The novel's depiction of decadent lifestyles led to massive public controversy and was weaponized against Wilde in court.

Upon release, the book was condemned as obscene by a morally rigid Victorian England. It did not just stay on the library shelves; it entered the courtroom. During Wilde's famous trial, prosecutors used the book's homoerotic themes and depiction of underground Victorian culture to prove his homosexuality, linking literary Gothic horror directly to real-life tragedy.