The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

The edition that I want to examine in class is a version of The Picture of Dorian Gray edited by Nicholas Frankel. This edition does not challenge but clearly enforces the MLA standards. It includes a general introduction to the text, a textual introduction giving a basic overview of the different versions of the text, copious annotations surrounding the text on both sides including illustrations, textual notes discussing the substantive changes that the original editor of the text (J.M. Stoddart) made, an appendix showing “accidental changes” introduced into the text by J.M. Stoddart, and notes on other versions and editions of the novel. While all of this is incredibly interesting, what I find most pertinent to our readings is the practicality of the layout of this edition and what Frankel chose to use as his copy-text. The rationale Frankel gives for this edition is that “The present edition marks the first time Wilde’s typescript has been published…” (21). As his copy-text Frankel uses the original typescript that Wilde sent in to Lippincott’s magazine for publication. Most editions work from the 1890 version of the Lippincott’s printing after Stoddart edited the typescript, or the 1891 version further amended by Wilde. I would like to discuss what we think of this seemingly Tanselle-ian approach to this edition of Wilde’s novel. Frankel is only interested in presenting the Typescript in full, and mentions several times that this is the closest we can get to the original work. He is also very concerned with reception though, mentioning how the typescript was greatly amended by Stoddart and later Wilde because of its explicit decadent, sexual, and homosexual content. Some of these revisions might even constitute what Tanselle would call “vertical revisions”. If we are examining “textual pluralism” and substantive revisions, is this edition of the typescript of The Picture of Dorian Gray another version of the text or another work entirely?