The Picture of Dorian Gray (28 page)

In that sense Wilde represents in plangent form the most abiding preoccupations of his period – at the end of a century, it was a time of sadness and sterility when the most acute talents understood that a world, and a world of values, was coming to an end. They mocked it as it died or, like George Gissing, produced threnodies on its behalf, but they could find nothing to put in its place. That is one reason for the emptiness and despair at the heart of
Dorian Gray
, and on one level we may read this book as an epitaph for Victorian civilization.

Yet it would be wrong to attach too long a moral to this tale since, as Wilde himself says here,

… the only things that one can use in fiction are the things that one has ceased to use in fact.

This is one aspect of his aesthetic bravado but it is true in the sense that Wilde is on this occasion a novelist rather than a philosopher or even a cultural historian, and it is as a novel that
Dorian Gray
must finally be judged. As such, it is a considerable success; it may be melodramatic in inspiration but it is a triumph of execution. Wilde knew how to end one chapter with thunder and begin the next with trumpets; he knew how to orchestrate the emotions of a scene and, in that sequence where Sibyl Vane loses her powers as an artist as soon as she has found love, he demonstrates an evocative sympathy which is not always present in his later dramas. And if
Dorian Gray
is one of the best narrations of the ‘double life' of a Victorian gentleman, so it is also one of the best accounts of the divisions within London itself. As the narrative moves from the dining tables of the rich to the hovels of Whitechapel or Limehouse, Wilde's descriptive powers lift the book far above the casual sonorities of his conventional prose; and as we marvel at this, we can see also the burgeoning comedy of Wilde's dialogue in those scenes where Lord Henry Wotton appears.

One might say of this novel, then, what Wilde says of Society in its pages:

Form is absolutely essential to it. It should have the dignity of a ceremony, as well as its unreality, and should combine the insincere character of a romantic play with the wit and beauty that make such plays delightful to us.

Here Wilde plays with paradox, which is fitting in a novel that is iridescent with paradox and with the sensibility that is mediated through wit and effortless display. Only shallow people refuse to judge by appearances, to paraphrase our author, which is perhaps why
The Picture of Dorian Gray
has largely escaped the attentions of the more sombre critics and why its popularity has endured for almost one hundred years.

Peter Ackroyd

London, 1985

These notes are designed to help the reader understand Wilde's novel, and provide a background to the publication and revision of its final form. They include references to significant variations in the two published editions of this novel, and a few to the changes made to the typescript Wilde submitted to
Lippincott's Monthly Magazine
in 1890. These references to textual variants are not designed to be exhaustive, or to enable the reader to reconstruct the earlier text. They record the process of ‘self-censorship' that the text underwent, and also the artistic enrichment from which it benefited. Readers who are interested in the process of revision from manuscript to typescript and between the two published versions should consult Donald F. Lawler's very useful
An Inquiry into Oscar Wilde's Revisions of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray'
(Garland: New York, 1988); those who wish to read the 1890 edition should consult the text prepared by Lawler for Norton (New York, 1987). When Wilde revised the novel he added long descriptive passages of Dorian's various enthusiasms for exotic items. These were designed, as Wilde put it, to ‘surround him in an atmosphere of moral corruption', producing a distinctly ‘decadent' and exotic effect (Stuart Mason,
Oscar Wilde, Art and Morality: A record of the discussion which followed the publication of ‘Dorian Gray'
(London (1912), 80). Many of these references are there solely for the sake of this effect, and the modern reader gains little by having each term or allusion explained. In a few cases I have relied on the notes provided by Peter Ackroyd for the earlier Penguin edition. These cases are identified as (Ackroyd).

1
Wilde published ‘A Preface to Dorian Gray' in the March issue of Frank Harris's journal, the
Fortnightly Review.
He devised this as a response to the critics who had condemned the first edition of his novel for its ‘immorality'
and ‘unhealthiness'. Having rehearsed these arguments in his letters to critics, he now sought to preach his aesthetic credo, a version of the principle of art for art's sake', first formulized by Théophile Gautier and Edgar Allan Poe in the first half of the nineteenth century, and adopted by Wilde's sparring partner, the painter James McNeill Whistler, in the 1880s. The
Fortnightly Review
(1865–1954) was a highbrow literary and scientific journal, which published contributions by Thomas Henry Huxley, Francis Galton, Henry Maudsley, and H. G. Wells as well as Oscar Wilde. The Preface, of course, also advertised his novel, which was published the following month in its extended form by Ward, Lock & Co. He reprinted the Preface with an additional maxim: ‘No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything' with the novel.

1
Japanese effect
: An interest in Japanese art and decoration developed in the 1860s when the painter Whistler introduced the Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti to this exotic world, thus establishing a veritable cult of Japan within this Bohemian circle. By the 1880s ‘Japonisme' had become a major influence on the art and decoration of the time, leaving its mark on Whistler's paintings and designs (principally the ‘Peacock Room', now installed in London's Victoria and Albert Museum). The décor of Hallward's studio reflects these tastes and influences. Wilde himself participated in this cult, referring to ‘the influence which Eastern art is having on us in Europe, and the fascination of all Japanese work' in a lecture he gave in America in 1882 (‘The English Renaissance of Art'); and celebrating the artificiality of this art in ‘The Decay of Lying' (1889).

2
the Grosvenor. The Academy
: By contrasting the Grosvenor Gallery with the Royal Academy Wilde indicates an opposition between the avant-garde and the establishment which divided the British art world at this time. The Royal Academy had been founded in the late eighteenth century under its president Sir Joshua Reynolds, and served as a training ground for artists to emulate the best antique models and aspire to the grand manner. By the mid nineteenth century it represented to the young and adventurous a stultifying restriction of original expression and artistic experiment. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848 principally by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, was a youthful and spirited revolt against this academic stranglehold on English art. This in turn encouraged the establishment of alternative exhibition spaces, the most famous of which was the
Grosvenor Gallery, founded by Sir Coutts Linsay in 1877 in London's New Bond Street. That year Whistler's ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold – the Falling Rocket' was shown, the painting which John Ruskin attacked in his magazine
Fors Clavigera
, bringing about the famous lawsuit between him and Whistler which brought Aestheticism, as represented by Whistler, to the attention of the public. From then on the Grosvenor became synonymous with aesthetic revolt. It is therefore natural that Lord Henry should recommend the Grosvenor for Basil's painting. Wilde himself attended this first exhibition and published a review of it while still an undergraduate at Oxford. When Gilbert and Sullivan came to satirize Aestheticism (including Wilde himself) in their comic opera
Patience
(1881), they included a character called Archibald Grosvenor and characterized the aesthetic type as ‘a greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery, / Foot-in-the-grave young man!'. Wilde's pronouncements on art led to the popular Academician William Powell Frith depicting Wilde in his painting ‘A Private View, 1881', showing the young Oscar pontificating on the exhibits at the Academy to an enraptured group of fashionable women while a stern-looking group of Academicians scowl in disapproval.

3
Adonis… Narcissus
: In classical mythology these figures stand as consummate types of male beauty. Narcissus tragically fell in love with his own reflection, an appropriate analogy for Dorian, of whom it is later reported: ‘Once, in boyish mockery of Narcissus, he had kissed, or feigned to kiss, those painted lips that now smiled so cruelly at him' (Chapter VIII).

4
and the two young men went out into the garden together
: In the version of 1890 Basil is clearly troubled by Lord Henry's interest in Dorian. Here Wilde has deleted the words, ‘and for a time they did not speak', reducing the tension that had existed between them.

5
I grew afraid
: Wilde deleted from 1890 the words: ‘I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely devoted to him, and that I ought not to speak to him'.

6
Stars and Garters
: Denoting members of the knightly Order of the Star and Garter, an ancient chivalric order; this reference establishes the aristocratic tenor of the occasion. Wilde, Irish and middle-class, was fascinated by this world, and often depicted it in his comedies.

7
Hallward shook his head
: In 1890, ‘Hallward buried his face in his hands', in evident dismay.

8
I don't suppose that ten per cent. of the proletariat live correctly
: Wilde had originally written ‘I don't suppose ten per cent. of the lower orders live with their own wives'. This was too explicit for Wilde's editor at
Lippincott's
, who amended it to ‘correctly'; Wilde changed ‘lower orders' to ‘proletariat' in 1891.

9
I couldn't be happy if I didn't see him every day
: In 1891 Wilde deleted the lines,
‘ “Of course sometimes it is only for a few minutes. But a few minutes with somebody one worships mean a great deal.” “But you don't really worship him?” “I do.” '

10
artistic idolatry
: Originally ‘extraordinary romance' in the 1890 version. Similarly, Wilde qualified the use of ‘romance' a few pages on in 1891, when Lord Henry observes that ‘a romance
of any kind
… leaves one so unromantic'.

11
the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses
: In the l8go version this read: ‘the one person that makes life absolutely lovely to me, and that gives to my art whatever wonder or charm it possesses'. Again, the personal and passionate is rephrased in aesthetic terms, with Wilde adding ‘my life as an artist depends on him' in 1891.

1
a club in Whitechapel
: This refers to an institution established by wealthy philanthropists to ‘better' the poorest inhabitants of London, providing education and attempting to wean them away from the music-halls and gin palaces which proliferated in these areas. The most famous charitable institution was Toynbee Hall, founded in Commercial Street near Whitechapel in 1884. Philanthropy increasingly focused on the East End of London, especially Whitechapel and neighbouring Bethnal Green, when these areas were considered the poorest, unhealthiest and most criminalized districts of the capital towards the end of the century. Whitechapel was especially notorious following the brutal crimes of the Whitechapel murderer, or Jack the Ripper as he came to be known, in 1888. In 1889 Charles Booth published the first volume of his exhaustive survey
Labour and Life of the People
, based on the East End, which established Bethnal Green as the poorest district of London with over 45 per cent of its inhabitants living below sustenance level. Arthur Morrison's novel
A Child of the Jago
(1896) drew a sensational picture of life in this area, attempting to alert the public to the plight of its inhabitants.

2
No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him
: The line ‘He was made to be worshipped' was deleted in 1891.

3
Eton
: The most famous, prestigious and aristocratic public (that is, private) school in England.

4
The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives
: By alluding to savage ‘survivals' Wilde is drawing on, but also characteristically distorting, an idea that was influential in a number of disciplines at the time. This idea was central to the ‘comparative method' of ethnology, whereby contemporary ‘savages' helped to construct hypotheses about the earliest
forms of human civilization. The distinguished ethnologist Sir Edward Tylor explains the doctrine of ‘survivals' to which Wilde refers: ‘These are processes, customs, opinions, and so forth, which have been carried on by force of habit into a new state of society different from that in which they had their original home, and they thus remain proofs and examples of an older condition of culture of which a newer has been evolved…. Such examples often lead us back to the habits of hundreds and even thousands of years ago' (Tylor,
Primitive Culture
, vol. 1 (1871), 15). Wilde's suggestion that ‘self-denial' was actually a ‘savage' vestige of a less evolved culture perverts the orthodox application of these concepts, as Tylor and ‘social Darwinists' like Herbert Spencer and Thomas Huxley who influenced Tylor's views, would regard such impulses as a more advanced improvement on the characteristic habits and unbridled passions of primitive man and contemporary ‘savages'. This is one example of how Wilde, who had a thorough understanding of Evolutionary ideas, uses paradox to invert the logic of contemporary thought.

5
Stop!… He was unconscious of the silence
: Wilde added these passages at typescript stage, strengthening the theme of ‘influence' which dominates his tale. The term ‘influences' which appears in this passage was originally ‘impulses' in 1890. This passage also introduces for the first time the idea of the ‘poisonous book', in this case referring to Lord Henry's experience when he was sixteen.

6
Hermes or your silver Faun
: Hermes in Greek mythology was the son of Zeus and Maia, and was the patron of merchants and thieves. He is usually depicted with winged sandals, and is identified with the Roman god Mercury, messenger of the gods. A faun was a demi-god associated with forests. Pan was a faun.

7
Oh, if it were only the other way!… mock me horribly
: Extraordinarily, Wilde did not add these lines, upon which the story turns, until a very late stage. Along with the reference to Dorian appearing to be ‘praying', they were inserted by Wilde in the typescript of the 1890 edition.

8
White's
: The oldest gentlemen's club, situated in St James's and founded as White's Chocolate Club in 1693.

9
‘I shall stay with the real Dorian,' he said, sadly
: Oddly Basil was originally ‘smiling' when he said this, but his mood changed at typescript stage.

10
love… is purely a question for physiology
: A view established by Charles Darwin in his
Descent of Man
(1871), where he proposed the principle of sexual selection which united the human race with the animal kingdom.

(This was the first of the seven new chapters Wilde added in 1891 and supplies details about Dorian's immediate ancestry.)

1
the Albany
: Apartments until recently exclusively for single men, which still survive today on Piccadilly. Famous tenants have included Byron, ‘Monk' Lewis, Gladstone, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Aldous Huxley, J. B. Priestley and Graham Greene.

2
when Isabella was young, and Prim unthought of
: Refers to the queen of Spain, Isabella II (1833–68), and Juan Prim, a general from this period.