THE PICTURE OF
See the Bibliographical Note on certain
Pirated and Mutilated Editions of " Dorian
Gray" at the end */ Ihli present volume.
THE PICTURE
OF
BY
OSCAR WILDE
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL
HAMILTON, KENT AND CO. LTD.
PARIS
ON SALI AT YK OLD PARIS BOOKE SHOPPE
ii Rue de Chdteaudun
Registered at Stationers' Hall and protected under the Copyright Law Act.
First published in complete book form In 1891 bg
Messrs. Warrf, Locfc <fc C«. (London).
THE PREFACE
THE artist Is the creator of beautiful things.
T» reveal art and conceal the artist Is art's aim.
The critic Is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his Impression of beautiful things.
The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings In beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there Is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face hi a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subjectmatter of the artis…