Description
8vo, XX, 284pp. Hardcover in light green cloth with blue and gold embossed patch on the sound spine in very good condition with some shelf wear and edge bruising plus a price-clipped d/w with tears and abrasons to all edges with a two centimetre piece torn from top of spine and a smaller piece partly repaired from right upper corner and a repair to bottom of spine too, though otherwise it is clean and bright and is now protected by clear archival covering, text is in excellent condition with only minor browning and flecking of top edge and a slightly misaligned page 9. Simple, attractive endpapers are unmarked and intact. A very sound and readable edition of arguably Wilde’s most famous novel that is the first in the Castle Press edition of the complete works of the author. A degenerative young aristocrat chooses a life of self-indulgence that is mirrored in the gradual degradation of his mysterious portrait until death intervenes and the painting rejuvenates to ‘”its pristine excellence”.