When published in 1890, Oscar Wilde\'s version of the Faust myth, wherein a fashionable young man sells his soul for eternal youth while his portrait grows old, was attacked for its mawkish and nauseous tone.
Of Dorian Gray\'s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps..
Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde\'s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment.
The tale of Dorian Gray\'s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel\'s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, a terrible moral in Dorian Gray .
Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides - Nominated as one of America\'s best-loved novels by PBS\'s The Great American Read Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde\'s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author\'s most popular work.
This Paperback Classic edition includes an Introduction by Quentin Crisp.
However, the novel has fascinated readers for over a century.
When published in 1890, Oscar Wilde\'s version of the Faust myth, wherein a fashionable young man sells his soul for eternal youth while his portrait grows old, was attacked for its mawkish and nauseous tone
