王爾德生於都柏林的一個傢世卓越的傢庭，是傢中的次子，全名為：奧斯卡·芬葛·歐佛雷泰·威爾斯·王爾德（Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde）。他的父親威廉姆·王爾德爵士是一個外科醫生，他的母親是一位詩人與作傢。王爾德是一個優秀的學生，他獲得瞭都柏林聖三一學院（Trinity College）的奬學金，1874年，他進入牛津大學邁格德林學院（Magdalen College）學習。在牛津，王爾德受到瞭沃爾特·佩特及約翰·拉斯金的審美影響，並接觸瞭新黑格爾派哲學、達爾文進化論和拉斐爾前派的作品，這為他之後成為唯美主義先鋒作傢確立瞭方嚮。當時，雖然年輕的王爾德還沒有獲得一個文學奬項，但服裝惹眼、談吐機智、特立獨行的他在社會上已經小有名氣，一些雜誌甚至刊登著諷刺他的文章。

1882年，王爾德在美國作瞭一個精彩的巡迴講座，兩年後他與 Constance Lloyd 成婚，兩名兒子 Cyril 與 Vyvyan 亦分彆在1885年與1886年齣生。1887年王爾德成為一傢婦女雜誌的執行總編輯，那上麵發錶著他的一些小說、評論和詩。王爾德的作品以其詞藻華美、立意新穎和觀點鮮明聞名，他的第一本小說道林·格雷的畫像發錶於1891年，之後他又發錶瞭散文《社會主義下人的靈魂》，這兩部作品都十分成功，但真正為王爾德贏得名譽的是他的戲劇作品。可以說他的每一部戲劇作品都受著熱烈的歡迎，有一個時期，倫敦的舞颱上竟同時上演著他的三部作品。

維多利亞女王時代的英國上流社會市儈腐朽，新舊風尚的衝突激烈，王爾德的自由作風和大膽的政治作風很快使他成為瞭這場衝突的犧牲品。1895年，昆斯拜瑞侯爵（Marquess of Queensberry）因兒子阿爾弗瑞德·道格拉斯（Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas）與王爾德交往而令到父子不和，並公然斥責王爾德是一個 "somdomite"。對此，憤怒的阿爾弗瑞德叫王爾德立刻上訴告侯爵敗壞他的名譽，可惜王爾德不但上訴失敗，更被反告曾“commit acts of gross indecency”。根據當時英國苛刻的刑事法，王爾德被判有罪，在瑞丁和本頓維爾監獄服瞭兩年苦役。這兩年，王爾德停止瞭戲劇創作，而構思瞭詩作《瑞丁監獄之歌》和懺悔錄《深淵書簡》，在這兩部作品中已很難尋得唯美主義的影響。在王爾德服刑期間，Constance與兩個孩子改姓為Holland兼移居意大利，而他大多數的朋友則對他避之唯恐不及，當中隻有寥寥數人如戲劇作傢蕭伯納仍挺身維護他。

1897年獲釋後，王爾德立刻動身前往巴黎，對於英國他失望透頂，不再有絲毫留戀。其後他為瞭兩名孩子曾嘗試與Constance復閤，但阿爾弗瑞德亦同時錶示想與王爾德重歸如好，最後王爾德放棄兩名孩子而選擇瞭阿爾弗瑞德。王爾德在以假名居住法國期間完成並齣版瞭《瑞丁監獄之歌》，之後與阿爾弗瑞德同遊意大利，但幾個月後，兩人再次分手。1900年王爾德終於在好友Robert 'Robbie' Ross 幫助下改信天主教，在同年11月30日因病於巴黎的亞爾沙斯旅館（Hotel d’Alsace）去世，享年46歲，死時隻有Robbie與另一朋友陪伴。

《道林•格雷的畫像(Picture of Dorian Gray)》是王爾德的惟一一部小說，也是他美學思想的全麵體現，因此已被認為是唯美主義小說中的力作。故事圍繞著年輕而又漂亮驚人的道林•格雷展開。俊美的格雷立即激起國傢霍華德的藝術想像力並成瞭畫傢最喜歡的模特，霍華德為他畫的巨幅肖像使格雷意識到自己異常的美。新結識的朋友亨利•華頓勛爵對青春、美麗的贊揚又使他意識到青春易逝，美貌難恒，於是他錶示願用靈魂作交換以保持自己的青春俊美，而讓肖像代他承受歲月的痕跡。他的願望真的奇跡般地實現瞭，在亨利勛爵的不斷影響下，格雷成瞭新享樂主義的實踐者。他愛上瞭年輕的女演員西北比爾•葦恩，結果他的粗暴導緻瞭西比爾的自殺，對此他不僅不自責，反而把這一悲劇件事件當成浪漫故事。從此追求享樂成瞭他生活的惟一目標，許多接近他的人也都因為他墮落、放蕩的生活方式而變得或聲名狼藉或身敗名裂。後來他竟然喪心病狂地殺死霍華德並毀屍滅跡。就這樣他一直過著雙重生活，雖然20年過去瞭，但他看起來仍然是那個俊美、純潔的20歲青年，盡管他乾盡瞭腐朽墮落的勾當。最後當他想用刀破壞掉他罪惡的惟一證據——肖像時，刀子卻插進瞭自己的胸膛，而肖像又迴復到瞭它當實初的完美狀態。

The Wordsworth Classics covers a huge list of beloved works of literature in English and translations. This growing series is rigorously updated, with scholarly introductions and notes added to new titles.

This is a story of moral corruption. A gothic melodrama, it is full of subtle impression and epigram. It touches on many of Wilde's recurring themes, such as the nature and spirit of art, aestheticism and the dangers inherent in it.

Amazon.com

A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife," Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."

As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."

From Booklist

Gr. 6-12. For teens who find even steadily paced novels a struggle, the biting but often meandering discussions between Basil and Lord Henry in Wilde's classic can seem overwhelming and pointless. But this version's informative sidebars make the surreal tale of the beautiful young man who never ages one that teens can not only tackle but also begin to relish. When the story advances or twists, Tony Ross' colorful artwork emphasizes Wilde's absurdly witty take on Victorian provincialism. For scenes in which characters discuss aesthetics, sidebar illustrations with helpful captions explain how Wilde's philosophies influenced his characterizations. Even when the sidebars only remotely relate to the story, they provide a clear cultural outline of the mores that resulted in Wilde's public undoing and his untimely death. The supplemental information and illustrations may strike sharp YA readers as amusing or interesting, but they may be the sole reason weaker readers tackle the novel at all.

　　Roger Leslie

From School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-"The Whole Story" format provides illustrations and annotations to the classic text. Ross's lively and sophisticated cartoons add interest, and historical information helps readers place the novel in proper context and gives insight into its characters. The problem with this attractive, glossy layout, however, is that the text and the quotes pulled from it are not always on the same page. Further, some illustrations and notations visually cut into the narrative and may distract readers. For example, a drawing appears on the first page along with the passage, "In the centre of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty," but that quote does not appear until the second page of the story. Useful as a supplement to the original novel, but not a replacement for it.

Karen Hoth, Marathon Middle/High School, FL

From AudioFile

This remarkable rendering perfectly captures the spirit and characters of the chilling melodrama that scandalized polite society when first published in 1890. Enthralled with his own physical beauty, Dorian Gray wishes his portrait to grow old while he himself stays young, and Wilde makes it so. Just as the portrait mirrors the ravages of Gray's soul, Petherbridge's narration exudes decadence, hedonism and destruction--every syllable foreshadowing the protagonist's dismal end. The narrator's storytelling and narrative skill are exemplary. R.B.F.

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

Moral fantasy novel by Oscar Wilde, published in an early form in Lippincott's Magazine in 1890. The novel had six additional chapters when it appeared in book form in 1891. An archetypal tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul, the novel was a romantic exposition of Wilde's Aestheticism. Dorian Gray is a wealthy Englishman who gradually sinks into a life of dissipation and crime. Despite his unhealthy behavior, his physical appearance remains youthful and unmarked by dissolution. Instead, a portrait of himself catalogues every evil deed by turning his once handsome features into a hideous mask. When Gray destroys the painting, his face turns into a human replica of the portrait, and he dies.Gray's final negation, "ugliness is the only reality," neatly summarizes Wilde's Aestheticism, both his love of the beautiful and his fascination with the profane. Publication of the novel scandalized Victorian England, and The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence against Wilde in his 1895 trial for homosexuality. The novel became a classic of English literature.

About Author

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. His father was a celebrated surgeon, his mother a supporter of Irish independence who presided over literary salons in Ireland and England. Although his brilliance as a classicist at Dublin's Trinity College won him a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, Wilde failed in his attempts at an academic career. Instead he set his sights on the literary and artistic worlds of London. Fusing the influences of Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites, Walter Pater, and Gautier's l'art pour l'art, he made himself the most visible manifestation of the Aesthetic movement; by 1881 a burlesque of Wilde provided the protagonist for the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Patience. It was to exploit the popularity of the operetta, in fact, that the producer D'Oyly Carte underwrote Wilde's immensely successful lecture tour of America. Married in 1884 to Constance Lloyd, Wilde worked briefly as a magazine editor while publishing poetry, plays, fairy tales, and essays.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was commissioned by J. M. Stoddardt, the Philadelphia publisher of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. It appeared in the July 1890 issue and immediately gained a certain notoriety for being 'mawkish and nauseous,' 'unclean,' 'effeminate,' and 'contaminating.' When it was published as a book the following year, Wilde greatly revised and expanded the text, filling it out with a melodramatic subplot and adding a preface that defended his aesthetic philosophy. As for the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter that the main characters are in different ways reflections of him: 'Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps.'

In the early nineties, Wilde was at the center of an artistic milieu characterized by The Yellow Book, The Rhymers' Club, and the art of Aubrey Beardsley. Banned from performance in England, his poetic drama Salome (1892) was illustrated by Beardsley and finally produced in Paris in 1896. At the same time, Wilde achieved success as a popular playwright, writing in rapid succession Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1895, two of his plays were on the London stage simultaneously, and he was acknowledged as a pivotal figure in English literary life, admired for his wit and eloquence.

Since at least the mid-1880s, however, Wilde had lived a sexual double life, and in 1893 he distanced himself from his family by taking rooms at the Savoy Hotel. He had by then embarked on a passionate relationship with the considerably younger Lord Alfred Douglas, the English translator of Salome, whom he had met the year after he wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray. In March 1895, Wilde undertook a libel action against the Marquess of Queensberry, Lord Alfred's father, who had denounced Wilde as a 'somdomite' (sic). Wilde withdrew the suit following damaging cross-examination by the marquess's defense attorney, a former classmate of Wilde's. (Question: 'Have you ever adored a young man madly?' Answer: 'I have never given adoration to anybody but myself.') Shortly thereafter, Wilde was arrested for homosexual offenses and underwent two trials before being sentenced to hard labor at Wandsworth Prison and Reading Gaol. A long recriminatory letter to Douglas written while in prison was eventually published as De Profundis.

Released in 1897, Wilde left for France under the name Sebastian Melmoth, a pseudonym combining a martyred saint with a Faustian hero of Gothic romance. A poem based on his prison experience, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, was published in 1898. His health destroyed, and bankrupted by his legal expenses, Wilde lived in Paris for three years, making a conversion to Roman Catholicism just before his death in November 1900. He is buried in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise.

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