![]() ![]() Wilde, under pressure to get the novel published in book format, then toned down the passages the critics had objected to, removing Basil’s declaration of love for Dorian entirely. The manuscript was originally published in 1890 by a monthly magazine, Lippincott’s, and was described by critics at the time as “a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction” and written “for outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph boys” – a reference to a male brothel where young staff from the General Post Office had been offering out-of-hours “services” to members of the aristocracy.įollowing these reviews, the bookseller WH Smith (“ever the self-appointed guardian of British morals”, Holland writes in his foreword) refused to stock Lippincott’s that month. Photograph: Sargon/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock His purpose is to shock and tweak the noses of the establishment – but he’s intelligent enough to know that if he goes too far, there is going to be trouble.”Īttic secret … Helmut Berger in Massimo Dallamano’s 1970 film Dorian Gray. “He does not want, at this juncture of his life, to toe the line and respect social conventions. “I think his whole purpose in writing this book was to break out of the Victorian mould of what Lady Bracknell called the ‘three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality’,” said Holland. In Wilde’s essay The Decay of Lying – published just a few months before he started writing Dorian Gray – he had made a plea for more imagination in literature. What he’s doing with Dorian Gray is treading a very fine line.” Wilde's purpose was to break out of what Lady Bracknell called the ‘three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality' “He’d reached a point when he was in danger of becoming respectable and conventional – in 1889 he was married with 2.4 children, living in slightly bohemian Chelsea. “The manuscript shows the workings of Wilde’s mind as he was writing it,” said Merlin Holland, the author’s 72-year-old grandson, who has written a foreword to the new edition. Somehow I have never loved a woman… I quite admit that I adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly.” ![]() ![]() For example, this declaration of love by Basil for Dorian on page 147: “It is quite true that I have worshipped you with far more romance than a man should ever give to a friend. Yet the manuscript also includes passages – later removed from the novel we know today – that show how Wilde wanted to shock his Victorian readers by openly writing about homosexual feelings. ![]()
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