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Reprint. Hard cover, 12mo, in black cloth blocked in white peacock feather design with titles to upper front and spine, silk ribbon bookmark. xliii, 252 pp.* Condition: Fine, like new. Introduction includes chronology, as well as a further reading list. Appendix materials contain copies of contemporary reviews, Peter Ackroyd's Introduction to the first Penguin Edition (1985) and Notes. **A beautiful young man has his portrait painted by his friend Basil Hallward. A visitor to the studio, Lord Henry Wotton, is introduced to Dorian Gray and leads him down a path of vanity and corruption. The portrait, given to Gray by his admiring friend the artist, is hidden in an attic; its changing appearance comes to reflect the state of morality of its subject, as men and women of his acqaintance have their lives variously ruined by his actions. First serialized in London's Lippincott Magazine in 1890, this highly original, genre-blended story includes elements of horror, symbolism and aestheticism, with it's examination of the price of moral corruption and psychological complexities which drive it, continuing to facinate readers today. ** This was Irish Author Oscar Wilde's (1854-1900) first and only novel, although he was also a sucessful critic, poet and playwright. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin and later Oxford, Wilde was associated with both the Symbolists and the Aesthetic movement in literature and art of the 1890's. The scandal of arrest and imprisonment for homosexuality curtailed a promising literary career, and indeed his life, in which aspects of this novel were used against him in court. The extensive supplemental materials of this edition make this a worthy resource.
Ref: FICT19 9389
$30.00