Skip to content
Aeneas Press edition Victorian

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde 1854–1900

The book, and the century it came out of.

A portrait takes the marks of a life its subject declines to carry: the years, the cruelty, the ruin. Lord Henry talks, Basil paints, Dorian acts, and the canvas keeps the account. Wilde’s only novel is the place where his wit stops holding the horror at a distance. The Gilded Library gives it paintings of perfumed 1890s London, and an ornament borrowed from Dorian’s own vocabulary — peacock feather, orchid, hand mirror. Illustrated with 56 full-page plates — paintings by Kern, Spitzweg and Huskisson among them.

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
The first sentence of The Picture of Dorian Gray
A note on this edition

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 232 pages
Reading time
about 5 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501007512
The plates

56 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Artist Studio, Matthäus Kern
Artist Studio Matthäus Kern 1846
From Palais Royal, Carl d’Unker
From Palais Royal Carl d’Unker 1847
La Seine et le Pont des Arts, en janvier 1848, Jean-Jacques Champin
La Seine et le Pont des Arts, en janvier 1848 Jean-Jacques Champin 1848
La tempête, Félix Ziem
La tempête Félix Ziem 1846
Le Fiacre, Charles de Luna
Le Fiacre Charles de Luna 1845
Arch of Nero, Thomas Cole
Arch of Nero Thomas Cole 1846
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Picture of Dorian Gray as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Picture of Dorian Gray as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Picture of Dorian Gray, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the The Gilded Library shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501007512, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Picture of Dorian Gray?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Oscar Wilde's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 232 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
The Picture of Dorian Gray
$9.99
Buy the ebook