50 Fun Facts About The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray was written by which Irish author?

It was the only novel he ever wrote, and it was widely ignored by critics until the 1980s.

What happens to Dorian Gray's portrait as he pursues a life of vice?

He impulsively wishes the picture would age instead of him, effectively selling his soul.

Which artist paints the portrait of Dorian Gray?

Wilde said Basil was 'what I think I am', while Lord Henry was what the world thought him.

Which aristocrat's hedonistic worldview seduces Dorian into believing beauty and pleasure are all that matter?

Basil tells him: 'You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing.'

Sibyl Vane, the young woman Dorian falls for and cruelly rejects, works as what?

She performs Shakespeare in a dingy working-class theatre, and her love for Dorian ruins her ability to act.

By what pet name does Sibyl Vane refer to Dorian, the only clue her brother later has to his identity?

Years later James Vane hears the name used in an opium den and finally tracks Dorian down.

How does Dorian escape James Vane when confronted in the opium den?

A woman from the den then tells James that Dorian has not aged in eighteen years.

How does James Vane, who has been stalking Dorian for revenge, meet his end?

Wilde only added James Vane for the 1891 book edition, giving the story a hint of class struggle.

After murdering Basil, Dorian blackmails which former friend into using chemistry to destroy the body?

Campbell later shoots himself; Adrian Singleton is another friend Dorian ruined through opium.

How does the novel end for Dorian?

The servants identify the corpse only by its rings, while the painting is young and beautiful again.

For how many years does Dorian keep the portrait locked away while indulging every vice?

A woman in the opium den confirms to James Vane that Dorian has not aged in all that time.

The 'poisonous' yellow French novel that Lord Henry gives Dorian is generally identified with which real book?

Wilde conceded at his trial that it was 'or almost' Huysmans's book, though the chapter references in the novel are deliberately wrong.

The shorter first version of the story appeared in July 1890 in which American periodical?

It ran as the first 100 pages of the issue; the expanded 20-chapter book followed in April 1891.

The 1889 dinner at the Langham Hotel where Wilde was commissioned to write the novel also produced which Sherlock Holmes book?

Editor J. M. Stoddart commissioned both Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle that night; Doyle delivered promptly, Wilde took seven months.

Roughly how many words did editor J. M. Stoddart cut from the manuscript without Wilde's knowledge before the 1890 publication?

He removed passages alluding to homosexual desire and references to Sibyl and Hetty as 'mistresses'; the cuts were restored in a 2011 edition.

For the 1891 book edition Wilde expanded the story from thirteen chapters to how many?

He also added the preface and the character of James Vane, Sibyl's vengeful brother.

The 2011 'uncensored' edition was based on Wilde's original typescript, which is housed at which university?

It had been largely forgotten by all but Wilde scholars until Belknap Press published the annotated edition.

Wilde's famous preface, a manifesto for art for art's sake, is written as a series of what?

It first appeared in The Fortnightly Review a month before the book, answering the critics of the magazine version.

Wilde said the idea for the novel came in December 1887 when he sat for a portrait by a painter from which country?

Looking at Frances Richards's finished portrait he joked, 'This portrait will never grow older and I shall. If it was only the other way!'

In an 1894 letter Wilde wrote that Lord Henry was 'what the world thinks me'. Who did he say was 'what I would like to be'?

Basil Hallward, he said, was 'what I think I am'.

After the scandalised reviews of 1890, which retailer withdrew the magazine issue from its railway station bookstalls?

Reviewers called the story 'mawkish and nauseous', 'unclean' and 'contaminating', and some said Wilde deserved prosecution.

At Wilde's 1895 trials the prosecution read passages from the book aloud and called it what?

The lines came from the more explicit magazine version, and the trials damaged the book's reputation for decades.

Which critic, whom Wilde respected, wrote letters that Wilde admitted led him to modify one passage 'liable to misconstruction'?

Wilde otherwise denied that his 1891 revisions were a response to hostile reviews.

Scholars suggest Wilde chose the name Dorian in reference to which ancient Greek people?

They are argued to have introduced male same-sex initiation rituals to Greek culture, an allusion to 'Greek love'.

Some commentators trace the novel's influence to Vivian Grey, an 1826 novel by which British prime minister?

Sibyl Vane's name may fuse Disraeli's novel Sybil with Vivian Grey's doomed love interest Violet Fane.

When Sibyl Vane kills herself, Lord Henry compares her to which tragic heroine from Hamlet?

James Vane's pursuit of his sister's lover likewise mirrors Laertes's revenge on Hamlet.

Wilde's 1889 story 'The Portrait of Mr. W. H.' has been called a preliminary sketch of the novel's themes. Whose sonnets is it about?

It speculates about the identity of the dedicatee of the sonnets and shares the novel's interest in homosexuality.

Lord Henry's advice that 'the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it' casts him in the role of which figure from the Faust legend?

Unlike Faust, Dorian never signs a pact; the temptation is simply put in front of him and he takes it.

The 1945 MGM film of the novel won an Academy Award in which category?

Harry Stradling won it; Angela Lansbury was nominated for playing Sibyl Vane and won a Golden Globe.

The 1945 film is in black and white except for brief inserts of the portrait shot in what process?

Ivan Albright's hideous final portrait, painted for the film, now hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Who played the corrupting aristocrat in the 1945 film, opposite Hurd Hatfield's Dorian?

Cedric Hardwicke narrates, and the young Angela Lansbury plays Sibyl Vane as a tavern singer.

Which museum acquired the degenerate portrait Ivan Albright painted for the 1945 film?

In the film, Dorian makes his fateful wish before an Egyptian cat statue with supposed magical powers.

In the 2009 film Dorian Gray, who played Lord Henry opposite Ben Barnes?

Oliver Parker directed the loose adaptation, in which Sibyl drowns herself rather than taking poison.

Reeve Carney played Dorian Gray in which Showtime series that also featured Frankenstein and Dracula characters?

John Logan's show ran from 2014 to 2016 and drew on public-domain Victorian Gothic characters.

In the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Dorian Gray, played by Stuart Townsend, is immortal because of what?

He turns traitor, shooting Nemo's first mate and stealing the Nautilus's exploration pod.

The Dorian Awards, first announced in January 2010, are named in reference to the novel and honour what?

They are given by an association of LGBTQ entertainment critics; the original award was a certificate showing hands holding a black bow tie.

The first stage adaptation of the novel, by G. Constant Lounsbery, opened in 1913 at which London venue?

Several silent film versions followed within the same decade.

Which novelist called the book 'one of the strongest and most haunting of English novels' while noting its reputation remained questionable?

Even Wilde's biographer Richard Ellmann thought parts of it 'wooden, padded, self-indulgent'.

Wilde's preface traces his exposure to which Eastern philosophy, whose thinker Chuang Tsu he had reviewed?

Wilde praised Chuang Tsu for 'preaching the great creed of Inaction'.

Which farm girl does the reformed Dorian decide not to seduce, hoping the good deed will restore his portrait?

When he checks the picture it is uglier still, and he realises he only wants absolution, not repentance.

Which uncle of Henry Wotton tells him about Dorian's family history?

Chapter 3, new in 1891, reveals that Dorian's father was a penniless junior infantry officer.

In the decade after Wilde's death, the authorised edition of the novel was published by Charles Carrington, a publisher who specialised in what?

Wilde died in Paris in 1900, five years after his conviction.

Which of Wilde's plays is said to lack the 'self-conscious decadence' found in Dorian Gray and Salome?

Set almost entirely in drawing rooms, it was Wilde's last comedy before his downfall.

Which painter is Basil Hallward supposed to have been modelled on?

Wilde said Basil was 'what I think I am', Lord Henry 'what the world thinks me' and Dorian 'what I would like to be'.

Which friend of Wilde is generally accepted as a partial model for the hedonistic Henry Wotton?

The poet John Gray was rumoured to have inspired Dorian, though he distanced himself from the claim.

In the preface, Wilde invokes which 'sub-human' Shakespeare character from The Tempest?

Later Dorian, seeking Sibyl but meeting her manager, feels he has 'come to look for Miranda and had been met by Caliban'.

Who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for playing Sibyl Vane in the 1945 film?

The film won the Oscar for black-and-white cinematography and is often considered the best-regarded adaptation.

Which critic recorded that Wilde conceded at his trial the 'poisonous' novel was, or almost was, À rebours?

Ellmann's 1989 biography notes Wilde called his book a 'fantastic variation' on Huysmans, with deliberately inaccurate chapter references.

Which newspaper's critic in June 1890 said the novel would 'taint every young mind' it touched?

Days later the Scots Observer asked why Wilde must 'go grubbing in muck-heaps'.

Who voiced Dorian Gray in a 2013 series of audio dramas scripted by David Llewellyn?

Other 21st-century Dorians include Stuart Townsend (2003), Ben Barnes (2009) and Reeve Carney in Penny Dreadful.