O link abaixo fornece uma solução HTML / CSS pura para esse problema.
Suporte ao navegador - conforme declarado no artigo:
Até agora, testamos o Safari 5.0, IE 9 (deve estar no modo padrão), Opera 12 e Firefox 15.
Navegadores mais antigos ainda funcionarão muito bem, pois a carne do layout está nas propriedades normais de posicionamento, margem e preenchimento. se sua plataforma for mais antiga (por exemplo, Firefox 3.6, IE 8), você poderá usar o método, mas refazer o gradiente como uma imagem PNG autônoma ou filtro DirectX.
http://www.mobify.com/dev/multiline-ellipsis-in-pure-css
o css:
p { margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: sans-serif;}
.ellipsis {
overflow: hidden;
height: 200px;
line-height: 25px;
margin: 20px;
border: 5px solid #AAA; }
.ellipsis:before {
content:"";
float: left;
width: 5px; height: 200px; }
.ellipsis > *:first-child {
float: right;
width: 100%;
margin-left: -5px; }
.ellipsis:after {
content: "\02026";
box-sizing: content-box;
-webkit-box-sizing: content-box;
-moz-box-sizing: content-box;
float: right; position: relative;
top: -25px; left: 100%;
width: 3em; margin-left: -3em;
padding-right: 5px;
text-align: right;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top,
from(rgba(255, 255, 255, 0)), to(white), color-stop(50%, white));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(to right, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), white 50%, white);
background: -o-linear-gradient(to right, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), white 50%, white);
background: -ms-linear-gradient(to right, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), white 50%, white);
background: linear-gradient(to right, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), white 50%, white); }
o html:
<div class="ellipsis">
<div>
<p>Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.</p>
</div>
</div>
(redimensionar a janela do navegador para teste)