# Dorian Gray (1890) > Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, first published Jul 1890: publication record, synopsis, a verified quotation and sources. Canonical page: https://lineageofshadows.com/works/the-picture-of-dorian-gray/ Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray Author: Oscar Wilde Form: Novel First appearance: Jul 1890 (timeline year 1890) Themes: Sexuality and desire, Religion and sin, The supernatural, The double ## Publication record - In one issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (July 1890 issue), Jul 1890: J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London. The July 1890 number, complete in one issue in 13 chapters (one bookseller, citing Mason, gives 20 June 1890 as the date of first appearance). J. M. Stoddart, the magazine's editor, cut about 500 words before it appeared. Commissioned at the Lippincott dinner on or about 30 August 1889. [1, 2, 3, 4] - Revised edition, Apr 1891: Ward, Lock & Co., London. First authorized book edition, revised and expanded to 20 chapters, with the Preface ('There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book'). Title page and cover designed by Charles Ricketts. [3, 5, 6] ## Synopsis In a London studio the painter Basil Hallward finishes a portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man of extraordinary beauty. Lord Henry Wotton, who sits watching, tells Dorian that youth is the only thing worth having, and Dorian, looking at the canvas, wishes that the picture might grow old while he stays as he is. The wish seems to be granted. Dorian takes up the pleasures Lord Henry preaches, and treats the people who love him badly, while the portrait hidden at home alters with every cruelty. Wilde sets the cult of beauty against conscience and asks what a perfect face is paid for with. ## Setting Late-Victorian London and its suburbs; no year is given. Places: London; Basil Hallward's studio; Selby Royal [5] ## From the text > If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Chapter 2. Project Gutenberg ebook #174: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/174 (Gutenberg ebook 174 is the 1891 book text: it has the Preface and 20 chapters, whereas the 1890 Lippincott's text has 13 chapters) ## Facts - The book is longer than the magazine story. The Lippincott's text of July 1890 runs to 13 chapters; the April 1891 Ward, Lock edition has a Preface and 20 chapters, which a bookseller's catalogue describes as six new chapters added to the revised text. [1, 5, 3] - Before it was printed, Lippincott's editor J. M. Stoddart removed about 500 words, softening phrases such as 'with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend' to '... than a man usually gives to a friend'. [7] - The novel was commissioned at a dinner at the Langham Hotel, London, on or about 30 August 1889, at which Stoddart also commissioned The Sign of the Four from Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle remembered that Wilde 'towered above us all' and called it 'a golden evening'. [4, 2, 8] ## Threads in - A critic's reading links it to: [Melmoth the Wanderer](https://lineageofshadows.com/works/melmoth-the-wanderer/): A critic's reading, not a statement by Wilde: a Dublin Review of Books essay finds Maturin's legacy in the work of his grand-nephew Wilde, 'particularly' in Dorian Gray, and notes that after prison Wilde took the name Melmoth. [9] - Shares an origin with: [Sherlock Holmes](https://lineageofshadows.com/works/sherlock-holmes/): Dorian Gray and The Sign of the Four were both commissioned by J. M. Stoddart for Lippincott's at the same dinner on or about 30 August 1889. [4, 2] ## Notes on dates and attribution - Date of the magazine: the July 1890 number (Wikisource, ACD Encyclopedia); one bookseller and Wikipedia say it was printed or appeared on 20 June 1890. The month is shown. - Number of chapters added in 1891: sources say five (New Republic) or six (Bauman); 13 plus six is 19, so a chapter must also have been divided to reach 20. The note says 13 to 20 with no count of new chapters. - The Lippincott dinner: Doyle did not record the date; 30 August 1889 is inferred from his diary entry and Stoddart's letter of that day. ## Sources 1. Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Vol. 46, July 1890: The Picture of Dorian Gray (13 chapters; J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia; copyright Melville Philips 1890). Wikisource (transcription of the magazine). https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lippincott's_Monthly_Magazine/Volume_46/July_1890/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray (accessed 2026-10-09) 2. Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/Lippincott%27s_Monthly_Magazine (accessed 2026-10-09) 3. The Picture of Dorian Gray, first edition (Ward, Lock, April 1891), with Lippincott's first-appearance notes; dealer description. Bauman Rare Books. https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/wilde-oscar/picture-of-dorian-gray/112380.aspx (accessed 2026-10-09) 4. Borrowed Sins (account of the Lippincott dinner, quoting Doyle's diary and Stoddart's letter of 30 August 1889). Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/Borrowed_Sins (accessed 2026-10-09) 5. The Picture of Dorian Gray (ebook 174; Preface and 20 chapters). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/174/pg174.txt (accessed 2026-10-09) 6. Oscar Wilde Chronology. The Victorian Web. https://victorianweb.org/authors/wilde/wildetl.html (accessed 2026-10-09) 7. In search of the real 'Dorian Gray' (review of Frankel's annotated, uncensored edition). The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/85609/oscar-wilde-dorian-gray (accessed 2026-10-09) 8. Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde (account of the Langham dinner). CrimeReads. https://crimereads.com/arthur-conan-doyle-oscar-wilde/ (accessed 2026-10-09) 9. A Literary Terrorist (on Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer and its legacy). Dublin Review of Books. https://drb.ie/?p=3430 (accessed 2026-10-09)