Over 120 years after Oscar Wilde submitted The Picture of Dorian Gray for publication, the uncensored version of his novel appears here for the first time in audio. This volume restores material, including instances of graphic homosexual content, removed by the novel's first editor, who feared it would be "offensive" to Victorians.
Download and start listening now!
“Frankel’s introduction provides a deft preliminary analysis of the novel itself and offers valuable insight into the socio-cultural juxtaposition of aristocratic Victorian society and the London underworld…A fine contextualization of a major work of fiction profoundly interpreted, ultimately riveting.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
‘The entire product—novel and critical/biographical material—makes fascinating reading.”
— Weekly Standard“The version that Wilde submitted to Lippincott’s [published for the first time by Harvard University Press] is the better fiction. It has the swift and uncanny rhythm of a modern fairy tale—and Dorian is the greatest of Wilde’s fairy tales.”
— New Yorker“Frankel’s edition is a major contribution to the studies of Wilde and of late Victorian legal, sexual, and social contexts…Required reading for students and scholars of Wilde and his period.”
— Times Literary Supplement (London)“This Harvard edition of the untouched typescript is thus a necessary acquisition for any serious student of Wilde’s work…After this enthralling novel has left you shaken and disturbed, look for deeper understanding in Nicholas Frankel’s superb annotated edition.”
— Washington PostEdoardo Ballerini does a fantastic job narrating. Everything I have listened to narrated by him has been wonderful.
— Exit, Pursued by a BearBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Geoffrey Giuliano is the author of over twenty internationally bestselling biographies, including the London Sunday Times bestseller Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney and Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison. In addition, he can be heard on the Westwood One Radio Network and has written and produced over sixty original spoken-word albums and video documentaries on various aspects of popular culture.
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.