The Picture of Dorian Gray |The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
WARNING: The following note contains some plot details of this
work of fiction The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel by
Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890. A substantially
revised and expanded edition was published in April 1891. For
the new edition, Wilde revised the content of the novel's
existing chapters, divided the final chapter into two chapters,
and created six entirely new additional chapters. Whereas the
original edition of the novel contains 13 chapters, the revised
edition of the novel contains 20 chapters. The novel tells of a
young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist
Basil Hallward. Dorian is selected for his remarkable physical
beauty, and Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian,
believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode of art.
Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a
friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world
view. Espousing a new kind of