fifty copies, signed by
the author, was also issued, the covers being similar to the ordinary
edition but the gilt tooling more elaborate.

In March, 1891, Wilde had written "A Preface to 'Dorian Gray'" in the
_Fortnightly Review_, in which he enunciated his creed as an artist.
This preface is included in all impressions of _Dorian Gray_ which
contain twenty chapters.

Wilde was indeed a true prophet when he foretold that his story would
create a sensation. Though it occupied but a hundred pages in a monthly
periodical, it was reviewed as fully as any _chef d'oeuvre_ of a leading
novelist. In one of his letters Wilde says that out of over two hundred
press cuttings which he received in reference to _Dorian Gray_ he took
public notice of only three. But it is impossible to doubt but that he
was thinking of his critics when he gave vent to his views on
journalists, and the attitude of the British public towards art, in his
essay on _The Soul of Man_ a few months later. "A work of art is the
unique result of a unique temperament," he writes. "Its beauty comes
from the fact that the author is what he is.... The moment that an
artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the
demand, he ceases to be an artist."

He considers it to be an impertinence for the public (represented by the
journalist) who knows nothing about art to criticise the artist and his
work. In this country, he declares that the arts that have escaped best
from the "aggressive, offensive and brutalising" attempts on the part of
the public to interfere with the individual as an artist, are the arts
in which the public takes no interest. He gives poetry as an instance,
and declares that we have been able to have fine poetry because the
public does not read it, and consequently does not influence it. But,

"In the case of the novel and the drama, arts in which the public
does take an interest, the result of the exercise of popular
authority has been absolutely ridiculous. No country produces such
badly written fiction, such tedious, common work in the
novel-form.... It must necessarily be so. The popular standard is
of such a character that no artist can get to it. It is at once too
easy and too difficult to be a popular novelist. It is too easy,
because the requirements of the public as far as plot, style,
psychology, treatment of life, and treatment of literature are
concerned are