Interesting notes on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

I hope everyone enjoyed Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray as much as I did. From speaking to a few of you, I think we were all reading different editions and publications of the book. I thought I would share some notes from my edition, published by Penguin Books in 1985.

Some critics have identified Wilde entirely with the character Lord Henry “Harry” Wotton. Wilde’s own remarks on the subject in 1894 was, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps.”

Continuing on the subject of Wilde being compared to his characters, there was an interesting connection made between Gray and Wilde. In my edition of the book, Chapter 12 starts with “It was on the ninth of November, the eve of his own thirty-eighth birthday…” My edition said in the Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, version of this story, this date was given as Gray’s 32nd birthday, which is a more significant age to Wilde. When Wilde was 32, he engaged in his first homosexual experiences, thus making more of connection between Gray’s sin or guilt and his own.

Several directories are mentioned in Dorian Gray. Knowledge of these directories do not make or break the book, but they are interesting and worth noting. In Chapter Three, Lord Henry tells Uncle George, “Mr. Dorian Gray does not belong to Blu-books.” The Bluebook was the official reports of Parliament and the Privy Council. In Chapter 15, Lady Narborough offers to go through Debrett carefully to find eligible young ladies for Gray. Debrett is short for Debrett’s Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which was an aristocratic directory.

And finally, I want to point out one last thing. In Chapter 11, Wilde goes into long detail about Gray’s interests in music, art, tapestries, etc. I will be honest and admit that I skimmed/skipped it. Be honest, many of you did too. In case you were wondering how Wilde knew all of those things, he primarily used Huysmans, and the South Kensington Museum Art Handbook. According to the notes in my edition of the book, some of Wilde’s descriptive passages were taken almost verbatim.