This is a story of moral corruption. Although not shocking by the standards of the late twentieth century, the book and its celebrated Preface,which contained the conclusion 'All art is quite useless', attracted such outraged reviews as 'Why go grubbing in muck-heaps?' on its publication.The later, kinder judgement of the DNB praised the work as being 'full of subtle impressionism and highly wrought epigram'.Crafted in brilliant prose, the book is of lasting importance as a singular example of Wilde's brilliance applied to the novel.The text is taken from the Paris edition published in Montmartre, 1908.

Wilde's only novel, first published in 1890, is a brilliantly designed puzzle, iutended to tease eonveutional miuds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art, life, and consequence. From its provocative Preface, ehallenging the reader to believe in 'art for art's sake', to its sensational eonelusion, the story self-consciously experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design. Yet Wilde himself underestimated the consequences of his experiment, and its capacity to outrage the Vietorian establishment. Its words returned to haunt him in his court appearances in 1895, and he later reealled the 'note of doom' which runs like 'a purple thread' through its carefully erafted prose.

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

NOTES