The Many Pictures
(and Book Covers)
of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde’s sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, still manages both to disturb and enthrall readers with its tale of a young bon vivant whose portrait betrays the ravages of his sins and debaucheries. Wilde toned down the more “scandalous” passages from the novel’s serialized appearance upon its publication in book form, yet those words would come back to haunt him during his libel trial when the excised portions of the book were read into evidence to prove Queensbury’s assertion that Wilde was a “posing sodomite.” However, even in the immediate aftermath of Wilde’s disgrace, the novel never fell out of print, and its central conceit of a painting charting the degeneration of its living counterpart has proven to be irresistible to book cover illustrators.
Top: Oscar Wilde, perhaps the most iconic photograph of the author.
Second row: The most popular cover imagery for the novel juxtaposes the pure, youthful Dorian with the artist’s interpretation of his corrupt, sin-ravaged portrait.
Third row: left, you cannot hide, or run from, your true self, Dorian Gray! Right, Dorian eyes his next conquest in what appears to be a 40s night club on the cover of this foreign language edition.
Fourth row: left, Pulp! The Classics cover, any celebrity resemblance is completely coincidental, I’m sure; right, Dorian Gray in the EC Comics vein.
Bottom row: Two of the more interesting recent editions to be issued from Penguin Classics—left, fashion artist Ruben Toledo’s imaginative cover design; right, designer Coralie Bickford-Smith’s peacock feather motif, perhaps alluding to Dorian’s pride.
Dorian Gray first appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in 1890, with the complete text printed in thirteen chapters. Ward Lock & Company published the first English edition in 1891, a text which Wilde substantially altered and expanded, adding six new chapters. Published by J.B. Lippincott Company in Philadelphia, 1890.
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UK Edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Published by the Castle Press in London, 1948. llustrated by Michael Ayrton.
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Dorian Gray • Digital painting by Larry Knox for the Prestwick House Touchstone Literary Classic edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
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The Picture of Dorian Gray. Books, Inc. Edition. Published in 1944.
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Simple and very beautiful: French Edition of the Picture of Dorian Gray. Published by Stock in Paris, 1957.
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An iconic novel dressed in a fierce design by acclaimed fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo. The Picture of Dorian Gray offers a disturbing portrait of an individual coming face to face with the reality of his soul.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray- best book ever written. This cover is actually of Franz Liszt for some reason