Responding in 1894 to a letter from an admirer of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Oscar Wilde wrote, "I am glad you like that strange coloured book of mine: it contains much of me in it. Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps."
And if, as Wilde claimed in the preface to Dorian Gray, that "to reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim," the novel goes wide of the mark, for neither he nor his beliefs is very well concealed in it.
When a student at Oxford, Wilde fell under the sway of aestheticism, a philosophy that loosely makes a religion of beauty. Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian all follow this creed, with particularly unfortunate results.
About the Author
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet who delighted Victorian England with his legendary wit. He found critical and popular success with his scintillating plays, chiefly The Importance of Being Earnest, while his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, scandalized readers. Imprisoned for two years for homosexual behavior, Wilde moved to France after his release, where he died destitute.
