Reading Reception in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Abstract:This essay explores the productive tension between novels and periodical criticism that arose from the competitive conditions of late nineteenth-century print culture. Specifically, it contextualizes Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray within a volatile literary and cultural marketplace to demonstrate how the novel took shape in dialogue with its reviews. Examining the additions and revisions Wilde made to the 1891 edition, this essay shows how Dorian Gray developed in the social, interactive, participatory venue of British publishing at the fin de siècle.