Tartarus Press

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

Introduction by R.B. Russell

This new edition of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is the perfect excuse to rediscover a masterpiece of Gothic Decadence, written with the author’s characteristic razor-sharp wit.

Dorian Gray’s extraordinary beauty captivates all who meet him, including the charismatic Lord Henry Wotton, who awakens in him a fascination for pleasure and self-indulgence. Dorian makes a fateful wish that he might remain forever young while his portrait bears the evidence of age and corruption. As his life plunges into a world of excess and transgression, the hidden painting becomes a terrible mirror to his soul.

This new edition presents Wilde’s singular blend of elegance and menace with renewed clarity, reinstating text that the author and his editors removed from various drafts, for fear of offending contemporary readers.

First-time readers, and long-time admirers, now have the best possible opportunity to engage with the novel’s enduring questions about beauty, influence, and the price of living without a conscience. The Picture of Dorian Gray is revealed to have not just a shimmering style, and to be a provocative exploration of art’s power and the dangers of unchecked desire, but it resonates with a profound psychological depth. This new edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray reaffirms Wilde’s place as one of literature’s most brilliant and subversive voices.