num_pages: 177
description: Wilde's only novel, first published in 1890, is a brilliantly designed puzzle, intended to tease conventional minds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art, life, and consequence. From its provocative Preface, challenging the reader to believe in 'art for art's sake', to its sensational conclusion, the story self-consciously experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design. Yet Wilde himself underestimated the consequences of his experiment, and its capacity to outrage the Victorian establishment. Its words returned to haunt him in his court appearances in 1895, and he later recalled the 'note of doom' which runs like 'a purple thread' through its carefully crafted prose.
language: English
title: The Picture of Dorian Gray
titlecomplete: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wordsworth Deluxe Classics)
characters: Lord Henry Wotton, Lady Victoria Wotton, James Vane, Lord Staveley, Alan Campbell, Dorian Gray, Adrian Singleton, Lady Narborough, Lady Gwendolen, Duchess of Monmouth, Henry Ashton, Basil Hallward, Sibyl Vane
genres: Fiction, Gothic, LGBT, Horror, Literature, Classics, Novels, 19th Century, Fantasy, Audiobook
ratings_count: 1438167
places: England, London, England
publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd