Preface

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THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
BY
OSCAR WILDE
PARIS YE OLDE PARIS BOOKE-SHOPPE
1926 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., LTD.
First Published in Lippincott’s Magazine, July 1890 First Edition, with Preface and seven additional chapters (Ward, Lock & Co.), 1891 Present Edition First Printed, January 1910 Second Printing, June 1913 Third Printing, May 1926
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Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. ConsTaBLe Lp, at the University Press, Edinburgh
AN EDITORIAL NOTE
HE practice of adding introductions to thoroughly well-known works for the benefit of an already well-informed public, has become almost ridiculous. Only in rare instances have the works been illuminated, even in cases where the text required elucidation, or when the editor was himself an author of distinction. I do not, therefore, propose to fail in fields where | celebrated writers have scarcely succeeded. I can, however, take this opportunity of saying that the characters of this novel were entirely imaginary, in spite of assertions to the contrary by claimants to the doubtful honour of being the original of ‘Dorian Gray’: though it is obvious that, consciously or unconsciously, Wilde has put a great deal of himself into the character of ‘ Lord Henry Wotton.’ Readers of the present generation concerned about the controversies which followed the original publication of the
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vi THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
story in Lippincott’s Magazine may be referred to an excellent little book, entitled Art and Morality, by Mr. Stuart Mason. It contains a complete record of much that, in my opinion, was hardly worth preserving. The only object of my intrusion here, however, is to express my very best thanks to Mr. Charles Carrington, the publisher and owner of Dorian Gray, for permitting it to appear as a volume in the uniform edition of Oscar Wilde’s authentic works —an edition which would have otherwise been incomplete. ROBERT ROSS.
1908.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Ar the request of the Author’s literary executor, Mr. Robert Ross, I have issued this edition of Dorian Gray for the benefit of those who have purchased the other volumes of the popular five-shilling edition issued by Messrs. Methuen, to whom I am indebted for permission to adopt a similar style and format.
1909.
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THE PREFACE
HE artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the arlist is art's aim. The critic ts he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt wilhout being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beauftiul meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated, For these there ts hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There ts no such thing as a moral or an wmmoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That ts all. The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
x THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
The nineteenth century dishke of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an un- pardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arls is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type. All artis at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril,
PREFACE xi
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree the artist is in accord nith himself. We can forgwe a man for making a_ useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it immensely. All art is quite useless.
OSCAR WILDE.
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THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY