Oscar Wilde: Art and Morality. A Defence of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Oscar Wilde: Art and Morality. A Defence of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, credited to Edited by Stuart Mason, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Oscar Wilde: Art and Morality. A Defence of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Edited by Stuart Mason. Read by Martin Geeson. “Who can help laughing when an ordinary journalist seriously proposes to limit the subject-matter at the disposal of the artist?” “We are dominated by journalism.... Journalism governs for ever and ever.” One of the nastiest of the British tabloids was founded a year too late to join in the moral panic generated to accompany Oscar Wilde’s court appearances in 1895. Yet there was no shortage of hypocritical journalists posing as moral arbiters to the nation, then as now. This compendium work - skilfully assembled by the editor, Stuart Mason - ends with transcript of Wilde’s first appearance in the Old Bailey, when he was cross-examined on the alleged immorality of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The disastrous outcome of these trials provides an ironic conclusion to the earlier knockabout exchanges between Oscar and his reviewers. In these he is at his flamboyant best, revelling in the publicity he pretends to disdain. His brave performances in the dock did nothing, however, to save him from hard labour, the treadmill and complete physical and moral breakdown which the law found it necessary to inflict on him. In contrast to the hacks and lawyers, two refreshingly open-minded Americans write perceptively about the novel, as does Walter Pater, the grand old man of Aestheticism. This solo Librivox project complements a new dramatised reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray, currently in preparation, featuring the present reader as Narrator. (Introduction by Martin Geeson)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Oscar Wilde: Art and Morality. A Defence of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
• Author credits: Edited by Stuart Mason
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 18
• Listed recording duration: 3:55:59

Catalogue topics

• literary criticism
• biography
• aesthetic philosophy

Track guide

1. 01 - Art and Morality — 16:52
2. 02 - A Study in Puppydom — 13:23
3. 03 - Mr Wilde's Bad Case — 6:21
4. 04 - Mr Oscar Wilde Again — 12:53
5. 05 - Mr Oscar Wilde's Defence — 9:00
6. 06 - Letter from “A London Editor” — 7:23
7. 07 - Mr Oscar Wilde's Defence — 8:34
8. 08 - “The Daily Chronicle” on “Dorian Gray” — 14:10
9. 09 - “The Scots Observer's” Review. Oscar Wilde's Replies — 13:55
10. 10 - Further Correspondence — 15:41
11. 11 - Profuse and Perfervid — 9:16
12. 12 - A Spiritualistic Review. By “NIZIDA” — 24:30
13. 13 - Punch on “Dorian Gray” — 7:00
14. 14 - A Revulsion from Realism. By Anne H. Wharton — 18:34
15. 15 - The Romance of the Impossible. By Julian Hawthorne — 19:11
16. 16 - Walter Pater on “Dorian Gray” — 15:42
17. 17 - The Morality of “Dorian Gray” — 20:23
18. 18 - Mr Robert Buchanan on Pagan Viciousness — 3:17

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.