aestheticism movement found, in Oscar Wilde, its most eloquent and staunch supporter; consequently, his only novel, the Picture of Dorian Gray, is a monument to the notion that art is the pure manifestation of beauty and reveals Wilde's particular reverence for classical western society's artistic achievements.

Oscar Wilde fundamentally sought to dislodge art from morality within his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and in so doing, pay his respects to the beauty in Greek culture by viewing through this amoral lens. Its original publication in 1890 was met with severe criticism from many who perceived it to be utterly disgraceful and immoral; as a result, Wilde attempted to answer his critics by revising the Picture of Dorian Gray and amending it with preface -- outlining his philosophical underpinnings -- in the following year. In short, Wilde believed, "The sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct...
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