The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde's only novel was first published on both sides of the
Atlantic by the American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Review on 20th June 1890. Not only did
this text provoke a heated debate in the British press in the same year it also became
notorious for its being quoted and examined in court in Wilde's three trials in the spring of
1895.As a story the novel shows how a young man in a Faustian situation wishes for his
portrait to age rather than himself. Steeped in sin which however is alluded to rather than
spelt out Dorian Gray for Wilde's critics and enemies became an image of the author's own
behaviour.Going back to the typescript of the novel the editor has restored passages to the
text that had been excised or censored by Wilde himself and the editorial committee in America.
Danny Morrison has provided a preface placing Wilde in the Irish political context of his own
day and beyond.
