OSCAR WILDE ART and MORALITY A Defence of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Edited by STUART MASON _What the public calls an unhealthy novel is always a beautiful and healthy work of art._ London: J. Jacobs, Edgware Road, W. 1908. The Editor wishes to express his indebtedness to the proprietors of the various journals from which the reviews contained in this volume are re-produced. In some instances he has not been able to trace the owner of the copyright, owing to the journal having changed hands or become extinct, and if he has infringed in any case he trusts that this acknowledgment will be accepted. The copyright of the eight letters by Oscar Wilde is the property of his literary executor, with whose permission they are included in this book. STUART MASON. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION A STUDY IN PUPPYDOM MR. WILDE'S BAD CASE (LETTER I.) MR. OSCAR WILDE AGAIN (LETTER II.) MR. OSCAR WILDE'S DEFENCE (LETTER III.) LETTER FROM "A LONDON EDITOR" MR. OSCAR WILDE'S DEFENCE (LETTER IV.) "THE DAILY CHRONICLE" ON "DORIAN GRAY" OSCAR WILDE'S REPLY (LETTER V.) "THE SCOTS OBSERVER'S" REVIEW OSCAR WILDE'S REPLIES (LETTER VI.) (LETTER VII.) (LETTER VIII.) PROFUSE AND PERFERVID A SPIRITUALISTIC REVIEW "PUNCH" ON "DORIAN GRAY" A REVULSION FROM REALISM THE ROMANCE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE WALTER PATER ON "DORIAN GRAY" "THE ATHÆNEUM" ON "DORIAN GRAY" THE MORALITY OF "DORIAN GRAY" MR ROBERT BUCHANAN ON PAGAN VICIOUSNESS COMPARATIVE TABLE OF CHAPTERS PASSAGES WHICH APPEAR IN THE 1890 EDITION ONLY BIBLIOGRAPHY ORIGINAL EDITIONS UNAUTHORISED EDITIONS TRANSLATIONS DUTCH FRENCH GERMAN ITALIAN POLISH RUSSIAN SWEDISH * * * * * _On the whole, an artist in England gains something by being attacked. His individuality is intensified. He becomes more completely himself. Of course, the attacks are very gross, very impertinent, and very contemptible. But then no artist expects grace from the vulgar mind, or style from the suburban intellect._ * * * * * ART AND MORALITY "Why do you always write poetry? Why do you not write prose? Prose is so much more difficult." These were the words of Walter Pater to Oscar Wilde on the occasion of their first meeting during the latter's undergraduate days at Oxford.[1] Those were "days of lyrical ardours and of studious sonnet-writing," wrote Wilde, in reviewing one of Pater's books some years later,[2] "days when one loved the exquisite intricacy and musical repetitions of the ballade, and the vilanelle with its linked long-drawn echoes and its curious completeness; days when one solemnly sought to discover the proper temper in which a triolet should be written; delightful days, in which, I am glad to say, there was far more rhyme than reason."