The Picture of Dorian Grey. Wilde O.

The text of the most famous novel by Oscar Wilde - “Portrait of Dorian Gray” is given in this edition completely, without bills, in the rare translation of the brother of the famous philosopher - Polyglot Sergey Alexandrovich Berdyaev, who was surprisingly accurately conveying the decadent atmosphere of this mystical work, which has become a kind of manifesto aesthetics. He is also a translator of Wilde’s letters in defense “Dorian Gray.”

“Portrait of Dorian Gray” is the most famous work of the famous playwright, essayist and poet Oscar Wilde, who became a vivid figure of European modernism. Since childhood, the future writer was immersed in an artistic atmosphere. He was born in 1854 in the family of a successful Irish doctor, in the house of which there were many paintings and sculptures. Thanks to the tutors, by the age of ten, Oscar spoke both French and German. He graduated from a school with a gold medal and received a scholarship for further education in the Dublin Trinity College.

The young man got rid of his Irish pronunciation in Oxford, where he began to surround his life with legends in which fiction was sometimes difficult to distinguish from the truth. In London, Wilde quickly became a star of aristocratic salons. Everything in this person was unusual - an outfit of the artist, impeccable diction, wit, paradoxical judgments and subtle artistic taste.

“Dorian Gray” was written by him in 1890. Wilde by this time was thirty -six years old. The hero of the novel, a talented young man, was in many ways like the writer himself. The temptations of hedonism turn Dorian into a vicious person. Wilde himself, as you know, fell on court for his behavior, challenging traditional morality, and was sentenced to two years in hard labor, which tragically influenced the writer. Wilde went free in 1897, moved to France, changed his name and three years later died of meningitis.

“Dorian Gray” - a decadent and mystical work. This only novel of the writer has become a kind of manifesto of aesthetics; He was repeatedly printed in dozens of countries. In this publication, he is illustrated by the exquisite drawings of the French artist Jean Emil Labourin, who convey the spirit of modernism well.

The future designer, engraver and watercolist was born in 1877 in a wealthy family. At the request of his father, the young man was supposed to receive a legal education, but the orders of the soul forced him to look for his calling in art. Laborer became a student of the famous French engraver of Auguste Leper. Then he traveled a lot - he has been to the USA and Canada more than once, visited England, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Osev in Paris, Laborer began to specialize in illustrating books and magazines, and also wrote several books on the art of engraving. Nowadays, his work can be seen in the Louvre and the Orsa Museum.