內容簡介
內容簡介 Over 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores material, including instances of graphic homosexual content, removed by the novel�s first editor, who feared it would be �offensive� to Victorians. More than 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication in Lippincott�s Monthly Magazine, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in a paperback edition. This volume restores all of the material removed by the novel�s first editor.Upon receipt of the typescript, Wilde�s editor panicked at what he saw. Contained within its pages was material he feared readers would find �offensive��especially instances of graphic homosexual content. He proceeded to go through the typescript with his pencil, cleaning it up until he made it �acceptable to the most fastidious taste.� Wilde did not see these changes until his novel appeared in print. Wilde�s editor�s concern was well placed. Even in its redacted form, the novel caused public outcry. The British press condemned it as �vulgar,� �unclean,� �poisonous,� �discreditable,� and �a sham.� When Wilde later enlarged the novel for publication in book form, he responded to his critics by further toning down its �immoral� elements.Wilde famously said that The Picture of Dorian Gray �contains much of me�: Basil Hallward is �what I think I am,� Lord Henry �what the world thinks me,� and �Dorian what I would like to be�in other ages, perhaps.� Wilde�s comment suggests a backward glance to a Greek or Dorian Age, but also a forward-looking view to a more permissive time than his own repressive Victorian era. By implication, Wilde would have preferred we read today the uncensored version of his novel.