SOURCE: "Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray," in Homosexuality and Literature: 1890-1930, The Athlone Press, 1977, pp. 20-31.

Meyers's Homosexuality and Literature 1890-1930 offered one of the first serious studies of gay male content in literature. In the chapter excerpted below, Meyers reassesses Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray in light of the author's sexuality, arguing that much of the novel's ambiguity is actually veiled reference to homosexual desire and activity. Although the specifics of Meyers's interpretation have been disputed by more recent scholars, his work apparently helped open the door for direct and extensive study of homosexual content in literature.

For any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Most critics of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) treat the book as a classical illustration of literary aestheticism and decadence or, like Roditi...