SOURCE: Christensen, Peter G. “Three Concealments: Jean Cocteau's Adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Romance Notes 27, no. 1 (autumn 1986): 27-35.

In the following essay, Christensen evaluates the significance of Cocteau's Le Portrait surnaturel de Dorian Gray and discusses the issue of homosexuality in the play.

In the twenty-two years since Jean Cocteau's death, interest in his work has risen and then waned. The peak period was 1968-1971, which saw the appearance of three biographies—those of Elizabeth Sprigge and Jean-Jacques Kihm, Frederick Brown, and Francis Steegmuller. Since then much previously unavailable work, both private and public, has been published, but not analyzed in detail. In the private realm, we have the first volume of the journal, Le Passé défini, as well as the correspondences with André Gide, Jean Bourgoint, Milorad, and Jean-Marie Magnan. In the public sphere there are collections of poems, such as Faire-Part, Les Vocalises...