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nmcannon 's review for:
The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
The first thing I felt about this book was fury, and the fury had nothing to do with the text itself.
While I read the 1891 Preface version of The Picture of Dorian Gray as a high school student and knew an original, uncensored version existed, I had assumed the original was as equally out of copyright as the other editions were. It was written in 1890 and a LGBTQ literary treasure trove: why shouldn't it be available for everyone to read, like all of Shakespeare, The Faerie Queen, Memoirs of Fanny Hill, or Sherlock Holmes canon is. It was only this year, after a person I recommended Dorian Gray to told me they were having trouble finding an uncensored copy, that I learned that Harvard University not only kept the public away from Wilde's original manuscript for years, but also has the utter gall to claim it under copyright now and distribute it as a book for sale. While I'm not British, the sheer audacity to set up a paywall between British LGBTQ folk and their 100+ year old literary tradition made me see red.
Theoretically, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray is available through libraries (that's where I snagged my copy), but that availability depends too greatly on the goodwill and thoroughness of individual library systems, which are as subject to inattentiveness, ignorance, and homophobia as as any other human-filled institution. Plus, that's a different sort of availability: going to a library website, praying they have this edition, putting the book on hold, & making time in a busy schedule to pop down to fetch it, and Googling "dorian gray 1890 uncensored edition free online" take very different amounts of time and energy.
Okay, okay, rant over. Now to reviewing the actual book. In addition to Wilde's text, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray has three separate front matter introductions by scholars. While the "Preface" is short and goes for the throat, the "General Introduction" and "Textual Introduction" repeat each other quite a bit and are oddly organized, almost meandering. If you are patient, you may untangle the vines to find lovely roses of context surrounding the three separate editions of Dorian Gray and a feeling biography of Wilde's life. Besides expounding on the Victorian era homophobia/criminalization that forced Wilde to tone down the homoeroticism, the introductions also point out changes to Wilde's punctuation to enhance drama and the choice to excise selections that made rampant marital infidelity explicit.
The plot of Dorian Gray remains largely unchanged. After his début in London society, Dorian Gray makes the acquaintance of Basil Howard, a young artist, and the two become inseparable. In this uncensored text, it is all the more clear that Basil falls in unrequited love with Dorian, and Dorian is oblivious. Basil bemoans the fact that he has fallen for a seeming Straight Boy, worships Dorian as his muse, and asks Dorian to sit for a portrait. During the sitting, Lord Henry Wotton, Basil's friend with a rather dangerous, whimsical nature, tells Dorian the precepts of "New Hedonism," which values the exploration of the senses and Beauty above all. Dorian is enraptured, makes a mad prayer that the portrait would age & change instead of himself, and whallah, you have one of the greatest, gayest permutations of the Devil's Contract fairy tale in British literature.
While it has been awhile since I read the 1891 censored version, the novel did seem clearer somehow and less muddied in its intent. The words breathed more easily. While advertisements for this edition said it contained "graphic" gay content, they don't mean in the modern sense, with nudity and sex. Emotions are more plain, and events are less hidden. I didn't need my learned skills in reading queer subtext to know Basil is in love and closeted, Dorian is comfortably bisexual (or pansexual) by the end, and Lord Henry has at least experimented. It's simply there.
Stepping back from the men who love men elements, Wilde's writing shines as it did before, with deeply gorgeous prose, absolute adoration of art, and sardonic wit. The period typical misogyny, antisemitism, and racism made me grit my teeth at several points. The reading experience as an adult, when I am less impressionable and more firm in my moral make up, was markedly different than my teen one. I am very much with Basil's opinion of Dorian's actions, which I'm sure makes me very boring, but then again my proverbial picture upstairs doesn't have any blood on it.
Overall, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray is invaluable if you're interested in LGBTQ British literary tradition, and I highly recommend doing what you can to find a copy. The writing is beautiful, and Dorian attends a drag ball in a fine dress of pearls. Like all classics, it does suffer from being a product of its time, so it's not the most friendly read to other intersections of identity. Dorian's story is firmly emblematic of the upper class white man's experience of queerness. Wilde's part in queer history brings the novel its importance, the way the it's part of our LGBTQ cultural identity and past. To go forward, one must know what came before.
While I read the 1891 Preface version of The Picture of Dorian Gray as a high school student and knew an original, uncensored version existed, I had assumed the original was as equally out of copyright as the other editions were. It was written in 1890 and a LGBTQ literary treasure trove: why shouldn't it be available for everyone to read, like all of Shakespeare, The Faerie Queen, Memoirs of Fanny Hill, or Sherlock Holmes canon is. It was only this year, after a person I recommended Dorian Gray to told me they were having trouble finding an uncensored copy, that I learned that Harvard University not only kept the public away from Wilde's original manuscript for years, but also has the utter gall to claim it under copyright now and distribute it as a book for sale. While I'm not British, the sheer audacity to set up a paywall between British LGBTQ folk and their 100+ year old literary tradition made me see red.
Theoretically, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray is available through libraries (that's where I snagged my copy), but that availability depends too greatly on the goodwill and thoroughness of individual library systems, which are as subject to inattentiveness, ignorance, and homophobia as as any other human-filled institution. Plus, that's a different sort of availability: going to a library website, praying they have this edition, putting the book on hold, & making time in a busy schedule to pop down to fetch it, and Googling "dorian gray 1890 uncensored edition free online" take very different amounts of time and energy.
Okay, okay, rant over. Now to reviewing the actual book. In addition to Wilde's text, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray has three separate front matter introductions by scholars. While the "Preface" is short and goes for the throat, the "General Introduction" and "Textual Introduction" repeat each other quite a bit and are oddly organized, almost meandering. If you are patient, you may untangle the vines to find lovely roses of context surrounding the three separate editions of Dorian Gray and a feeling biography of Wilde's life. Besides expounding on the Victorian era homophobia/criminalization that forced Wilde to tone down the homoeroticism, the introductions also point out changes to Wilde's punctuation to enhance drama and the choice to excise selections that made rampant marital infidelity explicit.
The plot of Dorian Gray remains largely unchanged. After his début in London society, Dorian Gray makes the acquaintance of Basil Howard, a young artist, and the two become inseparable. In this uncensored text, it is all the more clear that Basil falls in unrequited love with Dorian, and Dorian is oblivious. Basil bemoans the fact that he has fallen for a seeming Straight Boy, worships Dorian as his muse, and asks Dorian to sit for a portrait. During the sitting, Lord Henry Wotton, Basil's friend with a rather dangerous, whimsical nature, tells Dorian the precepts of "New Hedonism," which values the exploration of the senses and Beauty above all. Dorian is enraptured, makes a mad prayer that the portrait would age & change instead of himself, and whallah, you have one of the greatest, gayest permutations of the Devil's Contract fairy tale in British literature.
While it has been awhile since I read the 1891 censored version, the novel did seem clearer somehow and less muddied in its intent. The words breathed more easily. While advertisements for this edition said it contained "graphic" gay content, they don't mean in the modern sense, with nudity and sex. Emotions are more plain, and events are less hidden. I didn't need my learned skills in reading queer subtext to know Basil is in love and closeted, Dorian is comfortably bisexual (or pansexual) by the end, and Lord Henry has at least experimented. It's simply there.
Stepping back from the men who love men elements, Wilde's writing shines as it did before, with deeply gorgeous prose, absolute adoration of art, and sardonic wit. The period typical misogyny, antisemitism, and racism made me grit my teeth at several points. The reading experience as an adult, when I am less impressionable and more firm in my moral make up, was markedly different than my teen one. I am very much with Basil's opinion of Dorian's actions, which I'm sure makes me very boring, but then again my proverbial picture upstairs doesn't have any blood on it.
Overall, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray is invaluable if you're interested in LGBTQ British literary tradition, and I highly recommend doing what you can to find a copy. The writing is beautiful, and Dorian attends a drag ball in a fine dress of pearls. Like all classics, it does suffer from being a product of its time, so it's not the most friendly read to other intersections of identity. Dorian's story is firmly emblematic of the upper class white man's experience of queerness. Wilde's part in queer history brings the novel its importance, the way the it's part of our LGBTQ cultural identity and past. To go forward, one must know what came before.