The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic, philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly 500 words without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of many British book reviewers, some of whom said that Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, he aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.

The longer revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface - a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake - based in part on his press defences of the novel the previous year. The content, style, and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own right, as a literary and artistic manifesto. In April 1891, the publishing firm of Ward, Lock and Company, who had distributed the shorter, more inflammatory magazine version in England the previous year, published the revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

This was is the only novel written by Wilde.

Edited by Macc Kay
Production executive Avalon Giuliano
ICON Intern Eden Giuliano

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Geoffrey Giuliano is the author of over 30 internationally best-selling biographies, including the London Sunday Times best seller Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney and Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison. He can be heard on the Westwood One Radio Network and has written and produced over 700 original spoken-word albums,