오스카 와일드의 도리안 그레이의 화상.The Book of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

오스카 와일드의 도리안 그레이의 화상.The Book of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
THE PREFACE
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist
is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material
his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those
who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This
is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For
these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written,
or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own
face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing
his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the
artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No
artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist
has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable
mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to
the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts
is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the
type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so
at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and
not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that
the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord
with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not
admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.
OSCAR WILDE