Oscar Wilde, Art and Morality: A Defence of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

"Oscar Wilde, Art and Morality: A Defence of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"" is a literary critique of the only novel by the famed author Oscar Wilde. It examines the morality of the novel that caused and still continues to cause a stir in many circles. "Wilde was indeed a true prophet when he foretold that his story would create a sensation. Though it occupied but a hundred pages in a monthly periodical, it was reviewed as fully as any chef d'oeuvre of a leading novelist. In one of his letters Wilde says that out of over two hundred press cuttings which he received in reference to Dorian Gray he took public notice of only three. But it is impossible to doubt but that he was thinking of his critics when he gave vent to his views on journalists, and the attitude of the British public towards art, in his essay on The Soul of Man a few months later. "A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament," he writes. "Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is.... The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist."