr4 ,wilde and his publishers' paragraphist4 ,quite apart from ethical considerations1 the book seems to us a feeble and ineffective attempt at a kind of allegory which1 in the hands of abler writers 7writers like ,mr4 ,stevenson and ,mr4 ,anstey1 for instance7 can be made striking or amusing4 ,mr4 ,wilde also says that we suggested that the author and publishers of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray ought to be prosecuted by the ,tory ,government1 by which we presume he means the ,treasury4 ,no2 we consider that such prosecutions are ill-advised1 and expressly suggested that such action ought not to be taken against a book which we believed to be rendered innocuous by the tedious and stupid qualities which the critic discovered and explained4 ,secondly1 ,mr4 ,wilde hints that the rights of literature include a right to say what it pleases1 how it pleases and where it pleases4 ,that is a right not only not recognised by the law of the land1 but expressly denied by penalties which have been repeatedly enforced4 ,then what does ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde mean by talking about the rights of literature8 ,we will not insult an artist1 who is by his own account un-moral or supra-moral by suggesting that he means moral rights4 ,but he tells us that limitations may be set on action but ought not to be set on art4 ,quite so4 ,but art becomes action when the work of art is published4 ,it is offensive publications that we object to1 not the offensive imaginings of such minds as find their pleasure therein4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,letter ,,from ,a ,,london ,,editor4 ,in the same issue of ,june #bhth appeared the following letter3-- ,to the ,editor of the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette4 ,sir1--,if ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde is the last man in ,england 7according to his own account7 who requires advertisement1 his friends and publishers do not seem to be of the same opinion4 ,otherwise it is difficult to account for the following audacious puff-postive which has been sent through the halfpenny post to newspaper editors and others3-- ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde will contribute to the ,july number of ,lippincott's ,magazine a complete novel1 entitled ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 which1 as the first venture in fiction of one of the most prominent personalities and artistic influences of the day1 will be everywhere read with wide interest and curiosity4 ,but the story is in itself so strong and strange1 and so picturesque and powerful in style1 that it must inevitably have created a sensation in the literary world1 even if published without ,mr4 ,wilde's name on the title page4 ,viewed merely as a romance1 it is from the opening paragraph down to the tragic and ghastly climax1 full of strong and sustained interest2 as a study in psychology it is phenomenal2 judged even purely as a piece of literary workmanship it is one of the most brilliant and remarkable productions of the year4 ,such1 ,sir1 is the estimate of ,mr4 ,wilde's publishers or paragraph writer4 ,note the adjectival exuberance of the puffer--complete1 strong1 strange1 picturesque1 powerful1 tragic1 ghastly1 sustained1 phenomenal1 brilliant and remarkable4 ,for a man who does not want advertisement this is not bad4 ,i am1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,june #bgth4 ,a ,,london ,,editor4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,mr4 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,defence4 ,to the ,editor of the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette4#aj ,sir1--,in your issue of this evening you publish a letter from ,a ,london ,editor which clearly insinuates in the last paragraph that ,i have in some way sanctioned the circulation of an expression of opinion1 on the part of the proprietors of ,lippincott's ,magazine1 of the literary and artistic value of my story of the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,allow me1 ,sir1 to state that there are no grounds for this insinuation4 ,i was not aware that any such document was being circulated2 and ,i have written to the agents1 ,messrs4 ,ward and ,lock--who cannot1 ,i feel sure1 be primarily responsible for its appearance--to ask them to withdraw it at once4 ,no publisher should ever express an opinion of the value of what he publishes4 ,that is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide4 ,i must admit1 as one to whom contemporary literature is constantly submitted for criticism1 that the only thing that ever prejudices me against a book is the lack of literary style2 but ,i can quite understand how any ordinary critic would be strongly prejudiced against a work that was accompanied by a premature and unnecessary panegyric from the publisher4 ,a publisher is simply a useful middle-man4 ,it is not for him to anticipate the verdict of criticism4 ,i may1 however1 while expressing my thanks to the ,london ,editor for drawing my attention to this1 ,i trust1 purely ,american method of procedure1 venture to differ from him in one of his criticisms4 ,he states that he regards the expression complete as applied to a story1 as a specimen of the adjectival exuberance of the puffer4 ,here1 it seems to me1 he sadly exaggerates4 ,what my story is is an interesting problem4 ,what my story is not is a novelette--a term which you have more than once applied to it4 ,there is no such word in the ,english language as novelette4 ,it should not be used4 ,it is merely part of the slang of ,fleet ,street4 ,in another part of your paper1 ,sir1 you state that ,i received your assurance of the lack of malice in your critic somewhat grudgingly4 ,this is not so4 ,i frankly said that ,i accepted that assurance quite readily1 and that your own denial and that of your critic were sufficient4 ,nothing more generous could have been said4 ,what ,i did feel was that you saved your critic from the charge of malice by convicting him of the unpardonable crime of lack of literary instinct4 ,i still feel that4 ,to call my book an ineffective attempt at allegory that1 in the hands of ,mr4 ,anstey might have been made striking1 is absurd4 ,mr4 ,anstey's sphere in literature and my sphere are different4 ,you then gravely ask me what rights ,i imagine literature possesses4 ,that is really an extraordinary question for the editor of a newspaper such as yours to ask4 ,the rights of literature1 ,sir1 are the rights of intellect4 ,i remember once hearing ,m4 ,renan say that he would sooner live under a military despotism than under the despotism of the ,church1 because the former merely limited the freedom of action1 while the latter limited the freedom of mind4 ,you say that a work of art is a form of action3 ,it is not4 ,it is the highest mode of thought4 ,in conclusion1 ,sir1 let me ask you not to force on me this continued correspondence by daily attacks4 ,it is a trouble and a nuisance4 ,as you assailed me first1 ,i have a right to the last word4 ,let that last word be the present letter1 and leave my book1 ,i beg you1 to the immortality that it deserves4 ,i am1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,oscar ,,wilde4 #af1 ,tite ,street1 ,s4,w41 ,june #bhth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,last ,,word4 ,we should be sorry to deny the ex-editor of the ,woman's ,world the feminine privilege of the last word for which he pleads to-day4 ,at the same time we cannot admit that we force upon ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde the burden of a newspaper controversy by daily attacks4 ,mr4 ,wilde published a book1 and 7presumably7 submitted it to criticism3 we exercised our rights as critics of contemporary literature by pointing out that we thought the book feeble and offensive4 ,mr4 ,wilde replies1 defending his book against our unfavourable criticism1 and we have again the right to point out that we do not consider that he has satisfactorily met our arguments and our objections4 ,for the rest1 we are quite willing to leave ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray to the immortality it deserves4 ,we must add one word4 ,we congratulate ,mr4 ,wilde on his emphatic disavowal of the ridiculous puff preliminary which his publishers had chosen to circulate4 ,two days later 7,july #bnd7 the ,editor could not resist one more word3-- ,modest ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde4 ,he has been having a little dispute with the ,daily ,chronicle as well as with the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette and this is what he writes to our contemporary3-- ,my story is an essay on decorative art4 ,it re-acts against the crude brutality of plain realism4 ,it is poisonous1 if you like1 but you cannot deny that it is also perfect1 and perfection is what we artists aim at4 #aj ,june #cjth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,art should never try to be popular4 ,the public should try and make itself artistic4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,daily ,,chronicle#aa ,,on ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,dulness and dirt are the chief features of ,lippincott's this month4 ,the element in it that is unclean1 though undeniably amusing1 is furnished by ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde's story of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,it is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the ,french ,dcadents--a poisonous book1 the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction--a gloating study of the mental and physical corruption of a fresh1 fair and golden youth1 which might be horrible and fascinating but for its effeminate frivolity1 its studied insincerity1 its theatrical cynicism1 its tawdry mysticism1 its flippant philosophisings and the contaminating trail of garish vulgarity which is over all ,mr4 ,wilde's elaborate ,wardour-street stheticism and obtrusively cheap scholarship4 ,mr4 ,wilde says his book has a moral4 ,the moral1 so far as we can collect it1 is that man's chief end is to develop his nature to the fullest by always searching for new sensations1 that when the soul gets sick the way to cure it is to deny the senses nothing1 for nothing1 says one of ,mr4 ,wilde's characters1 ,lord ,henry ,wotton1 can cure the soul but the senses1 just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul4 ,man is half angel and half ape1 and ,mr4 ,wilde's book has no real use if it be not to inculcate the moral that when you feel yourself becoming too angelic you cannot do better than rush out and make a beast of yourself4 ,there is not a single good and holy impulse of human nature1 scarcely a fine feeling or instinct that civilization1 art and religion have developed throughout the ages as part of the barriers between ,humanity and ,animalism that is not held up to ridicule and contempt in ,dorian ,gray1 if1 indeed1 such strong words can be fitly applied to the actual effect of ,mr4 ,wilde's airy levity and fluent impudence4 ,his desperate effort to vamp up a moral for the book at the end is1 artistically speaking1 coarse and crude1 because the whole incident of ,dorian ,gray's death is1 as they say on the stage1 out of the picture4 ,dorian's only regret is that unbridled indulgence in every form of secret and unspeakable vice1 every resource of luxury and art1 and sometimes still more piquant to the jaded young man of fashion1 whose lives ,dorian ,gray pretends to sketch1 by every abomination of vulgarity and squalor is--what8 ,why1 that it will leave traces of premature age and loathsomeness on his pretty facy1 rosy with the loveliness that endeared youth of his odious type to the paralytic patricians of the ,lower ,empire4 ,dorian ,gray prays that a portrait of himself which an artist 7who raves about him as young men do about the women they love not wisely but too well7 has painted may grow old instead of the original4 ,this is what happens by some supernatural agency1 the introduction of which seems purely farcical1 so that ,dorian goes on enjoying unfading youth year after year1 and might go on for ever using his senses with impunity to cure his soul1 defiling ,english society with the moral pestilence which is incarnate in him1 but for one thing4 ,that is his sudden impulse not merely to murder the painter--which might be artistically defended on the plea that it is only a fresh development of his scheme for realizing every phase of life-experience--but to rip up the canvas in a rage1 merely because1 though he had permitted himself to do one good action1 it had not made his portrait less hideous4 ,but all this is inconsistent with ,dorian ,gray's cool1 calculating1 conscienceless character1 evolved logically enough by ,mr ,wilde's ,new ,hedonism4 ,then ,mr4 ,wilde finishes his story by saying that on hearing a heavy fall ,dorian ,gray's servants rushed in1 found the portrait on the wall as youthful looking as ever1 its senile ugliness being transferred to the foul profligate himself1 who is lying on the floor stabbed to the heart4 ,this is a sham moral1 as indeed everything in the book is a sham1 except the one element in the book which will taint every young mind that comes in contact with it4 ,that element is shockingly real1 and it is the plausibly insinuated defence of the creed that appeals to the senses to cure the soul whenever the spiritual nature of man suffers from too much purity and self-denial4 ,the rest of this number of ,lippincott consists of articles of harmless padding4 #aa ,june #cjth1 #ahij4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,reply4 ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,to the ,editor of the ,daily ,chronicle4#ab ,sir1--,will you allow me to correct some errors into which your critic has fallen in his review of my story1 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 published in to-day's issue of your paper8 ,your critic states1 to begin with1 that ,i make desperate attempts to vamp up a moral in my story4 ,now ,i must candidly confess that ,i do not know what vamping is4 ,i see1 from time to time1 mysterious advertisements in the newspapers about ,how to ,vamp1 but what vamping really means remains a mystery to me--a mystery that1 like all other mysteries1 ,i hope some day to explore4 ,however1 ,i do not propose to discuss the absurd terms used by modern journalism4 ,what ,i want to say is that1 so far from wishing to emphasise any moral in my story1 the real trouble ,i experienced in writing the story was that of keeping the extremely obvious moral subordinate to the artistic and dramatic effect4 ,when ,i first conceived the idea of a young man selling his soul in exchange for eternal youth--an idea that is old in the history of literature1 but to which ,i have given new form--,i felt that1 from an sthetic point of view1 it would be difficult to keep the moral in its proper secondary place2 and even now ,i do not feel quite sure that ,i have been able to do so4 ,i think the moral too apparent4 ,when the book is published in a volume ,i hope to correct this defect4 ,as for what the moral is1 your critic states that it is this--that when a man feels himself becoming too angelic he should rush out and make a beast of himself4 ,i cannot say that ,i consider this a moral4 ,the real moral of the story is that all excess1 as well as all renunciation1 brings its punishment1 and this moral is so far artistically and deliberately suppressed that it does not enunciate its law as a general principle1 but realises itself purely in the lives of individuals1 and so becomes simply a dramatic element in a work of art1 and not the object of the work of art itself4 ,your critic also falls into error when he says that ,dorian ,gray1 having a cool1 calculating1 conscienceless character1 was inconsistent when he destroyed the picture of his own soul1 on the ground that the picture did not become less hideous after he had done what1 in his vanity1 he had considered his first good action4 ,dorian ,gray has not got a cool1 calculating1 conscienceless character at all4 ,on the contrary1 he is extremely impulsive1 absurdly romantic1 and is haunted all through his life by an exaggerated sense of conscience which mars his pleasures for him and warns him that youth and enjoyment are not everything in the world4 ,it is finally to get rid of the conscience that had dogged his steps from year to year that he destroys the picture2 and thus in his attempt to kill conscience ,dorian ,gray kills himself4 ,your critic then talks about obtrusively cheap scholarship4 ,now1 whatever a scholar writes is sure to display scholarship in the distinction of style and the fine use of language2 but my story contains no learned or pseudo-learned discussions1 and the only literary books that it alludes to are books that any fairly educated reader may be supposed to be acquainted with1 such as the ,satyricon of ,petronius ,arbiter1 or ,gautier's ,emaux et ,cames4 ,such books as ,le ,conso's ,clericalis ,disciplina belong not to culture1 but to curiosity4 ,anybody may be excused for not knowing them4 ,finally1 let me say this--the sthetic movement produced certain curious colours1 subtle in their loveliness and fascinating in their almost mystical tone4 ,they were1 and are1 our reaction against the crude primaries of a doubtless more respectable but certainly less cultivated age4 ,my story is an essay on decorative art4 ,it re-acts against the crude brutality of plain realism4 ,it is poisonous1 if you like1 but you cannot deny that it is also perfect1 and perfection is what we artists aim at4 ,i remain1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,oscar ,,wilde4 #af1 ,tite ,street1 ,june #cjth4 #ab ,july #bnd1 #ahij4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we allow absolute freedom to the journalist1 and entirely limit the artist4 ,english public opinion1 that is to say1 tries to constrain and impede and warp the man who makes things that are beautiful in effect1 and compels the journalist to retail things that are ugly1 or disgusting1 or revolting in fact1 so that we have the most serious journalists in the world1 and the most indecent newspapers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,scots ,,observer',s ,,review4 ,the following diatribe is from a journal1 ,the ,scots ,observer#ac1 which had an ephemeral existence in the early 'nineties4 ,under the heading of ,reviews and ,magazines it launched forth in these words3-- ,why go grubbing in muck heaps8 ,the world is fair1 and the proportion of healthy-minded men and honest women to those that are foul1 fallen or unnatural is great4 ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde has again been writing stuff that were better unwritten2 and while ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 which he contributes to ,lippincott's1 is ingenious1 interesting1 full of cleverness1 and plainly the work of a man of letters1 it is false art for its interest is medico-legal2 it is false to human nature--for its hero is a devil2 it is false to morality--for it is not made sufficiently clear that the writer does not prefer a course of unnatural iniquity to a life of cleanliness1 health and sanity4 ,the story--which deals with matters only fitted for the ,criminal ,investigation ,department or a hearing in camera--is discreditable alike to author and editor4 ,mr4 ,wilde has brains1 and art1 and style2 but1 if he can write for none but outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph-boys1 the sooner he takes to tailoring 7or some other decent trade7 the better for his own reputation and the public morals4 #ac ,july #eth1 #ahij4 ,the ,scots ,observer was edited by ,w4,e4 ,henley4 ,it was violently ,tory in character1 and afterwards became ,the ,national ,observer1 but not even a re-christening could save it from an early death4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we are dominated by journalism4444 ,journalism governs for ever and ever4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,oscar ,,wilde',s ,,replies4 ,to this vulgar abuse ,wilde condescended to reply in the following terms3-- #af1 ,tite ,street1 ,chelsea1 #ith ,july1 #ahij4 ,sir1--,you have published a review of my story1 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,as this review is grossly unjust to me as an artist1 ,i ask you to allow me to exercise in your columns my right of reply4 ,your reviewer1 ,sir1 while admitting that the story in question is plainly the work of a man of letters1 the work of one who has brains1 and art1 and style1 yet suggests1 and apparently in all seriousness1 that ,i have written it in order that it should be read by the most depraved members of the criminal and illiterate classes4 ,now1 ,sir1 ,i do not suppose that the criminal and illiterate classes ever read anything except newspapers4 ,they are certainly not likely to be able to understand anything of mine4 ,so let them pass1 and on the broad question of why a man of letters writes at all let me say this4 ,the pleasure that one has in creating a work of art is a purely personal pleasure1 and it is for the sake of this pleasure that one creates4 ,the artist works with his eye on the object4 ,nothing else interests him4 ,what people are likely to say does not even occur to him4 ,he is fascinated by what he has in hand4 ,he is indifferent to others4 ,i write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write4 ,if my work pleases the few1 ,i am gratified4 ,if it does not1 it causes me no pain4 ,as for the mob1 ,i have no desire to be a popular novelist4 ,it is far too easy4 ,your critic then1 ,sir1 commits the absolutely unpardonable crime of trying to confuse the artist with his subject-matter4 ,for this1 ,sir1 there is no excuse at all4 ,of one who is the greatest figure in the world's literature since ,greek days1 ,keats remarked that he had as much pleasure in conceiving the evil as he had in conceiving the good4 ,let your reviewer1 ,sir1 consider the bearings of ,keats' criticism1 for it is under these conditions that every artist works4 ,one stands remote from one's subject-matter4 ,one creates it1 and one contemplates it4 ,the further away the subject-matter is1 the more freely can the artist work4 ,your reviewer suggests that ,i do not make it sufficiently clear whether ,i prefer virtue to wickedness or wickedness to virtue4 ,an artist1 ,sir1 has no ethical sympathies at all4 ,virtue and wickedness are to him simply what the colours on his palette are to the painter4 ,they are no more1 and they are no less4 ,he sees that by their means a certain artistic effect can be produced and he produces it4 ,iago may be morally horrible and ,imogen stainlessly pure4 ,shakespeare1 as ,keats said1 had as much delight in creating the one as he had in creating the other4 ,it was necessary1 ,sir1 for the dramatic development of this story1 to surround ,dorian ,gray with an atmosphere of moral corruption4 ,otherwise the story would have had no meaning and the plot no issue4 ,to keep this atmosphere vague and indeterminate and wonderful was the aim of the artist who wrote the story4 ,i claim1 ,sir1 that he has succeeded4 ,each man sees his own sin in ,dorian ,gray4 ,what ,dorian ,gray's sins are no one knows4 ,he who finds them has brought them4 ,in conclusion1 ,sir1 let me say how really deeply ,i regret that you should have permitted such a notice1 as the one ,i feel constrained to write on1 to have appeared in your paper4 ,that the editor of the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette should have employed ,caliban as his art-critic was possibly natural4 ,the editor of the ,scots ,observer should not have allowed ,thersites to make mows in his reviews4 ,it is unworthy of so distinguished a man of letters4 ,i am1 etc41 ,,oscar ,,wilde4 ,to this letter the following editorial note was added3-- ,it was not to be expected that ,mr4 ,wilde would agree with his reviewer as to the artistic merit of his booklet4 ,let it be conceded to him that he has succeeded in surrounding his hero with such an atmosphere as he describes4 ,this is his reward4 ,it is none the less legitimate for a critic to hold and to express the opinion that no treatment1 however skilful1 can make the atmosphere tolerable to his readers4 ,that is his punishment4 ,no doubt1 it is the artist's privilege to be nasty2 but he must exercise that privilege at his peril4 ,during the next two weeks various correspondents aired their views on the subject1 and in the third week#ad ,oscar ,wilde replied to them thus3-- ,sir1--,in a letter1 dealing with the relations of art to morals1 published in your columns--a letter which ,i may say seems to me in many respects admirable1 especially in its insistence on the right of the artist to select his own subject-matter--,mr4 ,charles ,whibley suggests that it must be peculiarly painful to me to find that the ethical import of ,dorian ,gray has been so strongly recognised by the foremost ,christian papers of ,england and ,america that ,i have been greeted by more than one of them as a moral reformer4 ,allow me1 sir1 to re-assure on this point not merely ,mr4 ,charles ,whibley himself1 but also your1 no doubt1 anxious readers4 ,i have no hesitation in saying that ,i regard such criticisms as a very gratifying tribute to my story4 ,for if a work of art is rich and vital and complete1 those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty1 and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than sthetics will see its moral lesson4 ,it will fill the cowardly with terror1 and the unclean will see in it their own shame4 ,it will be to each man what he is himself4 ,it is the spectator1 and not life1 that art really mirrors4 ,and so in the case of ,dorian ,gray1 the purely literary critic1 as in the ,speaker and elsewhere1 regards it as a serious and fascinating work of art#ae3 the critic who deals with art in its relation to conduct1 as the ,christian ,leader and the ,christian ,world1 regards it as an ethical parable3 ,light1 which ,i am told is the organ of the ,english mystics1 regards it as a work of high spiritual import#af3 the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette1 which is seeking apparently to be the organ of the prurient1 sees or pretends to see in it all kinds of dreadful things1 and hints at ,treasury prosecutions3 and your ,mr4 ,charles ,whibley genially says that he discovers in it lots of morality4 ,it is quite true that he goes on to say that he detects no art in it4 ,but ,i do not think that it is fair to expect a critic to be able to see a work of art from every point of view4 ,even ,gautier had his limitations just as much as ,diderot had1 and in modern ,england ,goethes are rare4 ,i can only assure ,mr4 ,charles ,whibley that no moral apotheosis to which he has added the most modest contribution could possibly be a source of unhappiness to an artist4 ,i remain1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,oscar ,,wilde #ad ,august #bnd4 #ae ,see ch4 ,,profuse ,,and ,,perfervid4 #af ,see ch4 ,,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray - ,a ,spiritualistic ,review4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when it 7the public7 says a work of art is grossly unintelligible1 it means that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is new2 when it describes a work as grossly immoral1 it means that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is true4 ,the former expression has reference to style2 the latter to subject-matter4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this again led to further correspondence1 and after an interval of two weeks ,oscar ,wilde returned to the charges levelled against his book and replied for the third and last time4#ag ,his letter dated from #af1 ,tite ,street1 ,chelsea1 #acth ,august1 #ahij1 was as follows3-- ,sir1--,i am afraid ,i cannot enter into any newspaper discussion on the subject of art with ,mr4 ,whibley1 partly because the writing of letters is always a trouble to me1 and partly because ,i regret to say that ,i do not know what qualifications ,mr4 ,whibley possesses for the discussion of so important a topic4 ,i merely noticed his letter because 7,i am sure without in any way intending it7 he made a suggestion about myself personally that was quite inaccurate4 ,his suggestion was that it must have been painful to me to find that a certain section of the public1 as represented by himself and the critics of some religious publications1 had insisted on finding what he calls lots of morality in my story of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,being naturally desirous of setting your readers right on a question of such vital interest to the historian1 ,i took the opportunity of pointing out in your columns that ,i regarded all such criticisms as a very gratifying tribute to the ethical beauty of the story1 and ,i added that ,i was quite ready to recognise that it was not really fair to ask of any ordinary critic that he should be able to appreciate a work of art from every point of view4 ,i still hold this opinion4 ,if a man sees the artistic beauty of a thing he will probably care very little for its ethical import4 ,if his temperament is more susceptible to ethical than to sthetic influences he will be blind to questions of style1 treatment and the like4 ,it takes a ,goethe to see a work of art fully1 completely and perfectly1 and ,i thoroughly agree with ,mr4 ,whibley when he says that it is a pity that ,goethe never had an opportunity of reading ,dorian ,gray4 ,i feel quite certain that he would have been delighted by it1 and ,i only hope that some ghostly publisher is even now distributing shadowy copies in the ,elysian fields1 and that the cover of ,goethe's copy is powdered with gilt asphodels4 ,you may ask me1 ,sir1 why ,i should care to have the ethical beauty of my story recognised4 ,i answer--simply because it exists1 because the thing is there4 ,the chief merit of ,madame ,bovary is not the moral lesson that can be found in it1 any more than the chief merit of ,salammb is its archology2 but ,flaubert was perfectly right in exposing the ignorance of those who called the one immoral and the other inaccurate2 and not merely was he right in the ordinary sense of the word1 but he was artistically right1 which is everything4 ,the critic has to educate the public2 the artist has to educate the critic4 ,allow me to make one more correction1 ,sir1 and ,i will have done with ,mr4 ,whibley4 ,he ends his letter with the statement that ,i have been indefatigable in my public appreciation of my own work4 ,i have no doubt that in saying this he means to pay me a compliment1 but he really over-rates my capacity1 as well as my inclination for work4 ,i must frankly confess that1 by nature and by choice1 ,i am extremely indolent4 ,cultivated idleness seems to me to be the proper occupation for men4 ,i dislike newspaper controversies of any kind1 and of the two hundred and sixteen criticisms of ,dorian ,gray1 that have passed from my library table into the waste-paper basket ,i have taken public notice of only three4 ,one was that which appeared in the ,scots ,observer4 ,i noticed it because it made a suggestion1 about the intention of the author in writing the book1 which needed correction4 ,the second was an article in the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette4 ,it was offensively and vulgarly written1 and seemed to me to require immediate and caustic censure4 ,the tone of the article was an impertinence to any man of letters4 ,the third was a meek attack in a paper called the ,daily ,chronicle4 ,i think my writing to the ,daily ,chronicle was an act of pure wilfulness4 ,in fact1 ,i feel sure it was4 ,i quite forget what they said4 ,i believe they said that ,dorian ,gray was poisonous1 and ,i thought that1 on alliterative grounds1 it would be kind to remind them that1 however that may be1 it is at any rate perfect4 ,that was all4 ,of the other two hundred and thirteen criticisms ,i have taken no notice4 ,indeed1 ,i have not read more than half of them4 ,it is a sad thing1 but one wearies even of praise4 ,as regards ,mr4 ,brown's letter1 it is interesting only in so far as it exemplifies the truth of what ,i have said above on the question of the two obvious schools of critics4 ,mr4 ,brown says frankly that he considers morality to be the strong point of my story4 ,mr4 ,brown means well1 and has got hold of a half truth1 but when he proceeds to deal with the book from the artistic stand-point1 he1 of course1 goes sadly astray4 ,to class ,dorian ,gray with ,m4 ,zola's ,la ,terre is as silly as if one were to class ,masset's ,fortunio with one of the ,adelphi melodramas4 ,mr4 ,brown should be content with ethical appreciations4 ,there he is impregnable4 ,mr4 ,cobbam opens badly by describing my letter setting ,mr4 ,whibley right on a matter of fact as an impudent paradox4 ,the term impudent is meaningless1 and the word paradox is misplaced4 ,i am afraid that writing to newspapers has a deteriorating influence on style4 ,people get violent and abusive and lose all sense of proportion when they enter that curious journalistic arena in which the race is always to the noisiest4 ,impudent paradox is neither violent not abusive1 but it is not an expression that should have been used about my letter4 ,however1 ,mr4 ,cobbam makes full atonement afterwards for what was1 no doubt1 a mere error of manner1 by adopting the impudent paradox in question as his own1 and pointing out that1 as ,i had previously said1 the artist will always look at the work of art from the stand-point of beauty of style and beauty of treatment1 and that those who have not got the sense of beauty--or whose sense of beauty is dominated by ethical considerations--will always turn their attention to the subject-matter and make its moral import the test and touchstone of the poem or novel or picture that is presented to them1 while the newspaper critic will sometimes take one side and sometimes the other1 according as he is cultured or uncultured4 ,in fact1 ,mr4 ,cobbam converts the impudent paradox into a tedious truism1 and1 ,i dare say1 in doing so does good service4 ,the ,english public likes tediousness1 and likes things to be explained to it in a tedious way4 ,mr4 ,cobbam has1 ,i have no doubt1 already repented of the unfortunate expression with which he has made his dbut1 so ,i will say no more about it4 ,as far as ,i am concerned he is quite forgiven4 ,and finally1 ,sir1 in taking leave of the ,scots ,observer1 ,i feel bound to make a candid confession to you4 ,it has been suggested to me by a great friend of mine1 who is a charming and distinguished man of letters 7and not unknown to you personally71 that there have been really only two people engaged in this terrible controversy1 and that those two people are the editor of the ,scots ,observer and the author of ,dorian ,gray4 ,at dinner this evening1 over some excellent ,chianti1 my friend insisted that under assumed and mysterious names you had simply given dramatic expression to the views of some of the semi-educated classes of our community1 and that the letters signed ,h4 were your own skilful1 if somewhat bitter caricature of the ,philistine as drawn by himself4 ,i admit that something of the kind had occurred to me when ,i read ,h4's first letter--the one in which he proposed that the test of art should be the political opinions of the artist1 and that if one differed from the artist on the question of the best way of mis-governing ,ireland1 one should always abuse his work4 ,still1 there are such infinite varieties of ,philistines1 and ,north ,britain is so renowned for seriousness1 that ,i dismissed the idea as unworthy of the editor of a ,scotch paper4 ,i now fear that ,i was wrong1 and that you have been amusing yourself all the time by inventing little puppets and teaching them how to use big words4 ,well1 ,sir1 if it be so--and my friend is strong on the point--allow me to congratulate you most sincerely on the cleverness with which you have reproduced the lack of literary style which is1 ,i am told1 essential for any dramatic and life-like characterisation4 ,i confess that ,i was completely taken in2 but ,i bear no malice2 and as you have1 no doubt1 been laughing at me up your sleeve1 let me join openly in the laugh1 though it be a little against myself4 ,a comedy ends when the secret is out4 ,drop your curtain and put your dolls to bed4 ,i love ,don ,quixote1 but ,i do not wish to fight any longer with marionettes1 however cunning may be the master-hand that works their wires4 ,let them go1 ,sir1 on the shelf4 ,the shelf is the proper place for them4 ,on some future occasion you can re-label them and bring them out for amusement4 ,they are an excellent company1 and go well through their tricks1 and if they are a little unreal ,i am not the one to object to unreality in art4 ,the jest is really a good one4 ,the only thing that ,i cannot understand is why you gave the marionettes such extraordinary and improbable names4 ,i remain1 ,sir1 your obedient servant1 ,,oscar ,,wilde4 ,the correspondence continued for three weeks longer1 but ,oscar ,wilde took no further part in it4 #ag ,august #afth4 99 99 99 99 99 ,if a man's work is easy to understand an explanation is unnecessary1 and if his work is incomprehensible an explanation is wicked4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,profuse ,,and ,,perfervid4 ,the review in ,the ,speaker#ah which ,oscar ,wilde referred to in his letter to ,the ,scots ,observer 7see par4 above starting with3 ',and so in the case of ,dorian ,gray1'71 was as follows3-- ,by a stroke of good fortune1 singular at this season the two stories#ai which we have taken up to review this week turn out to be--each in its way--of no slight interest4 ,of ,mr4 ,wilde's work1 this was to be expected4 ,let it be granted1 to begin with1 that the conception of the story is exceedingly strong4 ,a young man of remarkable beauty1 perfect in body1 but undeveloped1--or rather1 lacking altogether1--in soul1 becomes the dear friend of a painter of genius4 ,the artist under the spell of this friendship1 is painting the youth's portrait4 ,enter to them the spirit of evil1 in the shape of ,lord ,henry ,wotton1 an extremely fin de sicle gentleman1 who1 by a few inspiring words1 supplies1 or calls into life1 the boy's missing soul1 and it is an evil one4 ,henceforward1 the tale develops the growth of this evil soul1 side by side with this mystery--that while vice and debauchery write no wrinkle on the boy's face1 but pass from it as a breath off a pane1 every vile action scores its mark upon the portrait1 which keeps accurate record of a loathsome life4 ,it has been insinuated that this story should be suppressed in the interest of morality4 ,mr4 ,wilde has answered that art and ethics have nothing to do with each other4 ,his boldness in resting his defence on the general proposition is the more exemplary1 as he might fairly have insisted on the particular proposition--that the teaching of the book is conspicuously right in morality4 ,if we have correctly interpreted the book's motive--and we are at a loss to conceive what other can be devised--this position is unassailable4 ,there is1 perhaps1 a passage or so in the description of ,dorian's decline that were better omitted4 ,but this is a matter of taste4 ,the motive of the tale1 then1 is strong4 ,it is in his treatment of it that ,mr4 ,wilde has failed1 and his mistakes are easy of detection4 ,whether they can be as readily corrected is doubtful4 ,to begin with1 the author has a style as striking as his matter2 but he has entirely missed reconciling the two4 ,there is an amateurish lack of precision in the descriptive passages4 ,they are laboured1 finikin1 overlaid with paint2 and1 therefore1 they want vigour4 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 has been compared1 very naturally1 with ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde--and we would invite ,mr4 ,wilde to take up that story1 and consider the bold1 sharply defined strokes with which its atmosphere and milieu are put in4 ,such brevity as ,mr4 ,stevenson's comes from sureness of knowledge1 not want of care1 and is the first sign of mastery4 ,nor is ,mr4 ,wilde too wordy alone2 he is too paradoxical4 ,only the cook who has yet to learn will run riot in truffles1 ,we will admit at once that ,lord ,henry's epigrams are admirable examples1 taken separately2 but a story demands simplicity and proportion1 and here we have neither2 it demands restraint1 and here we find profusion only2 it demands point1 and here the point is too often obscured by mere cleverness4 ,lord ,henry's mission in the book is to lead ,dorian ,gray to destruction2 and he does so1 if you please1 at the end of a string of epigrams4 ,in fact we should doubt that ,mr4 ,wilde possessed the true story teller's temperament were it not for some half a dozen passages4 ,here is one where1 ,dorian tells of his engagement to ,sibyl ,vane1 the actress3-- ,lips1 he says1 that ,shakespeare taught to speak have whispered their secret in my ear4 ,i have had the arms of ,rosalind around me1 and kissed ,juliet on the mouth4 ,yes1 ,dorian1 ,i suppose you were right1 said ,hallward slowly4 ,have you seen her to-day8 said ,lord ,henry4 ,dorian ,gray shook his head4 ,i left her in the forest of ,arden1 ,i shall find her in an orchard in ,verona4 ,lord ,henry sipped his champagne in a meditative manner4 ,at what particular point did you mention the word marriage1 ,dorian8 and what did she say in answer8 ,perhaps you forgot all about it4 ,my dear ,harry1 ,i did not treat it as a business transaction1 and ,i did not make any formal proposal4 ,i told her that ,i loved her1 and she said she was not worthy to be my wife4 ,not worthy6 why1 the whole world is nothing to me compared to her4 ,women are wonderfully practical1 murmured ,lord ,henry1--much more practical than we are4444#bj ,the last chapter of the tale is good story telling throughout1 in style and matter--as good as ,chapter ,,ix is bad4#ba ,and when ,mr4 ,wilde thoroughly sees why two particular sentences in that last chapter--,the ,park is quite lovely now4 ,i don't think there have been such lilacs since the year ,i met you1--though trivial in themselves are full of significance and beauty in their setting he will be far on the road to eminence in fiction4 ,he has given us a work of serious art1 strong and fascinating1 in spite of its blemishes4 ,will he insist on being taken seriously1 and go on to give us a better8 #ah ,vol4 ,,iii41 ,no4 #bg4 ,july #e1 #ahij4 #ai ,the second story was ,perfervid3 the ,career of ,ninian ,jamieson1 by ,john ,davidson 7,ward and ,downey74 #bj p4 #cd4 #ba ,chapter ,,ix in the ,lippincott version is ,chapter ,,xi in later editions1 the last chapter 7,,xiii7 being afterwards divided into two 7,,xix and ,,xx74 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,a ,spiritualistic ,review4 ,by ,,nizida4 ,the following review of ,dorian ,gray referred to by ,oscar ,wilde in his second letter to the ,scots ,observer 7see page #ga7 was published in the issue of ,light dated ,july #abth1 #ahij4 ,this is a ,journal of ,psychical1 ,occult1 and ,mystical ,research4 ,m4,a41 ,oxon1 writing in the same paper a few weeks later mentions that ,oscar ,wilde says of ,light that it is ',the organ of the ,english mystics1' and adds ',i do not like that word 'organ4' ,at the same time ,m4,a41 ,oxon1 refers to the ,scots ,observer as being bright1 wise1 witty1 and not at all aggressive4 ,the review is here given in its entirety3 ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde has created a new character in fiction1 one likely to absorb public attention with a similar weird fascination to that produced by the renowned ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde2 and with a more lasting and beneficial moral effect than had ,mr4 ,stevenson's surprising creation4 ,a deeply conceived psychological study1 upon entirely new lines1 enriched by the stored wealth of a mind which has spared no pains in the pursuit of sensuous beauty1 and which has1 to all appearance1 revelled in deepest draughts from that sparkling and alluring fountain4 ,but what a spiritual lesson has he drawn therefrom--a lesson graphically and powerfully set forth in the fascinating pages which present to us the life of ,dorian ,gray4 ,a modern ,narcissus1 enamoured of his own beauty1 which proves a lure to draw him down into the deepest hells of sensual indulgence1 from whence he sinks into a still deeper abyss of crime4 ,introduced as an innocent1 rather effeminate youth of extraordinary and fascinating beauty1 ,dorian ,gray has his eyes opened to the fact that he possesses beauty1 and his slumbering vanity and egotism1 awakened by the insidious flatteries of a hardened cynic1 spring at once into activity1 and from that moment begins the downward course4 ,skilfully the author depicts the budding and gradual unfolding of this baleful life-blossom of the animal soul1 seeking only the selfish gratification of the senses1 refined indeed by education and artistic culture1 but1 notwithstanding1 purely animal--nay1 at times1 bestial4 ,by degrees1 the still1 small voice--the voice of the higher self which spiritually overshadows the unsophisticated youth--is deadened in the soul4 ,all the humane1 merciful1 spiritually beautiful sentiments and emotions of the better nature1 are strangled in their infancy1 for ,dorian ,gray drinks so deeply of the intoxicating cup of sensuous gratification1 that his nature becomes transformed to that of a demon--beautiful outwardly1 but within hideous4 ,all this is depicted with a master hand2 the underlying lesson1 for those who can find it1 being the danger to the soul which lies in an egotistic love and idolatrous cherishing of one's own personal beauty--for male or female equally perilous4 ,but the author by an ingenious device presents to us an objective image of the subjective transformation gradually going on in ,dorian ,gray's soul1 which1 for startling vividness and horror1 surpasses the effects usually produced by the novelist's art4 ,dorian ,gray1 whilst retaining the youthfulness1 vigorous health1 and unimpaired beauty of his external form1 at the same time witnesses the objective presentment of his soul's growing1 loathsome hideousness2 and its falling into diseased decrepitude1 into an ugliness beyond conception4 ,at first horrified by this1 he becomes at length accustomed to it1 and at certain stages of his downward course1 after the commission of new excesses1 he repairs to this silent recorder of his deeds1 and unveiling it1 seeks for fresh indication of the gradual decay and corruption which are unfailingly represented on this physical side of his being4 ,as time went on-- ,he grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty1 more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul4 ,he would examine with minute care1 and often with a monstrous and terrible delight1 the hideous lines that seared the wrinkling forehead1 or crawled around the heavy sensual mouth1 wondering sometimes which were the more horrible1 the signs of sins or the signs of age4 ,he would place his white hands beside the coarse bloated hands of the picture1 and smile4 ,he mocked the misshapen body and the failing limbs4#bb ,never does he feel a moment of repentance4 ,the disgusting image1 however1 haunts him with a terror of discovery1 drawing him back from distant places to assure himself of its hidden security1 and to contemplate it with a hideous fascination4 ,the loathsome horror never departs from his consciousness4 ,from its veiled seclusion it exerts over him a spell of diabolical enchantment1 and he knows that it is he himself2 but his mirror presents to his gaze the personal beauty he cherishes1 and the world continues to be fascinated by his charm4 ,many become fascinated to their serious moral and spiritual injury4 ,his victims are numerous2 innocent women and upright young men1 who1 but for him1 would have led virtuous1 useful lives4 ,with his beautiful body--cared for as one would care for some rare exotic blossom--going about the world with a charming appearance of harmlessness and even innocence1 he murdered souls in secret1 as completely as if with his slender1 white1 taper fingers he might have clutched their throats and strangled the life out of their bodies4 ,and all this rottenness1 all this corruption1 had been proximately caused by a seed dropped into a soil prepared for it--the soul left doubtless from the ,karma of some previous life4 ,a seed dropped from the flattering tongue of ,lord ,henry ,wotton1 tended and skilfully fostered into a surprising precociousness by his insidious1 worthless cynicisms1 and oracular sophistries4 ,a man out of whose life had departed every wholesome savour1 who poisoned the lives of others1 and led them to sin1 whilst1 apparently1 he sinned not himself4 ,as a friend once said to him1 ,you never say a moral thing1 and you never do a wrong thing4 ,your cynicism is simply a pose4 ,his whole life was1 however1 a sin1 concealed behind a mask of bonhommie1 a fashionable cheerfulness and pleasantness of manner2 a hollow cadavre full of the dust and ashes of a burnt-out life4 ,one of ,lord ,henry ,wotton's specious sophistries was this3 ,the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it4 ,as well wrap oneself confidingly in the folds of a boa-constrictor1 hoping to save one's life thereby4 ,lord ,henry's apt pupil1 ,dorian ,gray1 followed this advice scrupulously1 only to increase the power of temptation1 which never after found him unwilling1 until at last all of his higher nature was suffocated4 ,the author skilfully depicts the insidious1 baleful influence of ,lord ,henry ,wotton1 but attributes the corruption of ,dorian ,gray's soul to a book which ,lord ,henry loaned him4 ,he says3-- ,the ,renaissance knew of strange manners of poisoning--poisoning by a helmet1 and a lighted torch1 by an embroidered glove1 and a jewelled fan1 by a gilded pomander1 and by an amber chain4 ,dorian ,gray was poisoned by a book4 ,there were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realise his conception of the beautiful4#bc ,dorian ,gray had conceived the idea that his life was the product of many preceding lives4 ,the author causes him to make the following reflections3-- ,he used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the ,ego in man as a thing simple1 permanent1 reliable1 and of one essence4 ,to him1 man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations1 a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion1 and whose very flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead4 ,he loved to stroll through the gaunt cold picture-gallery of his country house and look at the various portraits of those whose blood flowed in his veins4 ,here was ,philip ,herbert1 described by ,francis ,osborne in his ,memoirs on the ,reigns of ,queen ,elizabeth and ,king ,james as one who was caressed by the ,court for his handsome face1 which kept him not long company4 ,was it young ,herbert's life that he sometimes led8 ,had some strange poisonous germ crept from body to body till it had reached his own8 ,was it some dim sense of that ruined grace that had made him so suddenly1 and almost without cause1 give utterance1 in ,basil ,hallward's studio1 to that mad prayer which had so changed his life8 ,here in gold embroidered red doublet1 jewelled sur-coat1 and gilt edged ruff and wrist-bands1 stood ,sir ,anthony ,sherard1 with his silver and black armour piled at his feet4 ,what had this man's legacy been8 ,had the lover of ,giovanni of ,naples bequeathed him some inheritance of sins and shame8 ,were his own actions merely the dreams that the dead man had not dared to realise8 ,here1 from the fading canvas smiled ,lady ,elizabeth ,devereux1 in her gauze hood1 pearled stomacher1 and pink slashed sleeves4 ,a flower was in her right hand1 and her left clasped an enamelled collar of white and damask roses4 ,on a table by her side lay a mandolin and an apple4 ,there were large green rosettes upon her little pointed shoes4 ,he knew her life1 and the strange stories that were told about her lovers4 ,had he something of her temperament in him8 ,those oval heavy-lidded eyes seemed to look curiously at him4 ,what of ,george ,willoughby1 with his powdered hair and fantastic patches8 ,how evil he looked6 ,the face was saturnine and swarthy1 and the sensual lips seemed to be twisted with disdain4 ,delicate lace ruffles fell over the lean yellow hands that were so overladen with rings4 ,he had been a macaroni of the eighteenth century1 and the friend1 in his youth1 of ,lord ,ferrars4 ,what of the second ,lord ,sherard1 the companion of the ,prince ,regent in his wildest days1 and one of the witnesses of the secret marriage with ,mrs4 ,fitzherbert8 ,how proud and handsome he was1 with his chestnut curls and insolent pose6 ,what passions had he bequeathed8 ,the world had looked upon him as infamous4 ,he had led the orgies at ,carlton ,house4 ,the ,star of the ,garter glittered upon his breast4 ,beside him hung the portrait of his wife1 a pallid1 thin-lipped woman in black4 ,her blood also stirred within him4 ,how curious it all seemed6#bd ,what a pity ,dorian did not see that the sole reason for a plurality of lives was that very thirst of the animal soul for the sensual pleasures of the material life in which he so wildly indulged1 and yet with a diabolical1 smooth1 and easy method in his madness1 seeking ever the externally beautiful4 ,beauty fled indeed before the gaunt ugliness of crime2 but when this happened to ,dorian1 he coolly turned his back and went in search of new sensations4 ,and in his search for sensations that would be at once new and delightful and possess that element of strangeness that is so essential to romance1 he would often adopt certain modes of thought that he knew to be really alien to his nature1 abandon himself to their subtle influences1 and then1 having1 as it were1 caught their colour and satisfied his intellectual curiosity1 leave them with that curious indifference that is not incompatible with a real ardour of temperament1 and that1 indeed1 according to certain modern psychologists1 is often a condition of it4#be ,veil it as he would1 his extreme moral corruption became known1 crept out from behind skilful concealments1 and was borne by the breath of gossip and scandal--whispering of its enormities4 ,he was black-balled in a ,west ,end ,club1 and when brought by a friend into a smoking-room of the ,carlton1 the ,duke of ,berwick and another gentleman got up in a marked manner and went out4 ,curious stories became current about him after he had passed his twenty-fifth year4 444 ,men would whisper to each other in corners1 or pass him with a sneer1 or look at him with cold1 searching eyes4 ,of such insolences and attempted slights1 he1 of course1 took no notice2 and in the opinion of most people his frank manner1 his charming1 boyish smile1 and the infinite grace of that wonderful youth that seemed never to leave him were in themselves a sufficient answer to the calumnies 7for so they called them7 that were circulated about him4#bf ,the life at length culminates in the commission of a crime of the most cruel1 treacherous1 and dastardly character4 ,it is successfully concealed4 ,the extraordinary coolness1 even peace of mind1 which ,dorian experiences after this deed of horror is powerfully depicted4 ,but he does feel a few momentary1 weak qualms of conscience4 ,he spares one of his victims1 and he thinks of beginning a new life4 ,then imagining himself becoming purified he longs to see how his silent recorder looks4 ,he expects to find some wonderful improvement in the aspect of the loathsome hidden self he has created1 so he repairs to its hiding place4 ,it is more loathsome than ever1 and presents new aspects of ugliness4 ,in a moment of supreme disgust and aversion he seizes a knife to destroy it4 ,by so doing he ends his physical life4 ,the only occult explanation of the catastrophe which befalls him is1 that he commits astral suicide by the murderous attack he ignorantly makes upon that which represented to him his own soul4 ,the blow reverts to his physical body1 and he falls dead4 ,there is in this book a wonderful spiritual insight into the inner life of the human being4 ,arising1 in all probability from that intuition we all more or less possess2 a sort of flash of truth upon the mind1 which is not known at the moment to be really true1 but is supposed to be the mere weaving of a graceful prolific fancy4 ,a similar power lay at the back of ,mr4 ,r4 ,stevenson's creation of ,dr4 ,jekyll1 casting upon the tale so powerful a spiritual light1 that all readers were held by the spell of its enchantment4 ,the same feeling of being under a spell fills the reader of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray4 ,the same subtle1 spiritual effect of the aura of evil flows out from the book--especially at those moments when ,dorian is contemplating the image of his soul's corruption1 not1 in this instance1 that the evil so powerfully felt poisons the mind as poor ,dorian was poisoned for life by his ,french novel2 but one gets a feeling of painful horror1 and sickening disgust1 it is not easy to shake off4 ,one seems to have glanced momentarily into the deepest abysses of hell1 and to have drawn back totally sickened by a subtle effluvium4 ,this singular power possessed by both these writers reveals a certain growth or development in them of the spiritual nature1 which need not necessarily1 as yet1 convert either of these gentlemen into saints1 or angels1 although doubtless they are both very good ,men4 ,the lesson taught by ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde's powerful story is of the highest spiritual import2 and if it can be1 not believed merely1 but accepted as a literal fact1 a mysterious verity in the life of a human being1 that the invisible soul within the body1 that alone which lives after death1 is deformed1 bestialised1 and even murdered by a life of persistent evil1 it ought to have the most beneficial effect upon society4 ,let him depict the soul as he may1 except in the case of ,basil ,hallward1 ,mr4 ,wilde never rises above the animal soul in man4 ,it is the animal soul alone1 dominated by a refined but perverted intellect1 seeking an animal gratification in sensuous beauty1 which he puts before us4 ,dorian ,gray suffocated in its infancy the only germ of spiritual soul he possessed4 #bb ,pp4 #fe1 #ff4 #bc p4 #gg4 #bd p4 #ge4 #be p4 #fh4 #bf p4 #gd4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the fact of a man being a poisoner is nothing against his prose4 99 99 99 99 99 ,illustration ,,parallel4 ,joe1 the ,fat ,boy in ,pickwick1 startles the ,old ,lady2 ,oscar1 the ,fad ,boy in ,lippincott's1 startles ,mrs4 ,grundy3-- ,oscar1 the ,fad ,boy3 ,i want to make your flesh creep6 ,reproduced by special permission of the proprietors of ,punch4 ,,punch on ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,by special permission of the ,proprietors of ,punch the following review is reproduced from the issue of that journal dated ,july #aith1 #ahij4 ,,our ,,booking ,,office4 ,the ,baron has read ,oscar ,wilde's wildest and ,oscarest work1 called ,dorian ,gray1 a weird sensational romance1 complete in one number of ,lippincott's ,magazine4 ,the ,baron recommends any body who revels in diablerie1 to begin it about half-past ten1 and to finish it at one sitting up2 but those who do not so revel he advises either not to read it at all1 or to choose the daytime1 and take it in homoeopathic doses4 ,the portrait represents the soul of the beautiful ,ganymede-like ,dorian ,gray1 whose youth and beauty last to the end1 while his soul1 like ,john ,brown's1 goes marching on1 into the ,wilderness of ,sin4 ,it becomes at last a devilled soul4 ,and then ,dorian sticks a knife into it1 as any ordinary mortal might do1 and a fork also1 and next morning ,lifeless but 'hideous1' he lay1 while the portrait has recovered the perfect beauty which it possessed when it first left the artist's easel4 ,if ,oscar intended an allegory1 the finish is dreadfully wrong4 ,does he mean that1 by sacrificing his earthly life1 ,dorian ,gray atones for his infernal sins1 and so purifies his soul by suicide8 ,heavens6 ,i am no preacher1 says the ,baron1 and perhaps ,oscar didn't mean anything at all1 except to give us a sensation1 to show how like ,bulwer ,lytton's old-world style he could make his descriptions and his dialogue1 and what an easy thing it is to frighten the respectable ,mrs4 ,grundy with a ,bogie4 ,the style is decidedly ,lyttonerary4 ,his aphorisms are ,wilde1 yet forced4 ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde says of his story1 it is poisonous if you like1 but you cannot deny that it is also perfect1 and perfection is what we artists aim at4#bg ,perhaps1 but we artists do not always hit what we aim at1 and despite his confident claim to unerring marksmanship1 one must hazard the opinion1 that in this case ,mr4 ,wilde has shot wide4 ,there is indeed more of poison than of perfection in ,dorian ,gray4 ,the central idea is an excellent1 if not exactly a novel1 one2 and a finer art1 say that of ,nathaniel ,hawthorne1 would have made a striking and satisfying story of it4 ,dorian ,gray is striking enough1 in a sense1 but it is not satisfying artistically1 any more than it is so ethically4 ,mr4 ,wilde has preferred the senuous and hyperdecorative manner of ,mademoiselle de ,maupin1 and without ,gautier's power1 has spoilt a promising conception by clumsy unideal treatment4 ,his decoration 7upon which he plumes himself7 is indeed laid on with a trowel4 ,the luxuriously elaborate details of his artistic hedonism1 are too suggestive of ,south ,kensington ,museum and sthetic ,encyclopdias4 ,a truer art would have avoided both the glittering conceits1 which bedeck the body of the story1 and the unsavoury suggestiveness which lurks in its spirit4 ,poisonous6 ,yes4 ,but the loathly leperous distilment taints and spoils1 without in any way subserving perfection1 artistic or otherwise4 ,if ,mrs4 ,grundy doesn't read it1 the younger ,grundies do2 that is1 the ,grundies who belong to ,clubs1 and who care to shine in certain sets wherein this story will be much discussed4 ,i have read it1 and1 except for the ingenious idea1 ,i wish to forget it1 says the ,baron4 #bg ,see letter to ,daily ,chronicle page #fa4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the note of doom that like a purple thread runs through the texture of ,dorian ,gray4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a ,,revulsion ,,from ,,realism4#bh ,by ,,anne ,h4 ,,wharton4 ,in all ages and climes mankind has found delight in romances based upon the mystic1 the improbable and the impossible1 from the days when the ,norse poets sang their ,sagas through long ,northern nights1 and the fair ,scheherezade1 under ,southern moon1 charmed her bloodthirsty lord by her tales of wonder1 to our own day1 when ,stevenson and ,crawford and ,haggard hold fancy spellbound by their entirely improbable stories4 ,scott and ,bulwer played with master hands upon the love of the mysterious and supernatural inherent in mankind2 ,dickens and others have essayed to gratify its demands1 but with less daring1 and1 having an eye always on the moorings of the actual1 their success has been less marked4 ,with the elder ,hawthorne such romance-writing seemed the natural growth of an exquisitely sensitive and spiritual nature1 while among later ,french writers ,thophile ,gautier and ,edmond ,about have entered into the domain of the impossible as into the natural heritage of their genius1 sporting in its impalpable ether with the tuneful abandon of a fish in the sea1 or a bird in the air1 hampered by no bond of the actual1 weighted by no encumbrance of the material4 ,it is not strange that the great influx of realistic novels that has flowed in upon the last decade should be followed by a revulsion to the impossible in fiction4 ,men and women1 wearied with meeting the same characters and events in so-called romance that they encounter in every-day life1 or saddened by the depressing1 if dramatic1 pictures of ,tolstoi and the cool vivisection of humanity presented by ,ibsen1 turn with a sense of rest and refreshment to the guidance of those who1 like ,robert ,louis ,stevenson and ,rider ,haggard1 lead them suddenly into the mystic land of wonder1 or1 like ,marion ,crawford and ,mrs4 ,oliphant1 delight to draw them1 by gentle and easy stages1 from the midst of a well-appointed setting of every-day life into the shadowy borderland that lies between the real and the unreal4 ,much of the success of such romance writing rests upon the rebound1 natural to humanity1 from intense realism to extreme ideality2 more1 perhaps1 upon the fact that this age which is grossly material is also deeply spiritual4 ,with these two facts well in view1 ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde has fallen into line1 and entered the lists with some of the most successful masters of fiction4 ,in his novel ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 written for the ,july ,lippincott's1 ,mr4 ,wilde1 like ,balzac and the authors of ,faust and ,john ,inglesant1 presents to us the drama of a human soul1 while1 like ,gautier and ,about1 he surrounds his utterly impossible story with a richness and depth of colouring and a grace and airiness of expression that make the perusal of its pages an artistic delight4 ,if ,mr4 ,wilde's romance resembles the productions of some of the writers of the ,french school in its reality and tone1 it still more strongly resembles ,mr4 ,stevenson's most powerfully wrought fairy tale1 ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde1 although the moral of the story is brought out even more plainly--as plainly1 indeed1 as in the drama of ,faust4 ,in both ,mr4 ,stevenson's and ,mr4 ,wilde's stories there is a transformation or substitution4 ,in one the soul of ,dr4 ,jekyll appears under different exteriors2 in the other some fine influence passes from the soul of ,dorian ,gray into his portrait and there works a gradual and subtle change upon the pictured lineaments4 ,although4 ,mr4 ,wilde's extravaganza is far less dramatic than that of ,mr4 ,stevenson1 it has the advantage of richer colouring and a more human setting1 if we may so express it4 ,the characters in ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 enjoy life more than ,mr4 ,stevenson's creations1 who seem to have had so dull a time of it at the best that they might have been expected to welcome a tragedy1 as a relief to the tedium of their daily lives4 ,mr4 ,utterson1 we are told1 was good but he was evidently not particularly happy1#bi which was the case with the other personages of the drama1 with the exception of those who were signally wretched4 ,on the other hand1 ,mr4 ,wilde's characters are happy during their little day4 ,their world is a luxurious1 perfumed land of delight1 until sin transforms it1 and1 even after ,lord ,henry has corrupted the nature of ,dorian ,gray with evil books and worldly philosophy1 he occasionally drinks of the waters of ,lethe and enjoys some fragments of what may be called happiness1 while ,lord ,henry himself seems to derive a certain satisfaction from the practice of his ,mephistophelian art and in his entire freedom from the restraints of conscience4 ,in a tale of the impossible it is not required that the writer should be true to life1 animate or inanimate1 yet in the fact that there are glimpses of light through the clouds that surround his dramatis person1 that they inhabit a world in which the laburnum hangs out yellow clusters in ,june1 and the clematis robes itself with purple stars1 and the sun sheds gold and the moon silver1 despite the tragedy that touches the lives of its inhabitants1 is not ,mr4 ,wilde quite as true to nature as to art8 ,the reader may reasonably question the author's good taste in displaying at such length his knowledge of antique decoration and old-world crime as in ,chapter ,,ix1#cj which1 besides being somewhat tiresome1 clogs the dramatic movement of the story4 ,yet1 on the other hand1 it must be admitted that none but an artist and an apostle of the beautiful could have so sympathetically portrayed the glowing hues and perfumes of the garden in which ,dorian ,gray had first presented to his lips the cup of life1 and none other could have so pictured the luxurious surroundings of his home1 for whose embellishment the known world had been searched for hangings1 ornaments and bric--brac4 ,amid such an entourage of modern ,london life1 with its ,sybaritic indulgence1 its keenness of wit and its subtle intelligence1 ,mr4 ,wilde places his characters and works out his miracle4 ,viewing his own portrait1 just completed by an artist friend1 ,dorian ,gray turns from it filled with envy and dissatisfaction1 because it has been whispered in his ear that youth is the supreme possession in life1 and that when youth and beauty have fled from his face and form this pictured presentment will live for ever1 a perpetual mockery of himself1 whom withering age has overtaken4 ,under the influence of his evil genius1 ,lord ,henry ,wotton1 ,dorian ,gray utters a prayer that he may always remain young1 and the portrait alone reveal the ravages of time1 sin and sorrow4 ,the realization of this idea is the theory of ,mr4 ,wilde's romance1 and the air of probability with which he has endowed the absolutely impossible evidences the artistic and dramatic power of the writer4 ,the portrait of ,dorian ,gray1 painted in days of innocence and loveliness1 when his mere presence symbolized to the artist the entire harmony between beauty of body and beauty of soul1 changes day by day with the degradation of his nature1 while the living ,dorian ,gray1 after years of sin1 remorseless cruelty and corruption of thought and action1 preserves all the grace and fairness of his ,antinous-like youth4 ,love in this romance is an incident1 not its crowning event1 although an important incident as a revelation of the character of ,dorian ,gray4 ,the reader never meets ,sybil ,vane2 he merely sees her on the stage and hears of her from the lips of her lover2 yet even thus she appeals to us as an exquisite personation of maidenhood with all its purity and all its tenderness4 ,as shadowy an outline as the fair child whom ,bulwer allows to captivate the imagination of ,kenelm ,chillingly1 who caught butterflies1 talked philosophy and died young1 yet who in her brief transit across his path realized to his poetic soul all the best possibilities of life1 spiritual and material1 ,sibyl ,vane comes to us girt about with ideal charm1 to fulfil her widely different mission1 which was to reveal to ,dorian ,gray the sad fact that his soul had passed beyond her sweet and ennobling influence4 ,his artistic and intellectual senses were touched by her beauty and dramatic power1 but to the beauty that made her worthy to be loved1 his eyes were blind1 his heart was insensible4 ,the tragedy of the story1 the climax of the situation1 is not the death of ,sybil ,vane1 nor even the pitiless murder of the friend who dared to give ,dorian ,gray good counsel1 but the disclosure that ,dorian's soul1 once open to all good influences1 had1 by yielding to the malign domination of his evil genius1 passed beyond the reach of love1 pity or remorse4 ,it is needless to say that ,dorian ,gray is not a very substantial character4 ,the most entertaining1 though not the most exemplary1 personage of the story is ,lord ,henry ,wotton1 who by his preaching and practice of the doctrine of hedonism leads ,dorian ,gray into all known and unknown evil1 until finally his darkling shadow outreaches in depravity the imagination of his tempter4 ,when his victim has sunk so low in sin that the world shuns him1 ,lord ,henry still enjoys his gay1 conscienceless existence1 and continues to utter the persiflage that constitutes much of the attraction of the book as well of his society4 ,debonair1 witty1 learned1 giving expression to aphorisms as keen as the sayings of ,thackeray's characters1 with the moral element eliminated1 and as cynical as those of ,norris1 with exquisite taste and the fascination of a finished man of the world1 ,lord ,henry belongs as truly1 on the material side of his nature1 to the life of to-day1 as he appertains on its spiritual side to the region of ,pluto4 ,a gay child of the great ,london social world1 he hovers airily around and about the emotions of life1 declaring that death is the only thing that ever terrifies him1 and that death and vulgarity are the only facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away4 ,the climax of ,lord ,henry's sardonic worldliness is reached when he becomes the spectator of his own domesticity1 if he may be said to have any1 and speaks to ,dorian of his divorce from his wife as one of the latest sensations of ,london1 remarking apropos of his music1 ,the man with whom my wife ran away played ,chopin exquisitely4 ,poor ,victoria6 ,i was very fond of her4 ,the house is rather lonely without her4 ,lord ,henry is so entirely true to himself and the worst that is in him that towards the close of the book1 when ,dorian announces that he is going to be good1 and begs his friend not to poison another young life with the book with which he had corrupted his1 we find ourselves trembling for ,dorian's one remaining ally1 especially when he exclaims1 ,my dear boy1 you are really beginning to moralize4 ,you will soon be going about warning people against all the sins of which you have grown tired4 ,you are much too delightful to do that4 ,besides1 it is no use4 ,you and ,i are what we are1 and we will be what we will be4 ,had not the hero stabbed himself1 or his picture 7which was it87 it is only a question of time how soon ,dorian ,gray1 with the slightest obtrusion of conscience1 would have ceased to charm him who had welcomed him as a dbutant on the ,stage of ,pleasure1 where1 to use his favourite saying1 the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it4 ,dorian ,gray struggling against the temptations of the world would have proved an inartistic and disturbing element in the life of ,lord ,henry4 ,all that is needed to complete the tale is ,lord ,henry's own comment on the highly dramatic taking-off of his friend4 ,this chapter1 ,mr4 ,wilde1 true to his artistic instinct1 has not finished1 preferring to leave appetite unappeased1 rather than to create satiety by making his ,mephistopheles say precisely what one would expect him to say under the circumstances4 #bh ,lippincott's ,monthly ,magazine1 ,september1 #ahij4 #bi ,when we are happy we are always good1 but when we are good we are not always happy4--,,dorian ,,gray1 chap4 vi4 7,ed47 #cj ,chapter ,,xi4 in the #ahia edition4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,romance ,,of ,,the ,,impossible4 ,by ,,julian ,,hawthorne4#ca ,fiction which flies at all game1 has latterly taken to the ,impossible as its quarry4 ,the pursuit is interesting and edifying1 if one goes properly equipped1 and with adequate skill4 ,but if due care is not exercised1 the impossible turns upon the hunter and grinds him to powder4 ,it is a very dangerous and treacherous kind of wild-fowl4 ,the conditions of its existence--if existence can be predicated on that which does not exist--are so peculiar and abstruse that only genius is really capable of taming it and leading it captive4 ,but the capture1 when it is made1 is so delightful and fascinating that every tyro would like to try4 ,one is reminded of the princess of the fairy-tale1 who was to be won on certain preposterous terms1 and if the terms were not met1 the discomfited suitor lost his head4 ,many misguided or over-weening youths perished2 at last the ,one succeeded4 ,failure in a romance of the ,impossible is apt to be a disastrous failure2 on the other hand1 success carries great rewards4 ,of course1 the idea is not a new one4 ,the writings of the alchemists are stories of the ,impossible4 ,the fashion has never been entirely extinct4 ,balzac wrote the ,peau de ,chagrin1 and probably this tale is as good a one as was ever written of that kind4 ,the possessor of the ,skin may have every thing he wishes for2 but each wish causes the ,skin to shrink1 and when it is all gone the wisher is annihilated with it4 ,by the art of the writer this impossible thing is made to appear quite feasible2 by touching the chords of coincidence and fatality1 the reader's common-sense is soothed to sleep4 ,we feel that all this might be1 and yet no natural law be violated2 and yet we know that such a thing never was and never will be4 ,but the vitality of the story1 as of all good stories of the sort1 is due to the fact that it is the symbol of a spiritual verity3 the life of indulgence1 the selfish life1 destroys the soul4 ,this psychic truth is so deeply felt that its sensible embodiment is rendered plausible4 ,in the case of another famous romance--,frankenstein--the technical art is entirely wanting3 a worse story from the literary point of view has seldom been written4 ,but the soul of it1 so to speak1 is so potent and obvious that1 although no one actually reads the book nowadays1 everybody knows the gist of the idea4 ,frankenstein has entered into the language1 for it utters a perpetual truth of human nature4 ,at the present moment the most conspicuous success in the line we are considering is ,stevenson's ,dr4 ,jekyll and ,mr4 ,hyde4 ,the author's literary skill1 in that awful little parable1 is at its best1 and makes the most of every point4 ,to my thinking1 it is an artistic mistake to describe ,hyde's transformation as actually taking place in plain sight of the audience2 the sense of spiritual mystery is thereby lost1 and a mere brute miracle takes its place4 ,but the tale is strong enough to carry this imperfection1 and the moral significance of it is so catholic--it so comes home to every soul that considers it--that it has already made an ineffaceable impression on the public mind4 ,every man is his own ,jekyll and ,hyde1 only without the magic powder4 ,on the bookshelf of the ,impossible1 ,mr4 ,stevenson's book may take its place beside ,balzac's4 ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde1 the apostle of beauty1 has in the ,july number of ,lippincott's ,magazine1 a novel1 or romance 7it partakes of the qualities of both71 which everybody will want to read4 ,it is a story strange in conception1 strong in interest1 and fitted with a tragic and ghastly climax4 ,like many stories of its class1 it is open to more than one interpretation2 and there are1 doubtless1 critics who will deny that it has any meaning at all4 ,it is1 at all events1 a salutary departure from the ordinary ,english novel1 with the hero and heroine of different social stations1 the predatory black sheep1 the curate1 the settlements and ,society4 ,mr4 ,wilde1 as we all know1 is a gentleman of an original and audacious turn of mind1 and the commonplace is scarcely possible to him4 ,besides1 his advocacy of novel ideas in life1 art1 dress and demeanour had led us to expect surprising things from him2 and in this literary age it is agreed that a man may best show the best there is in him by writing a book4 ,those who read ,mr4 ,wilde's story in the hope of finding in it some compact and final statement of his theories of life and manners will be satisfied in some respects1 and dissatisfied in others2 but not many will deny that the book is a remarkable one and would attract attention even had it appeared without the author's name on the title-page4 ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 begins to show its quality in the opening pages4 ,mr4 ,wilde's writing has what is called colour1 the quality that forms the mainstay of many of ,ouida's works1--and it appears in the sensuous descriptions of nature and of the decorations and environments of the artistic life4 ,the general aspect of the characters and the tenor of their conversation remind one a little of ,vivian ,gray and a little of ,pelham1 but the resemblance does not go far3 ,mr4 ,wilde's objects and philosophy are different from those of either ,disraeli or ,bulwer4 ,meanwhile his talent for aphorisms and epigrams may fairly be compared with theirs3 some of his clever sayings are more than clever1--they show real insight and a comprehensive grasp4 ,their wit is generally cynical2 but they are put into the mouth of one of the characters1 ,lord ,harry1 and ,mr4 ,wilde himself refrains from definitely committing himself to them2 though one can not help suspecting that ,mr4 ,wilde regards ,lord ,harry as being an uncommonly able fellow4 ,be that as it may1 ,lord ,harry plays the part of ,old ,harry in the story1 and lives to witness the destruction of every other person in it4 ,he may be taken as an imaginative type of all that is most evil and most refined in modern civilization1--a charming1 gentle1 witty1 euphemistic ,mephistopheles1 who deprecates the vulgarity of goodness1 and muses aloud about those renunciations that men have unwisely called virtue1 and those natural rebellions that wise men still call sin4 ,upon the whole1 ,lord ,harry is the most ably portrayed character in the book1 though not the most original in conception4 ,dorian ,gray himself is as nearly a new idea in fiction as one has now-a-days a right to expect4 ,if he had been adequately realized and worked out1 ,mr4 ,wilde's first novel would have been remembered after more meritorious ones were forgotten4 ,but1 even as nemo repente fuit turpissimus1 so no one1 or hardly any one1 creates a thoroughly original figure at a first essay4 ,dorian never quite solidifies4 ,in fact1 his portrait is rather the more real thing of the two4 ,but this needs explanation4 ,the story consists of a strong and marvellous central idea1 illustrated by three characters1 all men4 ,there are a few women in the background1 but they are only mentioned3 they never appear to speak for themselves4 ,there is1 too1 a valet who brings in his master's breakfasts1 and a chemist who by some scientific miracle1 disposes of a human body3 but1 substantially1 the book is taken up with the artist who paints the portrait1 with his friend ,lord ,harry aforesaid1 and with ,dorian ,gray1 who might1 so far as the story goes1 stand alone4 ,he and his portrait are one1 and their union points the moral of the tale4 ,the situation is as follows4 ,dorian ,gray is a youth of extraordinary physical beauty and grace1 and pure and innocent of soul4 ,an artist sees him and falls sthetically in love with him1 and finds in him a new inspiration in his art1 both direct and general4 ,in the lines of his form and features1 and in his colouring and movement1 are revealed fresh and profound laws3 he paints him in all guises and combinations1 and it is seen and admitted on all sides that he has never before painted so well4 ,at length he concentrates all his knowledge and power in a final portrait1 which has the vividness and grace of life itself1 and1 considering how much both of the sitter and of the painter is embodied in it1 might almost be said to live4 ,the portrait is declared by ,lord ,harry to be the greatest work of modern art2 and he himself thinks so well of it that he resolves never to exhibit it1 even as he would shrink from exposing to public gaze the privacies of his own nature4 ,on the day of the last sitting a singular incident occurs4 ,lord ,harry1 meeting with ,dorian ,gray for the first time1 is no less impressed than was ,hallward1 the artist1 with the youth's radiant beauty and freshness4 ,but whereas ,hallward would keep ,dorian unspotted from the world1 and would have him resist evil temptations and all the allurements of corruption1 ,lord ,harry1 on the contrary1 with a truly ,satanic ingenuity1 discourses to the young man on the matchless delights and privileges of youth4 ,youth is the golden period of life3 youth comes never again3 in youth only are the senses endowed with divine potency2 only then are joys exquisite and pleasures unalloyed4 ,let it therefore be indulged without stint4 ,let no harsh and cowardly restraints be placed upon its glorious impulses4 ,men are virtuous through fear and selfishness4 ,they are too dull or too timid to take advantage of the godlike gifts that are showered upon them in the morning of existence2 and before they can realise the folly of their self-denial1 the morning has passed1 and weary day is upon them1 and the shadows of night are near4 ,but let ,dorian1 who is matchless in the vigour and resources of his beauty1 rise above the base shrinking from life that calls itself goodness4 ,let him accept and welcome every natural impulse of his nature4 ,the tragedy of old age is not that one is old1 but that one is young3 let him so live that when old age comes he shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that no opportunity of pleasure and indulgence has escaped untasted4 ,this seductive sermon profoundly affects the innocent ,dorian1 and he looks at life and himself with new eyes4 ,he realizes the value as well as the transitoriness of that youth and beauty which hitherto he had accepted as a matter of course and as a permanent possession4 ,gazing on his portrait1 he laments that it possesses the immortality of loveliness and comeliness that is denied to him2 and1 in a sort of imaginative despair1 he utters a wild prayer that to the portrait1 and not to himself1 may come the feebleness and hideousness of old age2 that whatever sins he may commit1 to whatever indulgences he may surrender himself1 not upon him but upon the portrait may the penalties and disfigurements fall4 ,such is ,dorian's prayer2 and1 though at first he suspects it not1 his prayer is granted4 ,from that hour1 the evil of his life is registered upon the face and form of his pictured presentment1 while he himself goes unscathed4 ,day by day1 each fresh sin that he commits stamps its mark of degradation upon the painted image4 ,cruelty sensuality1 treachery1 all nameless crimes1 corrupt and render hideous the effigy on the canvas2 he sees in it the gradual pollution and ruin of his soul1 while his own fleshly features preserve unstained all the freshness and virginity of his sinless youth4 ,the contrast at first alarms and horrifies him2 but at length he becomes accustomed to it1 and finds a sinister delight in watching the progress of the awful change4 ,he locks up the portrait in a secret chamber1 and constantly retires thither to ponder over the ghastly miracle4 ,no one but he knows or suspects the incredible truth2 and he guards like a murder-secret this visible revelation of the difference between what he is and what he seems4 ,this is a powerful situation2 and the reader may be left to discover for himself how ,mr4 ,wilde works it out4 #ca ,lippincott's ,monthly ,magazine1 ,september1 #ahij4 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,pater1 who is1 on the whole1 the most perfect master of ,english prose now creating amongst us4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,walter ,,pater ,,on ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,there is always something of an excellent talker about the writing of ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde1 7wrote ,pater1 in reviewing ,dorian ,gray for ,the ,bookman#cb7 and in his hands1 as happens so rarely with those who practise it1 the form of dialogue is justified by its being really alive4 ,his genial1 laughter-loving sense of life and its enjoyable intercourse1 goes far to obviate any crudity there may be in the paradox1 with which1 as with the bright and shining truth which often underlies it1 ,mr4 ,wilde1 startling his countrymen1 carries on1 more perhaps than any other writer1 the brilliant critical work of ,mathew ,arnold4 ,the ,decay of ,lying1 for instance1 is all but unique in its half-humorous1 yet wholly convinced1 presentment of certain valuable truths of criticism4 ,conversational ease1 the fluidity of life1 felicitous expression1 are qualities which have a natural alliance to the successful writing of fiction2 and side by side with ,mr4 ,wilde's ,intentions 7so he entitles his critical efforts7 comes a novel1 certainly original1 and affording the reader a fair opportunity of comparing his practice as a creative artist with many a precept he has enounced as critic concerning it4 ,a wholesome dislike of the common-place1 rightly or wrongly identified by him with the bourgeois1 with our middle-class--its habits and tastes--leads him to protest emphatically against so-called realism in art2 life1 as he argues1 with much plausibility1 as a matter of fact1 when it is really awake1 following art--the fashion of an effective artist sets2 while art1 on the other hand1 influential and effective art1 has taken its cue from actual life4 ,in ,dorian ,gray he is true1 certainly1 on the whole1 to the sthetic philosophy of his ,intentions2 yet not infallibly1 even on this point3 there is a certain amount of the intrusion of real life and its sordid aspects--the low theatre1 the pleasures and griefs1 the faces of some very unrefined people1 managed1 of course1 cleverly enough4 ,the interlude of ,jim ,vane1 his half-sullen but wholly faithful care for his sister's honour1 is as good as perhaps anything of the kind1 marked by a homely but real pathos1 sufficiently proving a versatility in the writer's talent1 which should make his books popular4 ,clever always1 this book1 however1 seems intended to set forth anything but a homely philosophy of life for the middle-class--a kind of dainty ,epicurean theory1 rather--yet fails1 to some degree in this2 and one can see why4 ,a true ,epicureanism aims at a complete though harmonious development of man's entire organism4 ,to lose the moral sense therefore1 for instance1 the sense of sin and righteousness1 as ,mr4 ,wilde's hero--his heroes are bent on doing as speedily1 as completely as they can1 is to lose1 or lower1 organisation1 to become less complex1 to pass from a higher to a lower degree of development4 ,as a story1 however1 a partly supernatural story1 it is first-rate in artistic management2 those ,epicurean niceties only adding to the decorative colour of its central figure1 like so many exotic flowers1 like the charming scenery and the perpetual1 epigrammatic1 surprising1 yet so natural1 conversations1 like an atmosphere all about it4 ,all that pleasant accessory detail1 taken straight from the culture1 the intellectual and social interests1 the conventionalities1 of the moment1 have1 in fact1 after all1 the effect of the better sort of realism1 throwing into relief the adroitly-devised supernatural element after the manner of ,poe1 but with a grace he never reached1 which supersedes that earlier didactic purpose1 and makes the quite sufficing interest of an excellent story4 ,we like the hero and1 spite of his somewhat unsociable1 devotion to his art1 ,hallward1 better than ,lord ,henry ,wotton4 ,he has too much of a not very really refined world in him and about him1 and his somewhat cynic opinions1 which seem sometimes to be those of the writer1 who may1 however1 have intended ,lord ,henry as a satiric sketch4 ,mr4 ,wilde can hardly have intended him1 with his cynic amity of mind and temper1 any more than the miserable end of ,dorian himself1 to figure the motive and tendency of a true ,cyrenaic or ,epicurean doctrine of life4 ,in contrast with ,hallward the artist1 whose sensibilities idealise the world around him1 the personality of ,dorian ,gray1 above all1 into something magnificent and strange1 we might say that ,lord ,henry1 and even more the1 from the first1 suicidal hero1 loses too much in life to be a true ,epicurean--loses so much in the way of impressions1 of pleasant memories1 and subsequent hopes1 which ,hallward1 by a really ,epicurean economy1 manages to secure4 ,it should be said1 however1 in fairness1 that the writer is impersonal2 seems not to have identified himself entirely with any one of his characters2 and ,wotton's cynicism1 or whatever it be1 at least makes a very clever story possible4 ,he becomes the spoiler of the fair young man1 whose bodily form remains un-aged2 while his picture1 the chef d'oeuvre of the artist ,hallward1 changes miraculously with the gradual corruption of his soul4 ,how true1 what a light on the artistic nature1 is the following on actual personalities and their revealing influence in art4 ,we quote it as an example of ,mr4 ,wilde's more serious style4 ,i sometimes think that there are only two eras of any importance in the world's history4 ,the first is the appearance of a new medium for art1 and the second is the appearance of a new personality for art also4 ,what the invention of oil-painting was to the ,venetians1 the face of ,antinous was to late ,greek sculpture1 and the face of ,dorian ,gray will some day be to me4 ,it is not merely that ,i paint from him1 draw from him1 sketch from him4 ,of course ,i have done all that4 ,but he is much more to me than a model or a sitter4 ,i won't tell you that ,i am dissatisfied with what ,i have done of him1 or that his beauty is such that ,art cannot express it4 ,there is nothing that ,art cannot express1 and ,i know that the work ,i have done1 since ,i met ,dorian ,gray1 is good work1 is the best work of my life4 ,but in some curious way 444 his personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art1 an entirely new mode of style4 ,i see things differently4 ,i can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me before4#cc ,dorian himself1 though certainly a quite unsuccessful experiment in ,epicureanism1 in life as a fine art1 is 7till his inward spoiling takes visible effect suddenly1 and in a moment1 at the end of his story7 a beautiful creation4 ,but his story is also a vivid1 though carefully considered1 exposure of the corruption of a soul1 with a very plain moral1 pushed home1 to the effect that vice and crime make people coarse and ugly4 ,general readers1 nevertheless1 will probably care less for this moral1 less for the fine1 varied1 largely appreciative culture of the writer1 in evidence from page to page1 than for the story itself1 with its adroitly managed supernatural incidents1 its almost equally wonderful applications of natural science2 impossible1 surely1 in fact1 but plausible enough in fiction4 ,its interest turns on that very old theme2 old because based on some inherent experience or fancy of the human brain1 of a double life3 of ,dppelgnger--not of two persons1 in this case1 but of the man and his portrait2 the latter of which1 as we hinted above1 changes1 decays1 is spoiled1 while the former1 through a long course of corruption1 remains1 to the outward eye1 unchanged1 still in all the beauty of a seemingly immaculate youth--the devil's bargain4 ,but it would be a pity to spoil the reader's enjoyment by further detail4 ,we need only emphasise once more1 the skill1 the real subtlety of art1 the ease and fluidity withal of one telling a story by word of mouth1 with which the consciousness of the supernatural is introduced into1 and maintained amid1 the elaborately conventional1 sophisticated1 disabused world ,mr4 ,wilde depicts so cleverly1 so mercilessly4 ,the special fascination of the piece is1 of course1 just there--at that point of contrast4 ,mr4 ,wilde's work may fairly claim to go with that of ,edgar ,poe1 and with some good ,french work of the same kind1 done1 probably1 in more or less conscious imitation of it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,athenum in reviewing ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 in its issue of ,june #bgth1 #ahia1 under the heading of ,novels of the ,week1 said3-- ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde's paradoxes are less wearisome when introduced into the chatter of society than when he rolls them off in the course of his narrative4 ,some of the conversation in his novel is very smart1 and while reading it one has the pleasant feeling1 not often to be enjoyed in the company of modern novelists1 of being entertained by a person of decided ability4 ,the idea of the book may have been suggested by ,balzac's ,peau de ,chagrin1 and it is none the worse for that4 ,so much may be said for ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 but no more1 except1 perhaps1 that the author does not appear to be in earnest4 ,for the rest1 the book is unmanly1 sickening1 vicious 7though not exactly what is called improper71 and tedious4 ,mr4 ,r4,h4 ,sherard1 in his recently published ,life of ,oscar ,wilde 7,werner ,laurie1 #aijf71 gives some interesting particulars as to the reasons which induced ,wilde to write the book1 while the views of a ,french littrateur on ,dorian ,gray may be read in ,m4 ,andr ,gide's ,study1 a translation of which1 by the present editor1 was issued from the ,holywell ,press1 ,oxford1 in #aije4 #cb ,november #ahia4 #cc ,pp4 #ad1 #ae 7#ahia edition74 99 99 99 99 99 ,a critic cannot be fair in the ordinary sense of the word4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,morality ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,the question of the morality of ,dorian ,gray was dealt with very fully during the trial of the ,marquis of ,queensberry for libel1 and also in the subsequent trials of ,wilde himself1 when1 the libel action having collapsed1 ,wilde was transferred from the witness-box to the dock4 ,at the trial of ,lord ,queensberry at the ,old ,bailey on ,april #crd1 #ahie1 ,sir ,edward ,clarke1 in his opening speech for the prosecution1 referred to what he called an extremely curious count at the end of the plea1 namely1 that in ,july1 #ahij1 ,mr4 ,wilde published1 or caused to be published1 with his name upon the title page1 a certain immoral and indecent work1 with the title of ,the ,picture of ,dorian ,gray1 which was intended to be understood by the readers to describe the relations1 intimacies and passions of certain persons guilty of unnatural practices4 ,that1 said ,sir ,edward1 was a very gross allegation4 ,the volume could be bought at any bookstall in ,london4 ,it had ,mr4 ,wilde's name on the title page1 and had been published five years4 ,the story of the book was that of a young man of good birth1 great wealth and great personal beauty1 whose friend paints a picture of him4 ,dorian ,gray expresses the wish that he would remain as in the picture1 while the picture aged with the years4 ,his wish was granted1 and he soon knew that upon the picture and not upon his own face the scars of trouble and bad conduct were falling4 ,in the end he stabbed the picture and fell dead4 ,the picture was restored to its pristine beauty1 while his friends find on the floor the body of a hideous old man4 ,i shall be surprised1 said ,counsel in conclusion1 if my learned friend 7,mr4 ,carson7 can pitch upon any passage in that book which does more than describe as novelists and dramatists may1 nay1 must1 describe the passions and the fashions of life4 ,lord ,queensberry's ,counsel was ,mr4 7now ,sir ,edward7 ,carson1 ,m4,p4 ,he proceeded1 after ,sir ,edward's ,clarke's speech1 to cross-examine ,mr4 ,wilde on the subject of his writings4 ,counsel3 ,you are of opinion1 ,i believe1 that there is no such thing as an immoral book8 ,witness3 ,yes4 ,am ,i right in saying that you do not consider the effect in creating morality or immorality8--,certainly1 ,i do not4 ,so far as your works are concerned you pose as not being concerned about morality or immorality8--,i do not know whether you use the word pose in any particular sense4 ,it is a favourite word of your own8--,is it8 ,i have no pose in this matter4 ,in writing a play or a book ,i am concerned entirely with literature1 that is1 with art4 ,i aim not at doing good or evil1 but in trying to make a thing that will have some quality of beauty4 ,after the criticisms that were passed on ,dorian ,gray was it modified a good deal8--,no4 ,additions were made4 ,in one case it was pointed out to me--not in a newspaper or anything of that sort1 but by the only critic of the century whose opinion ,i set high1 ,mr4 ,walter ,pater--that a certain passage was liable to misconstruction1 and ,i made one addition4 ,this is in your introduction to ,dorian ,gray3 ,there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book4 ,books are well written or badly written4 ,that is all4--,that expresses my view of art4 ,then1 ,i take it that no matter how immoral a book may be1 if it is well written it is1 in your opinion1 a good book8--,yes2 if it were well written so as to produce a sense of beauty which is the highest sense of which a human being can be capable4 ,if it were badly written it would produce a sense of disgust4 ,then a well-written book putting forward perverted moral views may be a good book8--,no work of art ever puts forward views4 ,views belong to people who are not artists4 ,a novel of a certain kind might be a good book8--,i do not know what you mean by a novel of a certain kind4 ,then ,i will suggest ,dorian ,gray as open to the interpretation of being a novel of that kind4--,that could only be to brutes and illiterates4 ,an illiterate person reading ,dorian ,gray might consider it such a novel8--,the views of illiterates on art are unaccountable4 ,i am concerned only with my view of art4 ,i do not care twopence what other people think of it4 ,the majority of persons would come under your definition of ,philistines and illiterates8--,i have found wonderful exceptions4 ,do you think the majority of people live up to the position you are giving us8--,i am afraid they are not cultivated enough4 ,not cultivated enough to draw the distinction between a good book and a bad book8--,certainly not4 ,the affection and love of the artist of ,dorian ,gray might lead an ordinary individual to believe that it might have a certain tendency8--,i have no knowledge of the views of ordinary individuals4 ,you did not prevent the ordinary individual from buying your book8--,i have never discouraged him4 ,mr4 ,carson then read an extract extending to several pages from ,dorian ,gray1 using the version as it appeared in ,lippincott's ,magazine#cd1 describing the meeting of ,dorian ,gray and the painter ,basil ,hallward4 ,now1 ,i ask you1 ,mr4 ,wilde1 added ,counsel1 do you consider that that description of the feeling of one man towards another1 a youth just grown up1 was a proper or an improper feeling8--,i think1 replied the author1 it is the most perfect description of what an artist would feel on meeting a beautiful personality which was in some way necessary to his art and life4 ,counsel3 ,you think that is a feeling a young man should have towards another8 ,witness3 ,yes1 as an artist4 ,mr4 ,carson proceeded to read another long extract4 ,mr4 ,wilde asked for a copy1 and was given one of the complete edition4 ,mr4 ,carson in calling his attention to the place1 remarked1 ,i believe it was left out in the purged edition8 ,witness3 ,i do not call it purged4 ,counsel3 ,yes1 ,i know that2 but we will see4 ,mr4 ,carson then read a lengthy passage from ,dorian ,gray as originally published#ce1 and said1 ,do you mean to say that that passage describes the natural feeling of one man towards another8--,it would be the influence produced on an artist by a beautiful personality1 was the reply4 ,counsel3 ,a beautiful person8 ,witness3 ,i said a beautiful personality4 ,you can describe it as you like4 ,dorian ,gray was a most remarkable personality4 ,may ,i take it that you1 as an artist1 have never known the feeling described here8--,i have never allowed any personality to dominate my heart4 ,then you have never known the feeling you describe8--,no2 it is a work of fiction4 ,so far as you are concerned you have no experience as to its being a natural feeling8--,i think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man4 ,it is an incident in the life of almost every artist4 ,but let us go over it phrase by phrase4 ,i quite admit that ,i adored you madly4 ,what do you say to that8 ,have you ever adored a young man madly8--,no2 not madly4 ,i prefer love2 that is a higher form4 ,never mind about that4 ,let us keep down to the level we are at now4--,i have never given adoration to any body except myself4 7,loud laughter47 ,i suppose you think that a very smart thing8--,not at all4 ,then you never had that feeling8--,no2 the whole idea was borrowed from ,shakespeare1 ,i regret to say2 yes1 from ,shakespeare's sonnets4 ,mr4 ,carson1 continuing to read3 ,i adored you extravagantly8--,do you mean financially8 ,oh1 yes1 financially4 ,do you think we are talking about finance8--,i do not know what you are talking about4 ,don't you8 ,well1 ,i hope1 ,i shall make myself very plain before ,i have done4 ,i was jealous of every one to whom you spoke4 ,have you ever been jealous of a young man8--,never in my life4 ,i wanted to have you all to myself4 ,did you ever have that feeling8--,no1 ,i should consider it an intense nuisance1 an intense bore4 ,i grew afraid that the world would know of my idolatry4 ,why should he grow afraid that the world should know of it8--,because there are people in the world who cannot understand the intense devotion1 affection and admiration that an artist can feel for a wonderful and beautiful personality4 ,these are the conditions under which we live4 ,i regret them4 ,these unfortunate people1 that have not the high understanding that you have1 might put it down to something wrong8--,undoubtedly2 to any point they chose4 ,i am not concerned with the ignorance of others4 ,in another passage ,dorian ,gray receives a book4#cf ,was the book to which you refer a moral book8--,not well written8 ,pressed further upon this point1 and as to whether the book he had in mind was not of a certain tendency1 ,mr4 ,wilde declined with some warmth to be cross-examined upon the work of another artist4 ,it was1 he said1 an impertinence and a vulgarity4 ,he admitted that he had in his mind a ,french book entitled ,a ,rebours4 ,mr4 ,carson wanted to elicit ,mr4 ,wilde's view as to the morality of that book1 but ,sir ,edward ,clarke succeeded1 on an appeal to the ,judge1 in stopping any further reference to it4 ,counsel then quoted another extract#cg from the ,lippincott version of ,dorian ,gray1 in which the artist tells ,dorian of the scandals about him1 and finally asks1 ,why is your friendship so fateful to young men8 ,asked whether the passage in its ordinary meaning did not suggest a certain charge1 witness stated that it described ,dorian ,gray as a man of very corrupt influence1 though there was no statement as to the nature of his influence4 ,but as a matter of fact1 he added1 ,i do not think that one person influences another1 nor do ,i think there is any bad influence in the world4 ,counsel3 ,a man never corrupts a youth8--,i think not4 ,nothing could corrupt him8--,if you are talking of separate ages4 ,mr4 ,carson3 ,no1 ,sir1 ,i am talking common sense4 ,witness3 ,i do not think one person influences another4 ,you do not think that flattering a young man1 making love to him1 in fact1 would be likely to corrupt him8--,no4 ,on the assembling of the court on the following day1 ,mr4 ,wilde1 who arrived ten minutes late1 after saying to the ,judge1 ,my lord1 pray accept my apologies for being late in the witness-box1 was examined by ,sir ,edward ,clarke4 ,in reference to ,dorian ,gray the witness said3 ,mr4 ,walter ,pater wrote me several letters about it1 and in consequence of what he said ,i modified one passage4 ,the book was very widely reviewed1 among others by ,mr4 ,pater himself4 ,i wrote a reply to the review that appeared in the ,scots ,observer4 ,the subject then dropped4 ,on the last day of ,mr4 ,wilde's first trial at the ,criminal ,central ,court1 ,may #ast1 #ahie1 the ,judge1 ,mr4 ,justice ,charles1 in his summing-up1 dealt with the literary part of the case1 and again ,dorian ,gray came under consideration4 ,the ,judge said that a very large portion of the evidence of ,mr4 ,wilde at the trial of ,lord ,queensberry was devoted to what ,sir ,edward ,clarke had called the literary part of the case4 ,it was attempted to show by cross-examination of ,mr4 ,wilde1 as to works he had published1 especially in regard to the book called ,dorian ,gray1 that he was a man of most unprincipled character with regard to the relation of men to boys4 ,his lordship said he had not read that book1 and he assumed that the jury had not1 but they had been told it was the story of a youth of vicious character1 whose face did not reveal the abysses of wretchedness into which he had fallen1 but a picture painted by an artist friend revealed all the consequences of his passion4 ,in the end he stabs the picture1 whereupon he himself falls dead1 and on his vicious face appear all the signs which before had been upon the picture4 ,his lordship did not think that in a criminal case the jury should place any unfavourable inference upon the fact that ,mr4 ,wilde was the author of ,dorian ,gray4 ,it was1 unfortunately1 true that some of their most distinguished and noble-minded writers1 who had spent their lives in producing wholesome literature had given to the world books which were painful to persons1 of ordinary modesty and decency1 to read4 ,sir ,edward ,clarke had quoted from ,coleridge1 ,judge no man by his books1 but his lordship would prefer to say ,confound no man with the characters of the persons he creates4 ,because a novelist put into the mouth of his villain the most abominable sentiments it must not be assumed that he shared them4 ,it will be remembered that on this occasion the jury were unable to agree on a verdict as to whether ,mr4 ,wilde was guilty or not of the charges brought against him4 ,in the second trial1 which began on ,may #bbnd following1 the subject of his books was not mentioned4 #cd ,pp4 #f-aj4 #ce ,pp4 #eg-eh4 #cf p4 #fc1 #fd4 #cg p4 #gi4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,mr4 ,,robert ,,buchanan ,,on ,,pagan ,,viciousness4 ,mr4 ,robert ,buchanan1 the well-known writer1 in a letter dated ,april #bcrd1 #ahie1 expressed his own views on this subject in the columns of ,the ,star4 ,referring to an anonymous correspondent in the same newspaper who had accused ,mr4 ,wilde of pagan viciousness--this was more than a month before a verdict of ,guilty had been returned against him--,mr4 ,buchanan asks1 ,has even a writer like this no sense of humour8 ,does he seriously contend that the paradoxes and absurdities with which ,mr4 ,wilde once amused us were meant as serious attacks on public morality8 ,two thirds of all ,mr4 ,wilde has written is purely ironical1 and it is only because they are now told that the writer is a wicked man that people begin to consider his writings wicked4 ,i think1 he adds1 ,i am as well acquainted as most people with ,mr4 ,wilde's works1 and ,i fearlessly assert that they are1 for the most part1 as innocent as a naked baby4 ,as for the much misunderstood ,dorian ,gray1 it would be easy to show that it is a work of the highest morality1 since its whole purpose is to point out the effect of selfish indulgence and sensuality in destroying the character of a beautiful human soul4 ,but it is useless to discuss these questions with people who are colour-blind4 ,i cordially echo the cry that1 failing a little knowledge of literature1 a little ,christian charity is sorely wanted4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,comparative ,,table ,,of ,,chapters ,,in ,,the ,,first ,,two ,,editions ,,of ',,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray'4 #ahij #ahia ,i ,i ,,ii ,,ii ,,iii ,,iii ,,iv ,v ,,iv ,,vi ,v ,,vii ,,vi ,,viii ,,vii ,,ix ,,viii ,x ,,ix ,,xi ,x ,,xii ,,xi ,,xiii ,,xii ,,xiv ,,xv ,,xvi ,,xvii ,,xviii ,,xiii ,,xix1 ,,xx 99 99 99 99 99 ,,passages ,,which ,,appear ,,in ,,the #ahij ,,edition ,,only4 ,the following are the chief passages in the #ahij edition which are omitted 7or have undergone alteration7 in the #ahia edition4 7,the figures in brackets refer to the page in the #ahia edition where the omission or alteration is made74 ,,lippincott',s ,,monthly ,,magazine1 #ahij 7,volume xlvi47 ,,chapter ,i4 ,page #f ,well1 ,i will tell you what it is4 ,please don't4 ,i must4 ,i want you to explain4444 7#g7 #f ,well1 this is incredible1 repeated ,hallward1 rather bitterly1--incredible to me at times4 ,i don't know what it means4 ,the story is simply this44447#h7 #f ,you know yourself1 ,harry1 how independent ,i am by nature4 ,my father destined me for the army4 ,i insisted on going to ,oxford4 ,then he made me enter my name at the ,middle ,temple4 ,before ,i had eaten half a dozen dinners ,i gave up the ,bar1 and announced my intention of becoming a painter4 ,i have always been my own master4444 7#i7 #g ,i knew that if ,i spoke to ,dorian ,i would become absolutely devoted to him1 and that ,i ought not to speak to him4 ,i grew afraid4444 7#i7 #g perfectly audible to everybody in the room1 something like1 ',sir ,humpty ,dumpty--you know--,afghan frontier4 ,russian intrigues3 very successful man--wife killed by an elephant--quite inconsolable--wants to marry a beautiful ,american widow--everybody does now-a-days--hates ,mr4 ,gladstone--but very much interested in beetles3 ask him what he thinks of ,schouvaloff4' ,i simply fled44447#aa7 #h ',charming boy--poor dear mother and ,i quite inseparable--engaged to be married to the same man--,i mean married on the same day--how very silly of me6 ,quite forget what he does44447#aa7 #i ,i couldn't be happy if ,i didn't see him every day4 ,of course sometimes it is only for a few minutes4 ,but a few minutes with somebody one worships mean a great deal4 ,but you don't really worship him8 ,i do4 ,how extraordinary4 ,i thought you would never care for anything but your painting1--your art1 ,i should say4 ,art sounds better1 doesn't it8444 7#ad7 #aj ,after some time he came back4 ,you don't understand1 ,harry1 he said4 ,dorian ,gray is merely to me a motive in art4444 7#af7 #aj ,because ,i have put into it all the extraordinary romance of which1 of course1 ,i have never dared to speak to him4444 7#af7 #aj ,i give myself away4 ,as a rule1 he is charming to me1 and we walk home together from the club arm in arm1 or sit in the studio4444 7#ag7 #aa1 #ab ,don't take away from me the one person that makes life absolutely lovely to me1 and that gives to my art whatever wonder or charm it possesses4 ,mind1 ,harry1 ,i trust you4 444 7#bj1 #ba7 ,,chapter ,,ii4 #ab ,no wonder ,basil ,hallward worshipped him4 ,he was made to be worshipped4444 7#bc7 #af ,you are a wonderful creature4 ,you know more than you think4444 7#ca7 #ai1 #bj ,this is your doing1 ,harry1 said ,hallward1 bitterly4 ,my doing8 ,yes1 yours1 and you know it4 ,lord ,henry shrugged his shoulders 7#dj7 #bj ,and you know you have been a little silly1 ,mr4 ,gray1 and that you don't really mind being called a boy4 ,i should have minded very much this morning1 ,lord ,henry44444 7#db7 #ba ,it has nothing to do with our own will4 ,it is either an unfortunate accident1 or an unpleasant result of temperament4 ,young men want44447#dd7 ,,chapter ,,iii4 7,,iv74 #bb1 #bc ,i think my husband has got twenty-seven of them4 ,not twenty-seven1 ,lady ,henry8 ,well1 twenty-six1 then4444 7#ff7 #bc leaving a faint odor of patchouli behind her4 ,then he shook hands with ,dorian ,gray1 lit a cigarette1 and flung himself down on the sofa4444 7#fh7 #bd ,about three weeks4 ,not so much4 ,about two weeks and two days4 ,how did you come across her84444 7#gj7 #bd1 #be ,its splendid sinners1 and its sordid sins1 as you once said4444 7#ga7 #bg thanks1--tell me what are your relations with ,sibyl ,vane84444 7#gf7 #bg ,i am not surprised4 ,i was not surprised either4 ,then he asked me4444 7#gg7 #bg his three bankruptcies were entirely due to the poet1 whom he insisted on calling ',the ,bard4' 7#gh7 #bi ,you won't be able to refuse to recognize her genius4 7#ha7 ,you don't mean to say that ,basil has got any passion or any romance in him8 ,i don't know whether he has any passion1 but he certainly has romance1 said ,lord ,henry1 with an amused look in his eyes4 ,has he never let you know that8 ,never4 ,i must ask him about it4 ,i am rather surprised to hear it4 ,he is the best of fellows1 but he seems to me4444 7#hb7 ,,chapter ,,iv4 7,,vi74 #cb ,hallward turned perfectly pale1 and a curious look flashed for a moment into his eyes1 and then passed away1 leaving them dull4 ,dorian engaged to be married6 he cried4 ,impossible6 7#ajg7 #cc ,if a personality fascinates me1 whatever the personality chooses to do is absolutely delightful to me4 7#aji7 ,,chapter ,,vi4 7,,viii74 #dd we live in age when only unnecessary things are absolutely necessary to us2 7#ach7 #dh all the terrible beauty of a great tragedy44447#adh7 #di ,i had buried my romance in a bed of poppies4 7#aej7 #di absolutely true1 and it explains everything4 7#aeb7 #ej ,but suppose1 ,harry ,i became haggard1 and gray1 and wrinkled8 ,what then8 7#aec7 ,,chapter ,,vii4 7,,ix74 #ed ,hallward felt strangely moved4 ,rugged and straightforward as he was1 there was something in his nature that was purely feminine in its tenderness4 ,the lad was infinitely dear to him4444 #ef ,let us sit down1 ,dorian1 said ,hallward1 looking pale and pained4 ,let us sit down4 ,i will sit in the shadow1 and you shall sit in the sunlight4 ,our lives are like that4 ,just answer me one question44444 7#afi7 #ef1 #eg ,i see you did4 ,don't speak4 ,wait till you hear what ,i have to say4 ,it is quite true that ,i have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a friend4 ,somehow1 ,i had never loved a woman4 ,i suppose ,i never had time4 ,perhaps1 as ,harry says1 a really 'grande passion' is the privilege of those who have nothing to do1 and that is the use of the idle classes in a country4 ,well1 from the moment ,i met you1 your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me4 ,i quite admit that ,i adored you madly1 extravagantly1 absurdly4 ,i was jealous of every one to whom you spoke4 ,i wanted to have you all to myself4 ,i was only happy when ,i was with you4 ,when ,i was away from you1 you were still present in my art4 ,it was all wrong and foolish4 ,it is all wrong and foolish4444 ,i did not understand it myself4444 ,it was to have been my masterpiece4 ,it is my masterpiece4444 ,but1 as ,i worked at it1 444 7#afi1 #agj7 #eg ,did you really see it8 ,of course ,i did4 7#agb7 #eh ,and now good-by1 ,dorian4 ,you have been the one person in my life of whom ,i have been really fond4 ,i don't suppose ,i shall often see you again4 ,you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that ,i have told you47#agb7 #eh ,but you mustn't talk about not meeting me again1 or anything of that kind4 ,you and ,i are friends1 ,basil 7#agc7 ,,chapter ,,viii 7,x74 #ei ,mrs4 ,leaf1 a dear old lady in a black silk dress1 with a photograph of the late ,mr4 ,leaf framed in a large gold brooch at her neck1 and old-fashioned thread mittens on her wrinkled hands1 bustled into the room4 ,well1 ,master ,dorian1 she said1 what can ,i do for you8 ,i beg your pardon1 sir1--here came a courtsey1--,i shouldn't call you ,master ,dorian1 any more4 ,but1 ,lord bless you1 sir1 ,i have known you since you were a baby1 and many's the tricks you've played on poor old ,leaf4 ,not that you were not always a good boy1 sir2 but boys will be boys1 ,master ,dorian1 and jam is a temptation to the young1 isn't it1 sir8 ,he laughed4 ,you must always call me ,master ,dorian1 ,leaf4 ,i will be very angry with you if you don't4 ,and ,i assure you ,i am quite as fond of jam now as ,i used to be4 ,only when ,i am asked out to tea ,i am never offered any4 ,i want you to give me the key of the room at the top of the house4 7#age7 #ei ,he winced at the mention of his dead uncle's name4444 ,that does not matter1 ,leaf1 he replied1 ,all ,i want is the key47#agf7 #ei ,no1 ,leaf1 ,i don't4 ,i merely want to see the place1 and perhaps store something in it1--that is all4 ,thank you1 ,leaf4 ,i hope your rheumatism is better2 and mind you send me up jam for breakfast4 ,mrs4 ,leaf shook her head4 ,them foreigners doesn't understand jam1 ,master ,dorian4 ,they call's it 'compot'4 ,but ,i'll bring it to you myself some morning1 if you lets me4 ,that will be very kind of you1 ,leaf1 he answered1 looking at the key2 and1 having made him an elaborate courtsey1 the old lady left the room1 her face wreathed in smiles4 ,she had a strong objection to the ,french valet4 ,it was a poor thing1 she felt1 for any one to be born a foreigner4 ,as the door closed1 etc4 7#agf7 #fj ,mr4 ,ashton1 himself1 the celebrated frame-maker4 7#agi7 #fa ,a terrible load to carry1 murmured ,dorian1 7#ahj74 #fa built by the last ,lord ,sherard for the use of the little nephew whom1 being himself childless1 and perhaps for other reasons1 etc4 7#aha7 #fd the ,french school of ,dcadents4 7#ahf74 #fd ,ah1 if you have discovered that1 you have discovered a great deal1 murmured ,lord ,henry1 with his curious smile4 ,come1 let us go in to dinner4 ,it is dreadfully late1 and ,i am afraid the champagne will be too much iced4 7#ahh74 ,,chapter ,x 7,,xii47 #fe no less than five large-paper copies of the first edition1 7#ahi74 #fe ,the boyish beauty that had so fascinated ,basil ,hallward1 7#aij7 #fe an age that was at once sordid and sensuous4 7#aij7 #ff ,that curiosity about life that1 many years before1 ,lord ,henry had first stirred in him1 7#aij1 #aia7 #fg driving the anchorite out to herd with the wild animals4444 7#aid7 #fh the half-read book that we had been studying1 7#aie7 #fh re-fashioned anew for our pleasure in the darkness1 7#aif7 #gd the smoking-room of the ,carlton1 #gd ,of all his friends1 or so-called friends1 ,lord ,henry ,wotton was the only one who remained loyal to him4 7#baa7 #gd rich and charming4 7#bab7 #gd the wit and beauty that make such plays charming4 7#bab7 #ge ,lord ,sherard1 the companion of the ,prince ,regent4 7#bad7 #gf ,the hero of the dangerous novel4 7#bae7 #gf and the chapter immediately following1 in which the hero describes the curious tapestries that he had had woven for him from ,gustave ,moreau's designs4 7#baf7 ,,chapter ,x4 7,,xii74 #gg ,it was on the #gth of ,november1 the eve of his own thirty-second birthday4 7#bai7 #gi the most dreadful things are being said about you in ,london1--things that ,i could hardly repeat to you4 7#bbb7 #gi ,you used to be a friend of ,lord ,cawdor4 7#bbd7 #gi ,dorian1 ,dorian1 your reputation is infamous4 ,i know you and ,harry are great friends4 ,i say nothing about that now4 7#bbf7 #ha ,you know ,i have been always devoted to you4 7#bbh7 #ha ,my ,god6 don't tell me that you are infamous6 7#bbi7 #ha ,don't keep me waiting4 7#bbi7 ,,chapter ,,xi4 7,,xiii47 #hb some scarlet on the sensual lips4 7#bca7 #hb you met me1 devoted yourself to me1 flattered me4444 7#bcc7 #hc ,can't you see your romance in it8 said ,dorian bitterly4 ,my romance as you call it4444 7#bcc7 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 7,,xx47 #ajj ,he seized it1 and stabbed the canvas with it1 ripping the thing right up from top to bottom4 7#ccc7 99 99 99 99 99 ,,bibliography4 7a7 ,,original ,,editions4 7b7 ,,unauthorised ,,editions4 7c7 ,,translations3-- 7i47 ,dutch4 7ii47 ,french4 7iii47 ,german4 7iv47 ,italian4 7v47 ,polish4 7vi47 ,russian4 7vi47 ,swedish4 ,,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray4 7a7 ,original ,editions4 99 ,i4 i4 ,,lippincott',s ,,monthly ,,magazine4 ,july1 #ahij4 ,london3 ,ward1 ,lock ,co4 ,price #a_/-4 ,size #i by #f in4 ,the cover1 printed in red and black1 is inscribed3 ,this ,number contains a ,complete ,novel1_/,,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray4_/,by ,,oscar ,,wilde4_/ ,the story occupies pages #c to #ajj4 99 ii4 ,,lippincott',s ,,monthly ,,magazine4 ,july1 #ahij4 ,philadelphia3 ,j4,b4 ,lippincott ,co4 ,price #be cents4 ,similar to above1 but cover inscribed3 ,this ,number contains ,,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray4_/,by ,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,complete4_/,it contains also a title-page with ,,the ,,picture_/,,of_/ ,,dorian ,,gray1_/by ,,oscar ,,wilde4_/ ,philadelphia3_/,j4,b4 ,lippincott ,company4_/ 99 iii4 ,,four ,,complete ,,novels_/,,by ,,famous ,,authors1_/,,from_/ ,,lippincott',s_/,,monthly ,,magazine4 _/,with_/,short ,stories1_/,essays 7,critical and ,biographical71 ,poetry1 and_/,articles on ,miscellaneous ,subjects4 _/,ward1 ,lock1 ,bowden ,co41_/ ,london3 ,warwick ,house1 ,salisbury ,square1 ,e4,c4_/,new ,york3 ,bond ,street4_/,melbourne3 ,st4 ,james's ,street4 ,sydney3 ,york ,street4_/ 7,half-title7 ,,the ,,complete ,,novels ,,in ,,this ,,volume_/ ,comprise the following_/ ,,the ,,picture ,,of ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,by ,oscar ,wilde4_/ ,,what ,,gold ,,cannot ,,buy4 ,by ,mrs4 ,alexander4_/ ,,the ,,mark ,,of ,,the ,,beast4 ,by ,katharine ,pearson ,woods4_/ ,a ,,marriage ,,at ,,sea4 ,by ,w4 ,clark ,russell4_/ ,pp4 #egh4 ,containing the monthly parts 7without wrappers or advertisements71 for ,july to ,october1 #ahij4 ,covers of pale blue1 brown1 or drab1 lettered in red on front3--,,four ,,complete_/,,stories_/,,from ,,lippincott_/and in gold on back in five lines2 with ,,ward1 ,,lock ,,co4_/,london1 ,new ,york ,melbourne_/at bottom4 ,all edges cut and plain4 ,page #dji 7,september7 contains ,a ,revulsion from ,realism1 by ,anne ,h4 ,wharton1 and #dab ,the ,romance of the ,impossible1 by ,julian ,hawthorne1 these being reviews of ,dorian ,gray4 iv4 ,,the ,,fortnightly ,,review4 ,march #ahia4 ,london3 ,chapman ,hall4 ,price #b_/f4 ,this number contains on pages #dhj-a ,a ,,preface ,,to ',,dorian ,,gray1' consisting of #bc aphorisms and epigrams4 ,in the novel1 as it appeared in book form in the following ,july1 another1 the #acth1 was added making #bd in all4 ,it is as follows3 ,no artist is ever morbid4 ,the artist can express everything4 ,in the #aeth paragraph the author altered his words1 his art to an art1 and in the #afth paragraph the words form and feeling are no longer spelt with capital initial letters4 ,the last word in the #bcrd paragraph is changed from inordinately to intensely4 ,the ,preface as revised appears in all editions of the book1 which contain twenty chapters4 ,,ii4 i4 ,,the ,,picture ,,of_/,,dorian ,,gray4_/,by_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,ward1 ,lock and ,co41 ,london1 ,new ,york and ,melbourne4_/#ahia4_/ ,the edition was limited to #bej copies 7signed by the author7 on large sized 7#h-a_/b by #g in47 ,van ,gelder hand-made paper1 top edges gilt1 sides uncut4 ,with gilt lettering1 and outside wrappers1 designed by ,charles ,ricketts4 ,pp4 vii41 #ccd4 ,price #ba_/-4 ii4 ,the same on small paper 7#g-a_/b by #e in47 all edges uncut4 ,binding similar to the last1 but with less elaborate gilt tooling4 ,undated4 ,price #f_/-4 ,the date of this edition is given in the ,english ,catalogue as ,may1 #ahia1 but ,messrs4 ,ward1 ,lock ,co41 consider ,july #ast as the actual day of publication1 though the ,athenum reviewed the book under ,novels of the ,week1 on ,june #bg4 7see page #abe74 iii4 ,new ,edition of the same 7#ahid74 ,ward1 ,lock and ,bowden4 ,undated4 ,price #f_/-4 ,this edition was prepared for publication towards the end of #ahid1 but it was not issued4 ,about a year later it was sold off to the booksellers as a remainder1 the date of his publication being according to the ,english ,catalogue1 ,october1 #ahie4 b7 ,unauthorised ,editions4 99 ,,iii4 ,,the ,,picture_/,,of_/,,dorian ,,gray4_/,by_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,new ,york3 ,m4,j4 ,ivers and ,co ,american ,series1 ,no4 #aie4 ,size1 #g by #d-c_/d in4 ,blue and white ornamental wrappers4 ,dated ,june #bb1 #ahij4 ,price #be cents4 ,several impressions have been issued4 99 ,,iv4 i4 ,,the ,,picture ,,of_/,,dorian ,,gray4_/,by ,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,new ,york3 ,geo4 ,munro's ,sons4 ,seaside ,library1 ,no4 #badc4 ,pocket ,edition4 ,size #g-a_/d by #e in4 ,yellow wrappers4 ,dated ,may #aa1 #ahie1 pp4 #abe4 ,price #be cents4 ,several impressions have been issued4 99 ii4 ,the same4 ,later editions1 from ,september1 #ahih1 in blue and white ornamental wrappers4 ,the #dth impression was issued in ,december1 #aije4 ,all are printed from stereotyped plates on coarse paper4 ,covers all dated ,may #aa1 #ahie4 99 iii4 ,the same4 ,savoy ,series1 ,no4 #bba4 ,white wrappers with picture and lettering in brown4 ,cover dated #aijj4 ,the second impression was issued in ,january1 #aije1 but all reprints bear date #aijj4 99 ,v4 ,the same4 ,a ,novel4 ,arrow ,library1 ,no4 #aff4 #abmo4 ,pictorial wrappers4 ,new ,york3 ,street ,smith4 ,undated 7#aija74 99 ,,vi4 ,,the ,,picture_/,,of_/,,dorian ,,gray4_/,,by_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,privately ,printed_/#ahij4 ,size #h-c_/d by #e-c_/d in4 ,light blue-grey boards1 label on back4 ,uncut edges4 ,this is an unauthorised reprint published in ,london about #aijc-d4 ,price from #aj_/f to #ba_/-4 ,pp4 #bdi4 ,,vii4 ,,the ,,picture ,,of_/,,dorian ,,gray_/by_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,new ,york3 ,charterhouse ,press1 #aijd4 ,size #h-c_/d by #f-a_/d in4 ,limited to #hjj numbered copies4 ,top edges gilt1 sides uncut4 ,contains ,publisher's note1 ,artist's preface1 and a short ,biography of the ,author4 ,facing title is a full-length portrait of ,dorian ,gray1 by ,basil ,hallward1 which inspired the story4 ,pp4 xv41 #ccd4 ,price #c4ej;c4 ,with loose outside wrapper4 ,the publisher was ,donald ,bruce ,wallace4 ,the edition was transferred to ,brentano's of ,new ,york1 in #aije4 ,price #c4jj net4 ,the ,english ,copyright of ,dorian ,gray was purchased from ,ward1 ,lock and ,bowden1 in ,january1 #aije1 by ,charles ,carrington1 of ,paris1 who has issued the following editions4 ,,viii4 ,,the ,,picture_/,,of_/,,dorian ,,gray_/,,by_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,paris3 ,charles ,carrington4 ,cr4 #hvo1 ,pp4 vii41 #ccd4 ,blue boards1 gilt lettering with title ,,dorian ,,grey4 ,price #ab_/f4 #aija4 ,,ix4 i4 ,same ,publisher4 ,new ,edition4 ,size #g-a_/b by #e-a_/b in4 ,top edges gilt1 sides uncut4 ,shot green silk boards1 with water-lily design in black on front4 ,pp4 vii41 #cbg4 #aije4 ,price #aj_/f4 ii4 ,the same4 ,an edition1 strictly limited to #ajj copies1 on hand-made paper1 from the same plates4 ,issued in various forms of binding4 ,price #aes4 ,no4 ,,ix4 is now the ,sole ,authorised ,edition4 ,mr4 ,charles ,carrington has in preparation a new edition which will contain some twenty-five illustrations 7seven of which will be full-page7 most of them engraved on wood4 ,the artist is ,m4 ,paul ,thiriat4 ,the edition1 each copy of which will be numbered1 ,will consist of3-- ,x4 i4 ,library ,edition4 #ajj copies on ,english antique paper1 cloth bound1 #ba_/-4 ii4 ,seventy-five copies on ,english hand-made paper1 bound in water-coloured silk1 #ca_/f4 iii4 ,fifty copies on ,imperial ,japanese vellum1 with an extra set of the illustrations printed on ,china paper1 #c_/c_/-4 ,the size of the paper will be sm4 #dto4 7c7 ,translations4 7i7 ,dutch4 ,,xi4 ,,het ,,portret ,,van_/,,dorian ,,gray_/,,door_/,,oscar ,,wilde_/,,vertaald ,,door_/ ,,mevrouw ,,louis ,,couperus _/,,eerste 7 ,tweede7 ,,deel 7fleuron7_/,,amsterdam ,l4,j4 ,,veen4_/ #b vols41 #hvo size1 #g-g_/h by #e-a_/b in4 ,grey wove paper wrappers1 decorated with bands and printed in blue on front1 back and ends4 ,printed on wove paper with edges untrimmed4 ,vol4 ,i41 pages #a-aei 7,chapters ,i4-,,viii471 ,vol4 ,,ii41 pages #a-afj 7,chapters numbered ,i4-,,xi474 ,last page is dated ,den ,haag1 ,febr41 '#ic4 ,the ,preface is omitted4 ,in wrappers1 price fl4#c4be1 cloth fl4#c4ij4 7ii7 ,french ,,xii4 i4 ,,le ,,portrait_/,,de_/,,dorian ,,gray4_/ 7,traduit de l',anglais74 ,paris ,albert ,savine1 diteur1 #ab1 rue des ,pyramides1 #ab1 #ahie4 ,size #g-a_/d by #d-a_/b in4 ,yellow wrappers1 ,pp4 #caf4 ,price #c;fr4 #ej;c4 7,june #ahie74 ,the translators were ,eugene ,tardieu and ,georges ,maurevert4 ii4 ,the same4 ,second ,edition4 ,july #ahie4 ,,xiii4 i4 ,the same4 ,type re-set4 ,pp4 vii41 #cbe4 ,price #c;fr4 #ej;c4 ,yellow wrappers4 ,paris3 ,p4,v4 ,stock1 ,editeur1 #bg1 rue de ,richelieu4 #aijd4 ii4 ,the same4 ,second ,edition4 #aijd4 iii4 ,the same4 ,third ,edition4 #aijd 7,july74 7iii7 ,german4 99 ,,xiv4 ,,dorian ,,gray4_/,von_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,aus dem ,englischen bersetzt und mit einem ,vorwort verschehen von ,johannes ,gaulke4 ,leipzig3 ,verlag von ,max ,spohr4 ,not dated 7,september #aija74 ,size #h-a_/b by #e-c_/d in4 ,pale green wrappers1 uncut edges4 ,pp4 #bjc4 ,price #c marks2 ,bound #d marks4 ,,xv4 i4 ,,oscar ,,wilde_/,,das ,,bildnis ,,dorian ,,grays4_/,deutsch von ,felix ,paul ,greve4 ,minden in ,westf3 ,j4,c4,c4 ,bruns' ,verlag4 ,no date 7#aijb74 ,size #g-c_/d by #e in4 ,ribbed grey wrappers4 ,uncut edges4 ,pp4 vi41 #cfg4 ,price #c marks #ej pf4 ,bound #d marks #ej pf4 ii4 ,the same4 ,new ,edition4 ,,dorian ,,grays ,,bildnis1 etc4 7#aijc74 iii4 ,the same 7#aijd74 ,this edition has been reprinted several times4 ,,xvi4 ,,das ,,bildnis ,,der ,,dorian ,,gray4 ,this is ,volume ,,ii4 of an edition of the ,works of ,oscar ,wilde1 in six volumes1 published by the ,wiener ,verlag2 7,vienna17 #aijf1 under the general title of ,samtliche werke in ,deutsche ,sprache4 ,grey paper wrappers1 uncut edges1 #b marks4 ,edition de luxe1 on hand-made paper1 limited to #ajj copies1 bound in crimson roan1 top edges crimson1 sides uncut1 #f marks4 7iv7 ,italian4 ,,xvii4 i4 ,,il ,,ritratto ,,di ,,dorian ,,gray1 ,,romanzo ,,di ,,oscar ,,wilde4 ,appeared in ,varietas1 ,milan1 ,june1 #aije1 to ,may1 #aijf 7,nos4 #ad-be74 ,complete version1 without preface4 ii4 ,,doriano ,,gray ,,dipinto4 ,,versione ,,dall' ,,inglese ,,con ,,prefazione ,,di ,b4 ,,chiara4 ,,napoli ,,libreria ,,editrice ,,bideri ,s4 ,,pietro ,a ,,majella #ag4 #afmo1 ,biblioteca ,varia ,bideri1 ,no4 #ca4 ,price #b lire4 iii4 ,,il ,,ritratto ,,di ,,doriano ,,gray4 ,romanzo4 ,publicato par la ,ditta ,remo ,sandron4 ,palermo1 #aijg4 #afmo4 ,pp4 #bfb4 ,price #a lira4 7v7 ,polish4 ,,xviii4 ,,oscar ,,wilde ,,portret ,,doriana ,,gray ',a ,przeklad ,m4 ,kreczowska4 ,wydanie ,przeglada ,tygodniowy4 ,warszawa4 #aijf4 #hvo4 ,pp4 #cbg4 ,cena #a rb4 7vi7 ,russian4 ,,xix4 i4 ,,portret ,,doriana ,,greya4_/ perevod ,s4,z4 ,izdanie ,w4,m4 ,sablina4_/,moskwa1 #aije4 #a r4 #ej c4 ii4 ,new ,edition1 #aijg 99 ,,xx4 ,,portret ,,doriana ,,greya_/ perevod ,a4 ,mintzlowoi ,srysoonkami ,m4 ,durnowa_/,knigoizdatelstwo ,griff_/,moskwa #aijf4 #c roub4 7vii7 ,swedish4 ,,xxi4 i4 ,,dorian ,,grays ,,portratt_/ ,af_/,,oscar ,,wilde4_/,ofversattning fran ,engelskan4 af ,n4 ,selander4 ,stockholm3 ,albert ,bonniers ,forlag4 #aije4 ,size #g-a_/d by #d-c_/d in4 ,white wrappers 7bearing etching of ,wilde1 by ,kelly74 ,pp4 #cjg4 ,price #ckr4 ii4 ,the same4 ,second ,edition4 #aije4 iii4 ,the same4 ,third ,edition1 #aijf4 ,,note4--,editions marked with an asterisk7997 contain the thirteen chapters as originally contributed to ,lippincott's ,monthly ,magazine4