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Main description: Over 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores material, including instances of graphic homosexual content, removed by the novel’s first editor, who feared it would be 0offensive0 to Victorians. More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores all of the material removed by the novel’s first editor. Upon receipt of the typescript, Wilde’s editor panicked at what he saw. Contained within its pages was material he feared readers would find 0offensive0—especially instances of graphic homosexual content. He proceeded to go through the typescript with his pencil, cleaning it up until he made it 0acceptable to the most fastidious taste.0 Wilde did not see these changes until his novel appeared in print. Wilde’s editor’s concern was well placed. Even in its redacted form, the novel caused public outcry. The British press condemned it as 0vulgar,0 0unclean,0 0poisonous,0 0discreditable,0 and 0a sham.0 When Wilde later enlarged the novel for publication in book form, he responded to his critics by further toning down its 0immoral0 elements. Wilde famously said that The Picture of Dorian Gray 0contains much of me0: Basil Hallward is 0what I think I am,0 Lord Henry 0what the world thinks me,0 and 0Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.0 Wilde’s comment suggests a backward glance to a Greek or Dorian Age, but also a forward-looking view to a more permissive time than his own repressive Victorian era. By implication, Wilde would have preferred we read today the uncensored version of his novel. Main description: More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores all of the material removed by the novel’s first editor. Upon receipt of the typescript, Wilde’s editor panicked at what he saw. Contained within its pages was material he feared readers would find 0offensive0—especially instances of graphic homosexual content. He proceeded to go through the typescript with his pencil, cleaning it up until he made it 0acceptable to the most fastidious taste.0 Wilde did not see these changes until his novel appeared in print. Wilde’s editor’s concern was well placed. Even in its redacted form, the novel caused public outcry. The British press condemned it as 0vulgar,0 0unclean,0 0poisonous,0 0discreditable,0 and 0a sham.0 When Wilde later enlarged the novel for publication in book form, he responded to his critics by further toning down its 0immoral0 elements. Wilde famously said that The Picture of Dorian Gray 0contains much of me0: Basil Hallward is 0what I think I am,0 Lord Henry 0what the world thinks me,0 and 0Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.0 Wilde’s comment suggests a backward glance to a Greek or Dorian Age, but also a forward-looking view to a more permissive time than his own repressive Victorian era. By implication, Wilde would have preferred we read today the uncensored version of his novel.
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