The term "British aestheticism" refers to an avant-garde movement in England in the closing decades of the 19th century opposing bourgeois values, and promoting artistic, sexual, and political experimentation, and the pursuit of beauty. In addition to Wilde, we will read work of other central figures of the movement, including Walter Pater and William Morris. Our central focus will be Wilde's 1890/1891 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and its contemporary reception. We will collaboratively develop a collection of contemporary reviews of the novel, including Pater's own, which we will annotate and contextualize in essays and other assignments.