Wilde rewriting Wilde

FL200
As you read Wilde's TPDG bear in mind that the book that you are handling follows the 1891 edition of TPDG. The original was 6 chapters shorter and published in serialized form in 1890. Its reception was rather negative for the most part:

"Critical reaction to The Picture of Dorian Gray was generally unfavourable: while the anonymous reviewer in The Christian Leader claimed that Wilde had “performed a service to his age” by painting “the tragic picture of Dorian Gray’s life” (Stuart Mason, Oscar Wilde: Art and Morality, p. 21), unsigned reviews in other publications, including the Daily Chronicle, St. James’s Gazette and Scots Observer, denounced the work as corrupt, poisonous, leprous, and [a medico-legal fiction] suited only for “[outlawed noblemen and] perverted telegraph boys” (Karl Beckson (ed.), Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage, pp. 71-75). Wilde wrote numerous letters to the press, pointing out the artistic merits of his work and defending it against ethical criticisms. He went so far as to claim that the only error in the book was that it contained a moral: “And the moral is this. All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment” (The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, p. 430)." NOTE

For the 1891 edition of the novel as a book Wilde made a number of changes that responded to the criticism leveled against the book. Chaptes III, V, XVI, XVII, XVIII and portions of chapters XIX and XX were added. Also, the very odd preface that the novel now has was added then. He also edited selected sentences and fragments elsewhere.