The portrait of Dorian Gray

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Lippincott's Monthly Magazine with the first draft of the novel

The picture of Dorian Gray (Original title: The Picture of Dorian Gray ) is the only novel by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde . A first version appeared in 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine from Philadelphia , in 1891 the now known, revised and expanded version was published in book form by the London publisher Ward, Lock and Co. The novel, considered disreputable at the time, was also the subject of the fornication trial against savages.

The main character, the rich and beautiful Dorian Gray, has a portrait that ages instead of him and in which the traces of his sins are inscribed. While Gray becomes more and more immoderate and cruel, his appearance remains young and immaculately beautiful.

The novel is considered Oscar Wilde's main prose work. Topics are the morality of sensuality and hedonism in Victorianism and the decadence of the English upper class . In addition, the plot and the incorporated art notes can be read both as a proclamation and as a criticism of aestheticism , a literary movement of the fin de siècle .

action

The action begins with a conversation between two young men, Lord Henry Wotton (called Lord Henry or Harry), an educated dandy , and the successful painter Basil Hallward. The scene is Basil's studio, which opens into a garden. It's about art and self-presentation.

Hallward's full-length portrait of the beautiful young Dorian Gray in his studio stirs Lord Henry's curiosity, so that Hallward begins to tell of his first, poignant encounter with the young man, which brought him to “the brink of a life crisis”. Dorian Gray led him to a "new art direction which should include all the passion of the romantic, all the perfection of the Greek spirit". However, art is about “abstract beauty”, not “autobiography”, which is why he refuses to exhibit the portrait - for him it shows the traces of his own “artistic idolatry” Dorian Gray too visibly. Basil has reservations about introducing Dorian to his friend, as he fears that Henry will have a negative impact on the young man.

Lord Henry meets Dorian Gray, who is the model for Basil. Wotton's remarks about human self-development - without fear of moral ideas - for a “new hedonism ” and about physical decay trigger deep movement in Dorian. In allusion to the Narcissus myth, Dorian now sees his portrait for the first time, and “the awareness of his own beauty” comes over him “like a revelation”. At the same time he hallucinates the decline of his beauty and feels jealous of the picture. That's why he longed for his portrait to age in its place. Basil offers to destroy it, but Dorian prevents him.

Lord Henry realizes the power he wields over the young, “immaculate” Dorian and decides to shape him like a work of art according to his own example.

Moved by personal interest, Lord Henry visits his uncle Lord Fermor, a reclusive, old bachelor and snobbish nobleman "only England could produce", to learn from his knowledge of family affairs of the British aristocracy details of Dorian Gray's origin.

An invitation from Lord Henry to dinner with his aunt Lady Agatha, Wilde takes as an opportunity to caricature the different types of the English upper class. Wotton himself shines with his ideas, seduces himself and those present into a frenzy of dizzying aphorisms and paradoxes .

While attending a performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at a small, third-rate theater, Dorian Gray falls in love with the apparently talented 17-year-old actress Sibyl Vane. He tells Lord Henry that he is in love, but this only leads to cynical remarks. A short time later, Dorian announced his engagement.

The theater director Mr. Isaacs, with whom she has signed a contract, is described by Dorian Gray in the fourth chapter as a "hideous" Jew , which has often been interpreted as anti-Semitic, but can also be understood as a cliché.

Wildes manuscript of the fourth chapter

Sibyl tells her mother and brother James Vane about the engagement to her “Prince Charming”. Both are not enthusiastic; her 16-year-old brother, who is about to travel to Australia , swears blood revenge if Dorian does her “wrong”. Sibyl's mother is portrayed as an aging actress who has made the theatrical flesh and blood. Sibyl himself lives in stories from kitsch novels; the future she paints for her brother is a collage of pirate, adventure and shepherd stories.

Lord Henry reports to Basil of Dorian's engagement. Basil is hurt by this development because it alienates Dorian from him. Dorian Gray joins them, reports on Sibyl's last appearance in “boys' clothes” and compares them with the statuettes in Basil's studio. He is fascinated by not having an ordinary woman, but one who enables him to kiss the famous theater heroines: “Lips that taught Shakespeare to speak have whispered their secret in my ear. Rosalinden's arms wrapped around me and I kissed Julia on the mouth. ”He vows to make Sibyl a famous actress and to buy her out of her contract.

A visit to the theater by Dorian, Lord Henry and Basil, during which they are supposed to see Sibyl on stage, is a disappointment: Sibyl suddenly turns out to be such a bad actress that the audience leaves the hall prematurely. Dorian confronts her behind the stage; she admits that she can no longer play because she had previously only known theater roles and took them for real life: “The painted backdrops were my world. I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought they were real. (...) You taught me what reality really is. ”Dorian brusquely rejects her and flees.

When he arrives at his stately apartment after a sleepless night, he notices the first trace of change in his portrait. He is dismayed by the cruelty he sees in the painting. The picture, he realizes, “hid the secret of his life and told his story”. He decides to reverse his mistake and marry Sibyl.

Later that day, however, Lord Henry informs him that Sibyl had killed himself with hydrogen cyanide or lead white that night. (Her suicide is associated with the colors of innocence, purity, harmony and calm.) Dorian is only briefly appalled, then he judges that she was “terribly pathetic” and “had no right to kill herself. It was selfish of her ”. He takes pleasure in what he says is "the terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy." He made an appointment to go to the opera with Henry that same evening .

For Dorian, the portrait becomes a “magic mirror” that is supposed to reveal his soul to him. Even if he initially speculates about the physical causes of the changes, he is ultimately certain that his intense “prayer” in Basil Hallward's studio must have triggered the magical exchange.

Basil Hallward is appalled by Dorian's indifference. When he wants to see the painting again, Dorian refuses him access, even when Basil admits his deep personal dependency. However, Basil himself has now come to a different understanding of art: “Form and color tell us about form and color - that's all. Often it seems to me that art hides the artist far more than it ever reveals him. "

Dorian now plans to hide the picture, the future decay of which is vividly before his eyes. He wraps it up and has it carried under the roof in his former children's room, even if the contrast to the “immaculate purity of his boy’s life” seems appalling to him.

Meanwhile, Lord Henry's influence on Dorian is intensifying: A symbolist “French novel” (often interpreted as an allusion to Huysmans ' Against the Grain ), the so-called Yellow Book has a “beguiling”, “corrosive”, “poisoning”, “den Clouding the mind ”- the“ sickness of dreaming ”seizes him and determines his future life. He bought nine first editions, each bound in a different color.

In the years to come, Dorian unscrupulously lives out his self-development - as Lord Henry recommended. He regularly compares the increasingly bad features of the portrait with his reflection.

Dorian becomes the scandal-ridden center of society, learned and cosmopolitan. “He endeavored to develop a new conception of life which […] would find its highest realization in the spiritualization of the senses”. He devotes himself to the study of bygone eras, whose attitudes he adopts like theater roles, he continues to collect fragrances, exotic music and instruments, precious stones and their myths, alchemy , embroidery and tapestries; He recognizes himself in family trees and picture galleries, literary and historical figures, especially in the rulers of Rome and the Renaissance .

The day before his 38th birthday, November 9th, Dorian meets Basil Hallward, with whom he has not spoken for a long time. Basil is about to leave for Paris and wants to speak to Dorian beforehand. Dorian invites him to his house, where Basil begins to warn him of the rumors circulating and to give him a moral sermon. Out of anger, Dorian Basil leads to his portrait: “Come upstairs, Basil [...] I keep a diary about every day of my life, and it never leaves the room in which it is written [...] You won't read for long to have."

Basil sees the portrait, the face of which has meanwhile changed into the "face of a satyr " and in which Dorian is barely recognizable. At first Basil is incredulous, then he understands - then Dorian stabs him with a knife.

The murder is the beginning of the madness that grips Dorian. He gets into reading his favorite symbolist novel. Then he has the young chemist Alan Campbell brought, whose reputation he had ruined, but against whom he has extortionate material. He forces Campbell to dispose of the body, presumably with nitric acid .

At dinner in Lady Narborough's drawing room , Dorian is nervous inside, but looks confident. A conversation with Lord Henry unfolds, which among other things deals with the decadent ways of life in the prevailing fin de siècle . When he gets home, Dorian burns more evidence of the murder, Basil's bag and cloak.

Dorian then lets himself be driven by a cab to a remote area of ​​the London harbor, where he visits an opium den . On the journey he was plagued by delusional images: "The moon hung in the sky like a yellow skull"; the streets appear “like the black web of a tirelessly weaving spider”. In the bar that he finally enters, he also finds one of his many victims, Adrian, now bankrupt and addicted to opium. In the grotesque, distorted grimaces of opium addicts, Dorian finds the “ugliness” that now appears to him as “the only reality”.

On the street he meets James Vane, who recognized him in the bar by a telltale word: the nickname his sister once gave her lover. James threatens Dorian with a revolver to avenge Sibyl's death, but then realizes that Dorian has the face of a twenty year old and concludes that he cannot be the one who caused his sister's suicide 18 years ago. Dorian flees before James can find out from a whore that his supposed mistake wasn't one.

Dorian is now getting paranoid . While spending a weekend in the country with Lord Henry's cousin, the Duchess of Monmouth, and her beetle-collecting husband, he faints because he thinks he has seen James Vane's face at the window.

When Dorian gets caught in a hunting party on a walk, a driver is accidentally shot. Dorian is horrified, but the hunters don't make much fuss about it. The driver is unknown to everyone. When Dorian learns that it was an armed seaman, he rushes to identify the body laid out - it is James Vane.

Dorian now decides to change his life. When he let it be known that he had murdered Basil, Lord Henry does not believe him because he does not trust him to murder. For him, murder and art are only "a method of evoking extraordinary sensations" - art for the upper class, murder for the working class. Dorian tries desperately to convince the skeptical Henry of the existence of the soul: “The soul is a terrible reality. They can be bought and sold and haggled over their price. You can poison it or perfect it. There is a soul in each of us. I know. ”Dorian accuses Henry of poisoning him with the book. Henry, on the other hand, argues that the "books that the world calls immoral" are books "that make the world face its own shame".

On a night walk, Dorian regrets the arrogance of his prayer for eternal youth. "(He) knew that he had sullied himself, filled his mind with depravity and his imagination with horror". In his portrait, however, "a devious expression [...] and the falsehood of the hypocrite have carved deep furrows around the mouth". Dorian realizes that nothing can wash him clean, especially no self-denial. He decides to destroy the last remaining piece of evidence in the murder of Basil Hallward and pulls the murder knife against the picture. "Just as it had killed the painter, it would also kill the painter's work and everything that it meant" - then, Dorian believes, he will be freed.

When the servants find his corpse, it is barely recognizable, it has "an old, wrinkled, disgusting face". The portrait, on the other hand, shines “in the full splendor of its delicious youth and beauty”.

Analysis and interpretation

structure

Wilde's novel can be seen as divided into two parts. The eleventh chapter would be a dividing axis.

Chapters 1-10

The first part consists of three narrative parts.

  • In the exposure chapters 1–3 the three main characters are introduced, the portrait motif is introduced and Lord Henry's philosophy of life is presented.
  • In chapters 4-7 the person of Sybil Vane is in the foreground. The event is prepared by conversations with the Vane family (Chapter 5) and between Dorian and his friends (Chapters 4 and 6) and culminates with the description of their death (Chapter 7).
  • Chapters 8-10 narrate the effects of the new situation on Dorian and the attempt to cope with it through conversations with Lord Henry and Basil.

Axis (chapter 11)

The function of the axis is taken over by the eleventh chapter, which has a prominent position in many respects. It sums up 18 years in Dorian's life in a lively narrative style, contains no dialogue and also differs considerably from the other chapters in terms of style.

Chapters 12-20

The second half of the novel consists of two parts, which are grouped around the assassination of Basils (chapters 12-14) and the persecution of Dorian by James Vane and his death (chapters 16-18). The novel ends with a lengthy conversation between Dorian and Lord Henry. Here both take stock, the "student" questions the principles of his "teacher" and expresses his intention to change his life for the better (Chapter 19). The novel ends with Dorian's suicide in chapter 20.

Style and classification

The portrait of Dorian Gray is stylistically - like Oscar Wilde's plays - characterized to a large extent by the characters' witty dialogues and bonmots . The omniscient narrator / heterodiegetic narrator thus often remains reserved and inconspicuous in favor of the scenic (self) representation of the characters - with the exception of Dorian, static in character. An exception to this is the eleventh chapter, in which the narrator describes Dorian's years of decadent amusements in fast motion.

Despite its location in a contemporary historical context, the novel contains a number of fantastic elements, which are also characteristic of the horror novels of the 18th and 19th centuries and of Wilde's art fairy tale . This and the implicitly radically modern conception of art , which is particularly influenced by John Ruskin , Walter Pater and French symbolism , signify a break with the realistic literature of the 19th century that dominated all of Europe , even if the narrative technique in terms of time structure and reproduction of consciousness is still largely conventional remains.

Intertextual references

The novel is intertextually related to numerous other works of past and contemporary literature: Shakespeare , Friedrich Schiller , Michel de Montaigne , Johann Joachim Winckelmann , Antoine-François Prévost ( Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut ) and Omar Chajjam . Wilde also found some of his motifs in Charles Robert Maturin's horror novel Melmoth the Wanderer .

Ancient traditions

The references to the cultural tradition of classical antiquity are numerous - Wilde had studied classical literature. It alludes to Adonis , the Greek god of beauty and darling of the goddess of love Aphrodite , and to the Narcissus myth, which has been handed down from Greek and Roman sources. Both Narcissus and Dorian can not love their respective admirers ( Echo or Sibyl) due to their autoerotic tendencies. Similar to Dorian, Narcissus is so alienated from real life that he must eventually die, his beauty also ultimately means his death: Depending on tradition, Narcissus starves to death in admiration of his reflection or drowns trying to embrace it. Dorian dies when he "dips" the knife into his portrait. Sir Henry compares Dorian to Apollo and himself to Marsyas . Sibyl Vane's name is ominous because it alludes to both the Sibyls (mythical prophets) and the English word vain for "vain". Their realization that they took theater roles for real life is reminiscent of Plato's allegory of the cave . The source for Dorian Gray's historical fantasies was u. a. Suetons De vita Caesarum .

French literature

In striving for an aesthetic ideal and for isolation from social reality, the novel takes up elements of French symbolism . Several poems by Théophile Gautier (from Enamel and Cameos , 1852), an early proponent of L'art pour l'art , are literally quoted , and Wilde was particularly inspired by the novel Against the Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans . Both Huysmans and Wilde indulge in their novels in the sprawling enumeration and description of precious objects and scents. The protagonists of both novels indulge in decadent amusements - to the point of ruin.

19th century French art and culture form the cultural ideal of the characters in Dorian Gray , particularly Orientalism and Historicism . Orientalism, with its longing gaze at the mysterious Orient, and historicism, with its playful art of quotations, not only form styles that Wilde adjoins, it also allows them to reflect reflexively. The areas of interest, which are listed over pages in the eleventh chapter, thus also form an inventory of the cultural imagination in the fin de siècle : oriental fragrances, exotic music and instruments, precious stones , fairy tales and myths, alchemy , etc. The diversified transformation of historical and foreign eras Cultures practiced by Dorian Gray are almost parodic in this context . He is thus also a symbol of the high culture of the late 19th century, thirsty for history and yearning for the Orient . With his self-enamored existence he also forms a critique of the moral obsession and forgetfulness of the age.

The Faustian

In the novel there are motifs from the fist cloth . Dorian Gray can be understood as a fist whose wishes are granted by the devil, in the form of Lord Henry. Just like Faust, he strives for the superhuman, but instead of knowledge he wants imperishable beauty. The pact can be found in Dorian's ardent wish that the picture instead of his older one can be found. He would even give his soul for it. Basil is a good friend, like Serenus Zeitblom in Doctor Faustus or the character of Wagner in Goethe's Faust , who tries to deter him, but fails. The Gretchen motif can be found in the form of Sibyl Vane, who also carries the figure of Helena as an actress, but still cannot redeem Dorian. Dorian's “Suicide” is reminiscent of Faust's death at Lenau . As in the legend of Johann Georg Faust , Dorian is found to be a hideous grimace. In contrast to other Faust works, such as Doctor Faustus (where Adrian's redemption is hinted at in chapter XLVI) and Faust I , there is, as with Nikolaus Lenaus Faust , no hope of redemption.

The figure of Lord Henry is very reminiscent of Mephisto. Although he is not an incarnation of the devil, he has his features. According to the Faust tradition, he is the personified, God-despising intelligence who makes use of aphorisms, epigrams, paradoxes, antitheses and irony. Lord Henry steers the inexperienced Dorian into his misery and plays with him. He nips any regrets in the bud. By the time Sibyl chose to commit suicide, Dorian was already so shaped by Henry that he no longer felt any pity.

In Wilde's novel, however, there is no immediate pact with the devil, and Dorian does not seek knowledge either. In contrast to Goethe's Faust, Dorian cannot be redeemed because Oscar Wilde renounces metaphysics ; Questions about the ultimate things and theological concepts like God and the devil hardly play a role here, unlike in the case of Goethe.

Aestheticism and dandyism

Wilde put a foreword made up of aesthetic aphorisms in front of his novel , in which he calls for a sphere outside of morality for art. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That's all. (...) The moral life belongs to the artist's object, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. ”(P. 5) With this foreword, Wilde probably wanted, among other things, to prevent the strict censorship of the contemporary references in his novel perceived. In addition, he writes in the foreword: “The artist never has the need to prove anything. (...) All art is completely useless (...) All art is a surface and a symbol at the same time. ”(P. 6) With these aesthetic statements, Wilde positions himself in the“ L'art pour l'art ”debate on symbolism . Surface and depth, revelation and mystery, pose and revelation are antitheses that run through the novel. “The real secret of the world is the visible, not the invisible” (p. 35).

Basils atelier and Dorian's house are places that are reserved for made beauty and separated from the real world. The aestheticism proclaimed in the preface as a conception of art is lived by the dandies of the novel. But the course of the plot is often read as an implicit criticism of aestheticism. The strategy of creating an aesthetic space closed off from the world is undermined by the novel, because the failure of the characters results precisely from the fact that they confuse art and life too often.

This also includes the theme of theatricality, which is used in the Sibyl episode. Neither actress Sibyl Vane nor Dorian Gray can really distinguish between real life and her theatrical role; Both long for a theater life and imagine themselves in the dramatic roles. In real life they only succeed in following their patterns at the cost of ridicule - or that of their own death.

Many of the mocking sentences that z. For example, as expressed by the cynical , manipulative and misogynous Lord Henry Wotton, the irony with which they are presented is doubled. So says Lord Henry Wotton: “But the value of an idea has nothing to do with the sincerity of the one who brings it up. Rather, it is to be expected that the more insincere the person concerned, the more the idea will be of a purely spiritual nature, since in this case it will not be colored by his needs, his wishes or his prejudices. "(P. 18)

This masquerade is an attitude that is often related to Oscar Wilde's life story: As a homosexual in Victorian England, he could only live out his sexuality in secret. When it finally became public, a court sentenced him to two years in prison with forced labor, of which he died a little later.

In the figure of the astonishing, culturally and aesthetically superior Lord Henry Wotton, both the attitude of esthete (izists) and dandies and the lustful moral irresponsibility of the English upper class are negotiated. The sententious, flirtatious way of speaking and the ironic self-reflections of Wotton show the dandy's sensibilities: enjoyment of “beautiful things”, flowers, scents, music; high sensitivity for clothing, interior design and manners, for superficiality, pretense, provocation, staging, but also for games of hide and seek, secrecy and discretion. A keen sense of social staging and the desire to pose are the weapons of the dandy against the profanity of both his own class and the lower class and against the strict moral addiction of society.

homosexuality

Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde in 1894

Against the biographical background of Wildes, who at the time of publication had long-term relationships with John Gray and Robert Baldwin Ross and made the acquaintance of his future lover Alfred Douglas in the same year , homoerotic and homosexual allusions are sought in the novel - although this is controversial .

The British literary scholar and journalist Robert Mighall sees in Dorian's name a reference to the Greek tribe of the Dorians (English Dorians ) and thus to the euphemism "Greek love" for homosexuality or to the fact that homosexuality was accepted or at least tolerated in ancient Greece . This thesis would be supported by the implicit and explicit references to Greek mythology in the novel, in particular by the similarities between the character Dorian and Narcissus and Adonis .

Less encoded homoerotic elements are Basil and Henry's affection for Dorian and their admiration for his beautiful outward appearance, which the narrator describes in detail. In addition, towards the end of the novel, Dorian's dealings with beautiful young men and his pernicious influence on them are mentioned. However, there are no explicit mentions or descriptions of homosexual acts in the novel - which would hardly have been possible in view of the morals and the legal situation in Victorian England.

Psychological interpretation

With the portrait, the novel takes up the double motif popular in 19th century literature . The sins repressed by Dorian mark his painted doppelganger, with whom he is fatefully connected. The Analytical Psychology in the tradition of Carl Gustav Jung sees the aging representative of Dorian Gray portrait of an expression of the shadow archetype , so the repressed negative traits of a personality. In lacanisch -psychoanalytischer reading the attic hideaway is a metaphor for the unconscious and ageless beauty the antithesis of fear of castration and death instinct .

The mental illness of not being able to accept one's own aging and maturation was named after the novel in 2000 ( Dorian-Gray syndrome ).

History of origin

The English actor and author Hesketh Pearson tells in his Wilde biography The Life of Oscar Wilde how the writer came up with the idea for The Portrait of Dorian Gray : In 1884 Wilde was a regular guest in the studio of the painter Basil Ward, who portrayed an attractive young man at the time. Wilde was saddened that the young man would one day have to age, whereupon Ward expressed the wish that the portrait should age instead of the young man.

Slightly different from this, the St. James's Gazette reported on September 24, 1890, that Wilde herself was portrayed by a Canadian painter in 1887 and that she then wished for the eternal youth of the portrait for herself.

The poet and translator John Gray is said to have played a certain role in the development of the figure of Dorian Gray - but Gray denied this. Oscar Wilde met him in 1889 and had a relationship with him for several years.

Wilde let the story of the eternally young man and his aging portrait circulate among friends for several years. In 1889 he was asked by Joseph M. Stoddart, the publisher of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine from Philadelphia, whom he had met on a lecture tour in the United States in 1882, to write a short story for his literary magazine - this would be the first version of the novel.

André Gide, on the other hand, rumored that Wilde, who had previously appeared in literary terms through poems, stories and plays, only wanted to prove to friends that he was also able to write a novel. However, this anecdote must be understood against the background of Gide's general disdain for Wilde's works.

Edition history

Wilde's first version of the novel was published on June 20, 1890 with 13 chapters and 98 pages in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine , which at the time also published works by other well-known authors for the first time. This issue of the American magazine was the first to be published in England by the London publisher Lock, Ward and Co.

Title page of the 1891 edition of Lock, Ward and Co., London

Wilde considered a book version as early as 1890 and approached Lock, Ward and Co. about it. The publisher published this in April 1891. It was revised by Wilde to include the programmatic and polemical foreword (which had already been published in the influential Fortnightly Review on March 1, 1891 ) and Chapters 3, 5, 15, 16, 17 and 18 has been expanded; the thirteenth chapter of the first version was divided into chapters 19 and 20 in the book version. The edition comprised 20 chapters on 337 pages. During the revision and expansion, especially homoerotic passages were "defused", Wilde developed aspects of the plot that appear important, the witty conversations, Dorian's character and his decadent debauchery and the character of James Vane and the associated subplot were introduced. In contrast, the figure of Basil Hallward and his relationship with Dorian takes a back seat to the version from 1890.

A luxury edition of the novel appeared as early as July 1891. A new edition was planned from the end of 1894, but initially there was no publication because of the trial against Wilde. The edition supposedly came into circulation in October 1895. Since then, the wording of the English book edition has been reprinted practically unchanged. Numerous illustrated editions were also published. In 2000, on the 100th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's death, a new English edition of the 1890 version and Jörg W. Rademacher's German translation of an "original version" were published, which extracted the uncensored text as it appeared before it was first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine Reconstructed typescript of the novel. So the version in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine had already been noticeably censored (mainly by Wilde himself, less on the advice of friends) with regard to the homoerotic passages. An English "original version" with comments finally came out in 2011 under the title Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition .

A German translation of the novel by Johannes Gaulke under the title Dorian Gray appeared as early as 1901, a year after Oscar Wilde's death, in the Max Spohr publishing house in Leipzig. The 1890 edition has been translated into 13 chapters. The first translation of the edition into 20 chapters was done by Felix Paul Greve in 1902 under the title Dorian Gray's Portrait . The translation, published in 1906 by Wiener Verlag as part of an (incomplete) complete edition, established the German title of the novel, which is still in use today. The transmission, arranged by Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer in 1909 , was reprinted particularly frequently. In the revealing 1920s, interest in Dorian Gray increased so much that half a dozen German publishers had translations done - which was possible at the time, since a worldwide regulation for the protection of copyright was not adopted until 1952 with the Geneva World Copyright Agreement .

reception

The first review of the version printed in Lippincott’s appeared after four days. This version was mostly received with little sympathy by the critics and was often considered scandalous. The style was described as lengthy, the plot as offensive, dirty and immoral. Wilde considered this criticism to be unjustified and initially responded with numerous letters to the press in which he tried to emphasize the allegedly intended, subliminal moral of his work - that debauchery is punished. But Wilde did not remain consistent in his reaction to the immoralism allegations. Because in the foreword he tried to reject the idea of ​​moral and immoral books as such, and yet he revised passages that were criticized as disreputable in the course of the expansions mentioned before he published Dorian Gray as a book. Despite all efforts to take the wind out of the sails of the allegations, the novel was used as evidence in the fornication trial against Wilde and, above all, the foreword was quoted.

The revised version from 1891 was received less critically in the literary world, Walter Pater , Arthur Conan Doyle , William Butler Yeats and later James Joyce expressed their appreciation - albeit in part with restrained views. In a review, Father emphasized the successful subtle portrayal of moral decline. Joyce wrote in a letter to his brother about the good approaches of the novel, but also about an excess of "lies and epigrams". André Gide, who admired Oscar Wilde as a person, rejected any artistic claim , especially in view of Dorian Gray Wilde's literary work.

It was not until after the Second World War that literary studies became more intensely concerned with Wilde's novel, mostly on the basis of or in the context of research into the ideological and art-theoretical implications of fin de siècle and decadence poetry . Columnist value judgments thus increasingly faded into the background, as did (in the context of a permissive society) the discussion about the morality and immorality of the work.

Even if literary criticism emphasizes stylistic and structural deficiencies in the novel to this day, The Portrait of Dorian Gray has been canonized as a classic of world literature and its protagonist "entered popular mythology".

The book was included in the ZEIT library of 100 books .

Reception in the arts

In addition to some ballet, opera and musical versions, there are above all numerous theatrical versions - including Le Portrait surnaturel de Dorian Gray by Jean Cocteau - and film adaptations. Axel Strøm was the first to film the material in 1910 with Valdemar Psilander as Dorian Gray in a silent film version, whereby the novel was adapted very freely for the screen. Several other films followed by 1918, but they were not particularly popular. Albert Lewin's film from 1945, which was awarded an Oscar, became famous . He reintroduced Basil's niece. Ivan Albright painted the painting specially made for the film in 1943/44 (216 × 109 cm, oil on canvas). It is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago . Even after 1945, most recently in 2006 and 2009, the novel was implemented several times as a cinema and television film.

Ballet versions

Opera versions

  • 1930 - Dorian Gray by Karl Flick-Steger , first performance in Aussig
  • 1948 - Dorian Gray by Hans Schaeuble (1906–1988), first performance in Arosa (a revised version was created in 1974)
  • 1962 - Dorian Gray by Robert Hanell , first performance in Dresden
  • 1973 - Dorian Gray by Hans Kox (* 1930), world premiere in Amsterdam (a revised version was created in 1976)
  • 1996 - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Lowell Liebermann , first performance in Monte Carlo
  • 2011 - The portrait of Dorian Gray by Andreas Durban, world premiere in Cologne
  • 2013 - The Picture of Dorian Gray , dance opera by Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen , world premiere in Aarhus
  • 2013 - Dorian Gray by Ľubica Čekovská, world premiere in Bratislava
  • 2016 - The portrait of Dorian Gray by Thorsten Bihegue, world premiere in Dortmund

Musical versions

  • 1985 - Dorian by Randy Bowers, premiered in Los Angeles
  • 1990 - Dorian Gray - The Musical by Mátyás Várkonyi, Gunar Braunke and János Àcs, world premiere in Budapest (later also produced in Heilbronn and London)
  • 1990 - Dorian Gray by Joseph Bravaco and Robert Cioffi, world premiere in New York
  • 1990 - Dorian Gray by Nan Barcan, Michael Rubell and Robert Petito, premiered in New York
  • 1994 - Dorian Gray by Allan Reiser, Don Price and Gary David Levinson, premiered in New York
  • 1997 - Dorian Gray by David Reeves, first performed in London
  • 1997 - Dorian Gray. A New Musical by Edward Reyes and Thomas Sheehan, premiered in Fort Collins
  • 2008 - Dorian, the Remarkable Mister Gray by Randy Bowser, premiered in Oregon City
  • 2009 - Dorian. The musical by Angelika Baake, Thomas Poppendieck and Gernot Neppert, world premiere in Hamburg
  • 2013 - Dorian Gray , musical opera by Roland Fister, world premiere at the Landestheater Coburg
  • 2016 - The Picture of Dorian Gray by Cho Yong-shin and Kim Moon-jeong, world premiere in Seongnam

Theater versions

  • 1910 ( Detroit / Temple Theater)
  • 1913 (London / Vaudeville Theater)
  • 1928 (New York / Chanin's Baltimore Theater)
  • 1936 (New York / Comedy Theater)
  • 1945 (Dublin / Gate Theater)
  • 1947 (London / Q Theater)
  • 1963 (New York / Showboat Theater)
  • 1967 (Watford / Palace Theater)
  • 1975 (London / Greenwich Theater)
  • 1977 (New York / Van Dam Theater)
  • 1985 (German version by Bruno Klimek , Munich / Studio Theater)
  • 1990 (New York / Odyssey Theater)
  • 1991 (Watford / Palace Theater)
  • 1991 ( Glasgow / Citizens' Theater)
  • 1993 (London / Barons Court Theater)
  • 1994 (London / Battersea Arts Center)
  • 1994 (London / Barons Court Theater)
  • 1994 (London / Lyric Hammersmith)
  • 1995 ( Dublin / Gate Theater)
  • 1997 (London / Barons Court Theater)
  • 1999 (London / The Attic Theater)
  • 2008 ( Stralsund / Theater Vorpommern )
  • 2008 (Baden-Baden, adaptation by John von Düffel )
  • 2010 (Vienna / Burgtheater )
  • 2013 ( Enns / Theater Sellawie)
  • 2013 (Würzburg / theater workshop, adaptation by Cornelia Wagner)
  • 2013 (Bochum / ROTTSTR 5 Theater )
  • 2017 (Buxtehude / Halepaghen stage, adaptation as a multimedia play by Jannik Graf)
  • 2018 (Freiburg i. Br./ Theater der Immoralisten)

Film adaptations

as well as a parody

Radio plays and audio books

Comic adaptations

  • 1992 by Fiern Siegel and Pabblo Marcos
  • 1997 by Serge Le Tendre and Patrick Jusseaume
  • 2008 by Roy Thomas and Sebastian Fiumara
  • 2008 by Stanislas Gros
  • 2010 by Daniel Conner and Chris Allen
  • 2010 by Ian Edginton and INJ Culbard
  • 2012 by Federico De Luca, Darren G. Davis and Scott Davis

Influence on pop culture

Manfred Pfister notes that the novel and its main character achieved similar popularity and broad impact in the late 20th century as Superman , Dracula , Frankenstein , Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Mabuse .

The main characters of the British television series Fawlty Towers (1975/79) are called Basil and Sybil (Fawlty). The central character of the American sitcom Scrubs , Dr. John "JD" Michael Dorian, is named after Dorian Gray, the chief physician Dr. Kelso after Lord Kelso, Dorian's hated grandfather in the novel. Dorian Gray is one of the seven characters who save the world in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - but he is the traitor among them. The character also appears in the horror series Penny Dreadful .

Between 1978 and 2000, the Dorian Gray in Frankfurt am Main was one of the most famous discos in Germany. There was also a discotheque of this name in Berlin, and discos are still named after the character in Vienna and Graz.

literature

Quoted edition

  • Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray . Translated by Ingrid Rein. Reclam: Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-15-005008-1 .

Other editions (selection)

English

  • 1890 - published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. London, Ward, Lock & Co., No. 271, July 1890, pp. 3-100 [13 chapters].
  • 1891 - London: Ward, Lock and Co. (revised and expanded version [with 20 chapters]).
  • 1908–1922 - London (complete works in 15 volumes, edited by R. Ross).
  • 1908 - Leipzig: Bernard Tauchnitz .
  • 1931 New York: Three Sirens Press (illustrated by Lui Trugo).
  • 1964 - Nuremberg: Hans Carl (critical new edition by Wilfried Edener of the version from 1890 [13 chapters]).
  • 1988 - New York / London: Norton (Editing of the texts from 1891/1890 by Donald L. Lawler)
  • 1994 - New York: Penguin Popular Classics.
  • 1997 - London: Liberty (The Original Lippincott's Edition, edited by Thomas Wright, illustrated by Philippa Stockley, limited edition of 300 copies).
  • 2000 - London: Creation Books (reissue of the 1890 edition [13 chapters]).
  • 2003 - Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics (edition with notes and materials).
  • 2005 - Oxford: Oxford University Press (publication of the texts from 1890/1891 by Joseph Bristow).
  • 2007 - New York / London: Norton (Editing of the texts from 1891/1890 by Michael Patrick Gillespie, second edition from 1988).
  • 2008 - Oxford: Oxford University Press (1891 text edited by Joseph Bristow, paperback extract from 2005 edition).
  • 2011 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press ( An Annotated, Uncensored Edition , "original version" reconstructed by Nicholas Frankel, ISBN 978-0-674-05792-0 ).

German translations

  • 1901 - Dorian Gray , Leipzig: Spohr (translated by Johannes Gaulke [13 chapters]).
  • 1902 - Dorian Gray's portrait , Minden: Bruns (translated by Felix Paul Greve [20 chapters]).
  • 1906 - The portrait of Dorian Gray . Vienna / Leipzig: Wiener Verlag (Complete Works, 2nd Volume, translated by W. Fred) - The title was adopted in almost all other editions.
  • 1907 - The portrait of Dorian Gray . Leipzig: Verlag Julius Zelter (translated by Bernhard Oehlschlägel).
  • 1907 - Leipzig (translated by M. Preiß).
  • 1909 - Leipzig: Insel-Verlag (translated by Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer ) - edition reprinted several times (in the Gutenberg-DE project ).
  • 1914 - Leipzig: Hasse & Becker (from the English by Hugo Reichenbach).
  • approx. 1915 - Berlin: Schreitersche Verlagbuchhandlung (translated and edited by J. Cassirer).
  • 1920 - Berlin: Schreitersche Verlagbuchhandlung (translated by Richard Zoozmann ) (in the Gutenberg project ).
  • 1921 - Berlin: Ullstein (German by Johannes Gaulke, with an introduction by Hanns Heinz Ewers [20 chapters]).
  • 1922 - Berlin: Verlag Th. Knaur Nachf. (Translated by Richard Zoozmann ).
  • 1922 - Berlin: Neufeld & Henius Berlin (translated by Wilhelm Cremer ).
  • 1923 - Berlin: Tillgner (translated by Ernst Sander ).
  • 1924 - Berlin: German Book Community (German by Sander).
  • 1927 - Leipzig: H. Fikentscher Verlag (German by Bernhard Oehlschlägel, text revision by Dr. Otto Görner).
  • 1950 - Düsseldorf: Deutscher Bücherbund (from the English by Botho Henning Elster , with a picture and an afterword (by Hanns Martin Elster ) about the life and work of the poet).
  • 1958 - Berlin: Verlag Volk und Welt (translated by M. Preiß, revised by Ulla Hengst).
  • 1970 - Munich: Hanser (from the English by Christine Koschel and Inge von Weidenbaum [13 chapters]).
  • 1972 - Düsseldorf / Zurich: Artemis & Winkler (translated by Siegfried Schmitz with notes and afterword).
  • 1984 - Berlin / Weimar: Aufbau Verlag (translated by Christine Hoeppener).
  • 1986 - Zurich: Diogenes (translated by W. Fred and Anna von Planta).
  • 1999 - Zurich: Haffmans (translated by Hans Wolf ).
  • 2000 - Berlin: Eichborn (uncensored wording of the novel made by Jörg W. Rademacher with editorial appendix [13 chapters]).
  • 2007 - Cologne: Anaconda Verlag (translated by Meike Breitkreutz).
  • 2010 - Stuttgart: Reclam (translated by Ingrid Rein).
  • 2012 - Hamburg: Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft (translated and provided with an afterword by Peter Rauhof), ISBN 978-3-86820-151-2 .
  • 2013 - Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (translated by Lutz-Werner Wolff with notes and afterword), ISBN 978-3-423-14207-6 .
  • 2014 - Frankfurt: Insel-Verlag (translated by Eike Schönfeld ), ISBN 3458175962 .

Secondary literature

  • Houston Baker: A Tragedy of the Artist: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In: Nineteenth Century Fiction. 24, 1969.
  • Joseph Carroll: Aestheticism, Homoeroticism, and Christian Guilt in "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In: Philosophy and Literature. 29, 2005.
  • Regina Gentz: Oscar Wilde's narrative work. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-631-48849-1 (also dissertation at the University of Essen 1994).
  • Michael Patrick Gillespie: Picturing Dorian Gray: Resistant Readings in Wilde's Novel. In: English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920. 35, 1992.
  • Hiltrud Gnüg: Dandy and Narcissus. Oscar Wilde's story "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In: Cult of the Cold. The classic dandy in the mirror of world literature. Metzler, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-476-00641-7 , pp. 292-312.
  • Sheldon W. Liebman: Character Design in "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In: Studies in the Novel. 31, 1999.
  • Wolfgang Maier: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". A critical analysis of English research from 1962 to 1982. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-8204-5238-9 ( at the same time dissertation at the Technical University of Aachen 1984).
  • Hans Mayer: "Role play between citizen mask and scandal": "The portrait of Dorian Gray". In: Norbert Kohl (ed.): Oscar Wilde in the mirror of the century. Insel, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, pp. 234–242. ISBN 3-458-34339-3 .
  • Joyce Carol Oates : The Picture of Dorian Gray: Wilde's Parable of the Fall. In: Critical Inquiry. 7, 1980.
  • Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Fink, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7705-2348-2 .
  • Jörg W. Rademacher: Reflections on the story of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” or: Who is afraid of Wilde's scandalous novel? In: Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The uncensored wording of the scandalous novel. Coesfeld, Elsinor 2012, ISBN 978-3-942788-04-5 , pp. 189-255.
  • Christa Satzinger: The French Influence on Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "Salomé". Mellen, Lewiston 1994.
  • Michael Szczekalla: Between provocation and parody: thoughts on “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. In: Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray. The uncensored wording of the scandalous novel. Coesfeld, Elsinor 2012, ISBN 978-3-942788-04-5 , pp. 7-14.

Web links

Wikisource: en: The Picture of Dorian Gray  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: The Portrait of Dorian Gray  - Quotes
Wikibooks: Philosophers on Aesthetics / Oscar Wilde  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Elisabeth Frenzel , Sybille Grammetbauer: Fabrics of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 300). 10th, revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-30010-9 , p. 664.
  2. ↑ a b c Article on Wilde's novel in: Kindlers Neues Literatur Lexikon Volume 17, Kindler, Munich 1988, p. 667f.
  3. ↑ Victorian Web : "The Problem of the Jewish Manager in The Picture of Dorian Gray "
  4. ^ A b c d Norbert Kohl: "Culture and Corruption. Aesthetic Behavior and Moral Consciousness in The Portrait of Dorian Gray ”; in: Oscar Wilde: Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (translated by Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer), Insel, Frankfurt 1985, pp. 290-292.
  5. ↑ Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" , Fink, Munich 1986, p. 66f.
  6. ↑ Shelton Waldrep: "The Aesthetic Realism of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray ," in Studies in the Literary Imagination 29, 1996, p 108th
  7. ↑ a b Review in Standard : "The story of the utopia of eternal youth, artistically decorated with motifs from the Faust material and material from romantic doppelganger myths"
  8. ↑ Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" , Fink, Munich 1986, p. 99.
  9. ↑ a b c d Norbert Kohl: Oscar Wilde: The literary work between provocation and adaptation , Winter, Heidelberg 1980, ISBN 3-533-02852-6 , p. 264f, p. 227.
  10. ^ Ulrike Weinhold: Artificiality and Art in German-Language Decadence Literature. Lang, Frankfurt / Bern 1977, ISBN 3-261-02349-X , p. 102.
  11. ↑ Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Fink, Munich 1986, p. 46.
  12. ↑ Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Fink, Munich 1986, p. 81f.
  13. ↑ On the misogyny of the dandy see Hans Mayer: "Role play between citizen mask and scandal": "The portrait of Dorian Gray". In: Norbert Kohl (ed.): Oscar Wilde in the mirror of the century. Insel, Frankfurt / Leipzig 2000, p. 239f.
  14. ↑ Otto Mann: The modern dandy. A cultural problem of the 19th century , Julius Springer, Berlin 1925. For the sophisticated cultural and aesthetic appearance of the dandy see p. 2, for his means of “superiority, amazement, concealment” see p. 90.
  15. ↑ ZEIT online : "100 years of Oscar Wilde, old questions and new biographies of the great Irish poet"
  16. ^ Robert Mighall: "Introduction", in: Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray , Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth 2003, p. XV.
  17. ↑ Gerald Bär: The motif of the doppelganger as a split fantasy in literature and in German silent films , Rodopi, Amsterdam 2005, p. 306ff.
  18. ↑ Another interpretation in Jung's spirit can be found on the Victorian Web : "Basil, Lord Henry, and Wilde: A Jungian Approach to The Picture of Dorian Gray "
  19. ↑ Ellie Ragland-Sullivan: "The Phenomenon of Aging in Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray : A Lacanian View", in: Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Norton, London / New York 2007, p. 478, p. 483.
  20. ↑ Hesketh Pearson: The Life of Oscar Wilde. Westport, Greenwood 1978, p. 145.
  21. ↑ a b c d e f g Wilfried Edener: "Introduction", in: Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray. Hans Carl, Nuremberg, 1964, pp. XVIII, XII, XIV, XV, XXIXff, XIII.
  22. ↑ Klaus Mann: André Gide: The story of a European. Steinberg, Zurich 1948.
  23. ↑ a b Excerpt from the article on the novel in The Literary Encyclopedia
  24. ↑ Original version published , orf.at, May 4, 2011.
  25. ↑ Article " The Picture of Dorian Gray , or, the embarrassing orthodoxy of Oscar Wilde"
  26. ↑ a b Karl Beckson (ed.): Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1970, pp. 83f., P. 269.
  27. ↑ Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" , Fink, Munich 1986, p. 16f.
  28. ↑ Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Fink, Munich 1986, p. 19f.
  29. ^ Guardian.co.uk Classics corner: The Picture of Dorian Gray
  30. ↑ Sheldon W. Liebman: Character Design in "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In: Studies in the Novel. 31, 1999.
  31. ^ A b Manfred Pfister: Oscar Wilde: "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Fink, Munich 1986, p. 24.
  32. ↑ Robert Tanitch: Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen. Methuen, London 1999, pp. 370-406.
  33. ↑ Entry in the Internet Movie Database
  34. ^ Corinna Panek: "Dorian Gray" - multimedia . ( Abendblatt.de [accessed June 12, 2017]).
  35. ^ The portrait of Florian Klee at The German Early Cinema DatabaseTemplate: GECD title / maintenance / ID is missing in Wikidata
Works by Oscar Wilde


novel

The Picture of Dorian Gray ( The Picture of Dorian Gray , 1890)

Collections
  • Lord Arthur Saviles Crime and Other Stories  (1887)
Lord Arthur Savile crimes ( Lord Arthur Savile's Crime ) | The Canterville Ghost ( The Canterville Ghost ) | The Sphinx without a Secret ( The Sphinx without a Secret ) | The Model Millionaire ( The Model Millionaire )
The Happy Prince ( The Happy Prince ) | The Nightingale and the Rose ( The Nightingale and the Rose ) | The Selfish Giant ( The Selfish Giant ) | The devoted friend ( The Devoted Friend ) | The remarkable rocket ( The Remarkable Rocket )
The boy king ( The Young King ) | The Birthday of the Infanta ( The Birthday of the Infanta ) | The fisherman and his soul ( The Fisherman and his Soul ) | The Star Child ( The Star-Child )
Short stories

The portrait of Mr. WH ( The Portrait of Mr. W. H. , 1889) |

Poems

Ravenna (1878) | Poems (1881) | The Sphinx (1894) | Poems in Prose (1894) | The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

Stage works

Vera, or the Nihilists ( Vera, or the Nihilists , 1880) | Lady Windermeres Fan ( Lady Windermere's Fan , 1892) | The Duchess of Padua ( The Duchess of Padua , 1893) | A Woman of No Importance ( A Woman of No Importance , 1893) | An Ideal Husband ( An Ideal Husband , 1894) | Salomé (1891) | Bunbury or the importance of being serious / being serious is everything ( The Importance of Being Earnest , circa 1895) | The pious courtesan ( La Sainte Courtisane , fragment) | A Florentine Tragedy ( A Florentine Tragedy , fragment)

Essays

The beginnings of historical criticism ( The Rise of Historical Criticism , 1878/79) | The Truth of Masks ( The Truth of Masks , 1885) | The Decay of Lying ( The Decay of Lying , 1889) | Pen, Brush and Poison ( Pen, Pencil and Poison , 1889) | The Critic As Artist ( The Critic as Artist , 1890) | The soul of man under socialism ( The Soul of Man under Socialism , 1891) | De Profundis (1897)

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 12, 2008 .