The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine (Philadelphia/London), then revised and expanded with a preface and six additional chapters for the first book edition, published by Ward, Lock & Co., London, in April 1891, priced at 6s. The magazine version created an immediate scandal — reviewers called it “effeminate,” “poisonous,” “unclean,” and an “insult to morality.” Wilde responded with characteristic wit: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
The Novel
Basil Hallward, a painter, creates a portrait of Dorian Gray — a young man of extraordinary beauty. Lord Henry Wotton (a languid, epigram-dispensing aristocrat who functions as the novel’s devil) convinces Dorian that beauty and youth are the only things worth having. Dorian wishes that the portrait would age in his place — and the wish is granted. He remains eternally young while the portrait, hidden in his attic, accumulates the physical marks of his sins: every cruelty, every indulgence, every act of corruption appears on the canvas while his face remains untouched.
Freed from consequence, Dorian pursues pleasure without limit — corrupting young men and women, driving people to suicide, and eventually murdering Basil when the painter discovers the portrait’s transformation. The novel’s final scene is one of the great endings in Gothic fiction: Dorian stabs the portrait with the knife he used to kill Basil. The servants find the portrait restored to its original beauty, and a dead old man — “withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage” — with a knife in his heart.
Wilde’s prose is epigrammatic, ornate, and deliberately artificial — influenced by Pater, Huysmans, and the French Decadents. Lord Henry’s conversation (virtually every sentence a paradox or aphorism) provides the novel’s intellectual framework: “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” The unnamed “yellow book” that corrupts Dorian (clearly Huysmans’s À rebours) and the detailed descriptions of Dorian’s collections (jewels, embroideries, musical instruments) create a hothouse atmosphere of aesthetic excess.
The Trials
The novel was used as evidence against Wilde during his trials for “gross indecency” in 1895. Passages describing Basil’s devotion to Dorian’s beauty were read aloud in court as proof of Wilde’s homosexuality. The novel had become, in effect, Wilde’s own portrait — revealing what his public persona concealed.
Collecting The Picture of Dorian Gray
First book edition (1891, Ward, Lock & Co., London): Approximately 1,000 copies, priced at 6s.
Identification points:
- Published by “Ward, Lock and Company”
- Grey paper-covered boards with gilt design
- The binding is fragile — boards often detached or worn
First book edition:
- Fine copy in original binding: $15,000–$40,000
- Very Good: $5,000–$15,000
- Reading copy: $2,000–$5,000
Lippincott’s Magazine first appearance (July 1890):
- Complete issue in good condition: $5,000–$15,000
- This is technically the true first edition
Large Paper edition (1891, Ward, Lock): 250 copies on hand-made paper, signed: $30,000–$80,000.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2× for fine copies. Wilde’s permanent cultural stature and the novel’s iconic status ensure strong demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the novel autobiographical? Wilde said: “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.” All three characters contain aspects of Wilde.
Is it a moral novel? Despite the preface’s insistence that art has no moral purpose, the novel’s structure is morally conventional — sin is punished, corruption destroys. Wilde wanted it both ways: decadent aestheticism as philosophy, Victorian moral structure as narrative armature.
What is the “yellow book” that corrupts Dorian? Clearly Huysmans’s À rebours (1884) — a novel about a decadent aristocrat who retreats from the world to pursue aesthetic sensation. Wilde never names it, but the description is unmistakable.