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What is the power of a painting? What is the power of a book? What is the power of a book cover? The last question is ours, but Oscar Wilde asked the first two in his one and only novel: The Picture of Dorian Gray
You probably know the story. Dorian Gray, a young and beautiful libertine, inadvertently makes a deal with the Devil when he wishes that his portrait would age while he stayed forever young. First published in 1890, this sophisticated philosophical novel gave us the archetypical dandy who lives for the pursuit of pleasure and beauty at any cost.
Speaking of beauty, today we bring you a selection of the most interesting and eye-catching covers of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Charles Ricketts’s cover for The Picture of Dorian Gray
The idea for Oscar Wilde’s only novel came to him when a Canadian acquaintance offered to paint his portrait. Looking at the finished picture, the writer thought to himself that it would be nice if the painting were to age instead of him.
Given its licentious theme and allusions to homosexuality, Wilde’s story underwent a series of revisions before being published, out of fear it might scandalise some readers.
Although initially appearing as a novella in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890, it wasn’t until a year later that the first full-length edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray was published, in 1891. Revised by Wilde himself, it contains seven additional chapters and a famous preface. The book was published contemporaneously in London, New York and Melbourne by Ward Lock & Co, with a decorative cover and title page drawn by Charles Ricketts.
Charles Ricketts was a British illustrator, writer, printer, typographer and scenery designer amongst other things. A close friend of Wilde’s, he produced illustrations for many of the author’s other works, including these exquisite covers.
Covers featuring the eponymous picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde’s novel revolves around the eponymous picture of Dorian Gray, which, at start of the story, artist Basil Hallward paints for Gray, mesmerised by his incredible beauty.
Unsurprisingly, portraits feature heavily on covers of The Picture of Dorian Gray published over the years.
We love the art for this deluxe Penguin edition published in 2010. Sometimes covers offer a fresh new take on the story inside, which is certainly the case here.
Cuban-American designer Ruben Toledo imagines Gray’s portrait presenting itself to the ladies of society, only to be met with shock and horror.
The classic covers below take a more obvious approach, showing the ever-young Dorian Gray beside his ageing portrait.
The secret of his picture is an unbearable burden for beautiful Dorian Gray. Which is why, on many covers, the portrait is hidden or only partially visible.
We have a soft spot for the artwork on the front of this 1953 German edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. We like how the painting is hidden by an ominous red drape.
On this vintage British edition from the sixties, we see the picture frame, but not the portrait within. Which Dorian Gray does it portray: the handsome youth or haggard old man?
Equally unsettling is the cover art for the Hungarian edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray published by Helikon Kiadó in 2020 (left). It shows a broken Gray from behind, prostrate on the floor below his picture on the wall above, the portrait’s face covered by a cloth. Somewhat pulpier is this Turkish edition published in 2010 (right).
Some editions have gone full gore, giving us a close-up of Gray’s age-ravaged face in all its hideous glory. Urgh!
Two turn-of-the-millennium covers
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a celebration of pleasure, vanity, hedonism and refinement: values typically associated with late-19th-century dandies, of whom Oscar Wilde was perhaps the most famous. The art of this era was refined, too, as exemplified by decorative movements such as Liberty and Art Nouveau.
Some versions have taken their design cues from this era. There is this superb floral cover for the 2020 edition published by Chiltern. And this Art Nouveau-inspired artwork on the front of the Oxford Bookworm’s edition, in which we see Dorian Gray admiring his portrait.
A cover with just seven words
One highly original cover for The Picture of Dorian Gray features just seven words: “A young man of extraordinary personal beauty”. They are the words Wilde uses to describe the main character in his novel.
This unique cover, which makes no mention of the title, author or publisher, was designed by Gareth Jones and John Morgan for London-based publisher Four Corner Books in 2008.
The font used is ICT Benguiat. Created in the seventies by American font designer Ed Benguiat , this decorative typeface was inspired by Art Nouveau, which is precisely why the designers chose it: they wanted to give a nod to the story’s decadent, late-19th-century setting.
The bold experimentation doesn’t stop at the cover with this singular edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray: inside, the designers have laid out the text as if it were a feature in a sixties magazine.
Dorian Gray around the world
The dandy lifestyle expresses something found, to some degree, in us all: a desire to live life to the full. This helps to explain the novel’s worldwide success. Among the numerous international editions out there, intriguing covers abound – here are our favourites.
A Spanish edition with a cadaverous portrait of Dorian Gray.
Two Dutch covers. Left: a sixties edition published by Leiter-Nypels. Right: a contemporary edition from Else Hoog.
An elegant floral cover for the Polish market.
Two covers in Portuguese.
Moving further east, here are three modern covers for Arabic translations: an Egyptian edition, another from Kuwait and a third from the United Arab Emirates.
An old Armenian edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, with type-only cover.
And our last pick is an Indonesian edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray. We love the Tarantino-esque cover art.
What about you? How do you see Dorian Gray in your mind’s eye? Do you have a favourite cover of The Picture of Dorian Gray?