The Picture of Dorian Gray August 1889, Stoddart dined with Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and T. P. Gill at the Langham Hotel, and commissioned novellas from each writer. Conan Doyle promptly submitted "The Sign of the Four" (1890) to Stoddart, but Wilde was more dilatory; Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel was published in the February 1890 edition of "Lippincott's Monthly Magazine", yet Stoddart did not receive Wilde's manuscript for "The Picture of Dorian Gray" until 7 April 1890, nine months after having commissioned the novel from him. The literary merits of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" impressed Stoddart, but, as an editor,
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film) Gladys from misfortune by leaving her. After sending Gladys a letter breaking their engagement Gray confronts his portrait and sees a subtle improvement. Attributing the change to his determination not to harm Gladys he resolves to change his life. However, he also resolves to destroy the portrait. He stabs the portrait in the heart, seeking to end the spell, but cries out as if he too has also been stabbed. His friends, realizing what has happened, burst into the school room to discover Dorian Gray dead next to the portrait, his body "withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage", now reflecting