encontréesta pregunta aquí en SO Y la solución es bastante simple:

jsfiddlehttp://jsfiddle.net/Y5vpb/

html:

<span>Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen look</span>​

css:

span{
    display:inline-block;
    width:180px;
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow:hidden !important;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

Y funciona como se espera, imprime:Lorem Ipsum is simply du...

Ahora, lo mismo que me gustaría, pero sigue fallando, cree en el siguiente ejemplo:

jsfiddlehttp://jsfiddle.net/9HRQq/

html:

<div class="textContainer">                
    <img src="#" class="image" alt="the_image">
    <span class="text">"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is an english-language pangram, that is, a phrase that contains all of the letters of the English alphabet. It has been used to test typewriters and computer keyboards, and in other applications involving all of the letters in the English alphabet. Owing to its brevity and coherence, it has become widely known.</span>
</div>

css:

.textContainer{
    width: 430px;
    float: left;
    margin-top: 10px;
    border: 1px solid black;                
}

.text {
    font-size: 24px;
    line-height: 24px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #047F04;
    display: block;
    white-space: normal;
    overflow: hidden !important;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    height: 99px;
}

.image {
    float: right;
    position: absolute;
    top: 85px;
    right: 10px;
    width: 108px;
    height: 42px;
}

¿Puedes decirme por favor cómo podría lograr poner... en el final de la cadena en mi ejemplo?