Gravelight Horror Classics strikes again! Another timeless masterpiece in The Picture of Dorian Gray. And the publisher has also included a beautifully written eleven-page Introduction by Jeffrey D. Keeten, one of the top reviewers here on Goodreads.
I'm confident anyone reading this knows this Oscar Wilde tale. Therefore, I'll focus on Jeffrey's introductory essay and link my comments with several direct quotes.
"The razor-sharp brain still sputtering within that fine head is being suffocated for lack of sustenance. He needs books. He needs a pen and paper. With those simple items he can survive anything."
Jeffrey provides a graphic description of poor Oscar Wilde in prison. Too bad the great author didn't fully comprehend his society's outrage regarding his flamboyant lifestyle and flaunting his sexual attraction to men. Jeffrey delves deeply and writes incisively about the 19th century Victorian world that served as the social and cultural context for both Wilde's life and his famous novel.
"As the novel unspools, the reader will discover that the painting and Dorian Gray have become inexplicably linked in a most abnormal way."
This is surely the most fascinating aspect of the classic tale. Jeffrey notes the psychology involved in the two other major characters. Basil Hallward, the portrait painter, perhaps became too obsessed with Gray's beauty along with the mystical elements of art and therefore "stirred something unnatural into the pigments and brushstrokes of his creation." Lord Henry Wotton and his hedonistic philosophy, on the other hand, might have exerted an undue influence on the impressionable young man.
"In 1882, years before The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest validated Wilde's exalted literary career, author Henry James arranged to meet Wilde in Washington, DC, during his grand lecture tour of America."
This is a wonderful tidbit complements of Jeffrey. I did not know of the meeting between these two great authors, nor did I know that the outrageous Wilde inspired Henry James to write The Tragic Muse (my favorite Henry James novel, by the way), a novel featuring an art-for-art-sake aesthete - Gabriel Nash.
"Had he lived in the era of social media, Wilde would have doubtless attracted millions of followers. He would instinctively know what he should wear, where he should be seen, and whom he should be seen with. He would be as well-known as Elon Musk, Bret Easton Ellis, or Taylor Swift."
This Gravelight edition is the one to pick up, for sure. The above quote is one of many memorable, perceptive observations Jeffrey makes revolving around the one and only Oscar Wilde, a genius literary artist who could have given us much, much more if he didn't meet Alfred Douglas (read Jeffrey's essay for more details), wasn't sent to prison, and died way too young, at age forty-six.
Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900
Jeffrey D. Keeten, author, literary critic, book collector and lover of books
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