Reviewed: The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored
Edition, by Oscar Wilde, edited by Nicholas Frankel. The Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 2011. 295 pages, hard cover,
color illustrations, $35. Salomé: A Tragedy in One Act, by Oscar
Wilde, translated from the French by Joseph Donohue, illustrated
by Barry Moser. University of Virginia Press, 2011. 108 pages,
hard cover, black and white illustrations, $24.95. In 1895, when
Oscar Wilde was arrested for "Gross Indecency," it was not only
his sexuality, but also his art, that stood accused. During his
trials, the opposing counsel cited the evidence of some of
Wilde's aphorisms, his poems, a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas --
"those red rose-leaf lips of yours ... have been made ... for
madness of kisses" -- and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde was
convicted and sent to prison, put out of society's view and
literally silenced. (Talking among the prisoners was strictly
prohibited.) Outside the prison, his plays were closed; his
books were wit