The Picture of Dorian Gray (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)

Overview The Picture of Dorian Gray is a gothic novel written by Oscar Wilde and first published in April 1890. The book opens on with painter, Basil Hallward, a sensitive soul, painting a portrait of a young man of extraordinary good looks called Dorian Gray. Basil’s friend, Lord Henry Wotton is observing Basil adding the final touches to the painting and comments that it is Basil’s best work. Lord Henry takes an interest in Dorian, a remarkably good looking but shallow young man, and sets about influencing him with his believes that beauty and the pursuit of personal pleasure are the only things in life worth pursuing. Basil gifts the painting to Dorian who makes a secret wish that the painting could age and change on his behalf and that he, Dorian, could retain his good looks for the rest of his life. Under the warped influence of Lord Henry, Dorian sets out to explore every emotion and sensation life has to offer, regardless of the cost to others. He meets a beautiful young actress, Sybil Vane, and falls in love with her amazing renditions of the various heroines in Shakespeare’s plays, in particularly the tragic roles. He purposefully meets Sybil and declares his love for her. A young and easily influenced girl from a poor family, Sybil falls in love with Dorian, and it impacts on her acting, rendering her quite unable to perform. Dorian rejects her and Sybil commits suicide in her anguish. After this tragedy, Dorian views the painting and see a sneer of cruelty around the portrait’s mouth. He realises that his wish for eternal youth and beauty has come true. Influenced by a book provided by Lord Henry, Dorian sets out on a path of debauchery and sin, influencing other young men and women to accompany him in his heinous behaviours. As his life progresses, the painting becomes more and more hideous. The quote below describes the degeneration of Dorian’s soul as depicted by the painting: “Often, on returning home from one of those mysterious and prolonged absences that gave rise to such strange conjecture among those who were his friends, or thought that they were so, he himself would creep upstairs to the locked room, open the door with the key that never left him now, and stand, with a mirror, in front of the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him, looking now at the evil and aging face on the canvas, and now at the fair young face that laughed back at him from the polished glass. The very sharpness of the contrast used to quicken his sense of pleasure. He grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul. He would examine with minute care, and sometimes with a monstrous and terrible delight, the hideous lines that seared the wrinkling forehead or crawled around the heavy sensual mouth, wondering sometimes which were the more horrible, the signs of sin or the signs of age. He would place his white hands beside the coarse bloated hands of the picture, and smile. He mocked the misshapen body and the failing limbs. There were moments, indeed, at night, when, lying sleepless in his own delicately scented chamber, or in the sordid room of the little ill-famed tavern near the docks which, under an assumed name and in disguise, it was his habit to frequent, he would think of the ruin he had brought upon his soul with a pity that was all the more poignant because it was purely selfish. But moments such as these were rare. That curiosity about life which Lord Henry had first stirred in him, as they sat together in the garden of their friend, seemed to increase with gratification. The more he knew, the more he desired to know. He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them.” Characterisations The introductory chapters to this book set the stage for the plot extremely well as it gives a lot of insight into the characters of the three men at that point in time. Basil is clearly sensitive and creative, an excellent artist and a lover of beauty. Dorian’s angelic looks have captivated him to a point where he is obsessed by the concept and illusion of this young man he has created in his own mind. His painting of Dorian is his attempt to capture the beauty and goodness he believes he perceives in his subject. Basil is delighted by the painting which he believes does justice to the characteristics he has attributed to Dorian. Basil is also a man of strong morals and principles. All his characteristics are demonstrated by the following quote: “You don’t understand me, Harry,” answered the artist. “Of course I am not like him. I know that perfectly well. Indeed, I should be sorry to look like him. You shrug your shoulders? I am telling you the truth. There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one’s fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live–undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They neither bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are–my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks–we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.” Lord Henry Wotton is a self-centred and egotistical man. Spoiled due to his life of wealth, privilege and idleness, Lord Henry proclaims himself to be a hedonist who believes the pursuit of personal pleasure is the most important thing in life. He is a clever man who has channelled his brilliant mind into devising fascinating, poisonous and ill-conceived theories to support his shallow and selfish beliefs. Despite his long ramblings in support of his ridiculous notions about life, he is not actually a bad man and does not indulge in sordid or criminal behaviour. In fact, he believes that criminal activity belongs exclusively in the realm of those he deems to be the lower orders of humanity. Unfortunately, Lord Henry is charming and worldly in addition to being a great, albeit misguided, intellect and he easily influences the weak and spineless Dorian Gray with his radical theories. The following quote is an example of one of Lord Henry’s speeches: ““There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral – immoral from the scientific point of view.” “Why?” “Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self. Of course they are charitable. They feed the hungry, and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion – these are the two things that govern us. And yet […] I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream – I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal – to something finer, richer, than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. […] We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. … The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”” Dorian Gray is a weak character with not ambition to do anything useful with his life. The reader quickly realises that Basil’s romantic ideas about the young man are mere fancies, and that Dorian is not actually a very nice person. He is aware of his beauty right from the beginning of the book, and is very vain, but he is not aware of its lack of durability. It is Lord Henry who draws Dorian’s attention to the fact that beauty and youth are short lived. Consider this quote: “The painter considered for a few moments. “He likes me,” he answered after a pause; “I know he likes me. Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things. Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer’s day.”” Is The Picture of Dorian Gray worth reading? The painting in this story, effectively depicts Dorian’s soul or true self. As Dorian sinks deeper and deeper into a life of debauchery and sin, the effects of his actions show on the portrait making it uglier and uglier. For me, the effect of sin on the painting is an effective metaphor for the effect of selfishness and I-concentric behaviour on our own souls. In our modern world of excessive consumption, I think this lesson is still vitally important. Mankind needs to look beyond individual wants and desires and set about earnestly saving our wildlife and natural environment as well as uplifting and education disadvantaged people. In addition, from my personal perspective, I loved the skillful and beautiful writing (although it does require extra concentration effort as the descriptive paragraphs are long and intricate) and an interesting storyline in addition to its focus on questionable ideals that still dominate our society.

I almost never leave reviews on classic books, because I figure said books are classics for a reason. Their quality is assured if they've stood the test of time and remain well-known after all these years, right? Even in the case of "classics" that I don't enjoy for whatever reason, such as "Tess of the D'ubervilles," I figure it's merely a case of personal preference and not quality. So it's with some degree of hesitation that I leave a review on such a classic as "The Picture of Dorian Gray," one of Oscar Wilde's best-known works. It's been hailed as a riveting psychological thriller/horror novel, and I figure there must be something to that praise if the book has managed to endure for over a century. Still, I figure that even the words of a modern-day Amazon reviewer should be worth something, even if it's just to deliver a personal opinion. I can see why this book is considered a classic -- it has a lot to say about the human condition, not much of it good, and the horror elements are subtle but well-done. All the same, this book isn't for everyone, and getting through the first half of the book takes a LOT of perseverance. The titular Dorian Gray is a wealthy young man in the prime of his life, considered astonishingly handsome and charming by everyone he meets. When his friend Basil, a painter, creates a portrait of him, Gray mourns that the painting will always be more beautiful than he is and makes a half-serious wish that the painting will age instead of him. To Gray's shock, his wish comes true -- he remains handsome and young-looking, but the figure in his portrait withers and grays with age and vice. At first Gray is delighted by this, but as time passes -- and he falls under the sway of the decadent and reckless Lord Harry -- he starts to feel cursed. And as he lives a life of indulgence and vice, his past crimes begin to catch up to him in ways he could never have imagined... I'll start with the bad regarding this book. Wilde might have been considered a master satirist in his day, but at times it feels like he's in love with the sound of his own voice, especially here. Much of the book is reserved for philosophical discussions between characters regarding the nature of sin, humanity, pleasure, and virtue. And the character who does most of the talking, Lord Harry, has some dismal and downright dangerous things to say about all of the above. It's hard to know if Wilde sincerely believed what he was writing (about pleasure and indulgence being the chief meaning of life and love being a silly, fleeting thing) or if it's just him getting deeply into the head of his decadent antagonist, but all the same it makes for uncomfortable (and often boring) writing. Plus all this philosophizing pads out the length of the book, and makes it so not much of anything plotworthy really happens until the book's midpoint. Also, about two-thirds of the way through the book we get a sudden aside about all the things Gray purchases with his considerable wealth -- and these objects are described in great detail. While I can see that this was Wilde's attempt to show how extravagant Gray's lifestyle had become, it feels like a pointless aside tome. Once one gets past the endless dialogue, however, one finds a quietly chilling story of psychological horror. A creative premise of a painting aging in place of its subject is used quite effectively, and the book builds slowly but surely to its shocking climax. Gray is not exactly a sympathetic character -- he's self-centered and vain even before Lord Harry hooks his claws into him -- but he has his redeeming qualities, and it's hard not to feel his shock and fear as he discovers the secrets of the painting and how his vices are displayed on the canvas for anyone to see. The book's finale is probably obvious by now, given how old this book is, but I won't spoil it just in case... While definitely not for everyone, and a rather slow read compared to modern-day thrillers, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is still a fascinating psychological thriller, and it's definitely worth a read. Just be prepared for a slow first half...

In roughly three weeks Dorian Gray starring Ben Barnes comes to DVD in the UK (and I intend to buy it. I have a region free DVD player and sadly there was never a US release of this film). I haven't seen this film version yet and I know it strays from the original novel but that's not the worst thing in the world. I've seen a version where Basil was a woman and it was set in the nineteen sixties with really bad acting. Now that was terrible. And there's also the 1944 version of The Canterville Ghost that turned it into World War 2 propaganda. So I don't mind what they've done with the Ben Barnes version of Dorian Gray. But since I am waiting for this adaptation I would like to write a review now for the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I LOVE the work of Oscar Wilde. Allow me to stress that. I absolutely love the work of Oscar Wilde. My two favourite works of his are The Canterville Ghost and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. While he remains flawless, a portrait of himself grows uglier every time he sins. He cannot die unless you destroy the painting. Thanks to temptation and vice Dorian falls into hedonism and debauchery. As he externally remains pure and untainted his soul bears the burdens of his actions as reflected in the painting. Dorian learns the hard way that it's not physical beauty that matters but the inner beauty of one's own soul in qualities of kindness, mercy and compassion, things that he had lost along the way for selfishness, hedonism and greed. Dorian's fall from grace is a road lined with wit and humour. The story is riddled with clever epigrams (witty, short sayings) mostly said by the morally questionable character, Lord Henry. Lord Henry is a surprisingly naive character who plants bad ideas and temptations into Dorian's head while he, himself, doesn't seem to actually commit any sin he talks about. He even has the naive notion that people of their status don't do things like murder, as if such crimes are vices only of the lower classes. The picture of Dorian Gray is a very good and interesting read that talks about social conformity, morality, hedonism, and good and evil. The messages are not heavy handed and it's an intelligently written story. People of Oscar Wilde's era who called it an immoral book were made uncomfortable by Dorian's descent and lack of redemption but ultimately he was punished for his sins. Others noticed the subtle hints of homosexuality and bisexuality in the story but these things were kept subtle as this was a Gothic Victorian novel. Many people over-estimate how much homosexual content there is in this book or they don't see it at all but in fact it was actually very subtle and you only notice it if you are looking for it. However lines such as 'The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curve of your lips rewrite history.' - which was engraved in a cigarette case given to Dorian by Lord Henry make the relationships obvious to the astute reader. The sexuality of the characters isn't even an issue. Poor Oscar Wilde was far ahead of his time in this regard. It's Dorian's decadence, hedonism and selfishness that cause his downfall and prove the moral lesson of the story; the value of the soul and inner beauty over external eternal flawlessness. Dorian might have had eternal youth and beauty but it was at the price of the eternal beauty and youth that comes from a good natured and kind soul. And Dorian, being an aesthete could only see this transformation when his soul was physically manifested in a portrait that changed with the changing of his nature. The 1940s movie adaptation of the story (the first film adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray) held the hope of redemption in showing that in acts of compassion the portrait could change for the better. This was something the novel lacked though it is still a fine novel. Oscar Wilde was right when he said there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. There's only well written or poorly written books and The Picture of Dorian Gray is very well written. This isn't an action packed thriller (though there are some intense moments). This isn't a romance about an immortal with a teenage lover (though something of that does happen). This is NOT Twilight. This story actually has substance. This is more of an exploration of a character's nature and all of human nature in the process, the flaws of modern superficiality, selfishness and hedonism and the power the spiritual can still have over human consciousness. It's sad that for all of Dorian's shallowness he had to physically see it to feel the weight of his conscience instead of just knowing what he was doing was wrong but this is the flaw of the character and the reason behind his downfall. Dorian was a true aesthete to a dangerous extreme. Oscar Wilde was making a statement about society that many even today either don't get or don't want to get. The Picture of Dorian Gray is written in a nice flowing prose. It's written in a third person perspective novel, not first person perspective, not alternating, and certainly not epistolary (which was a very popular style of fiction writing in Oscar Wilde's time). I strongly recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is a true classic.

“Some day, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly.” So, I wanted 2018 to be the year that I try to get back into classics! In the past, I’ve found some of them daunting to read, or just too boring to ever feel invested in. But I feel like The Picture of Dorian Gray was the perfect start. I originally was going to give this three stars, because I enjoyed it enough, but was never too invested. I felt annoyed at how these characters were so obviously not straight. I mean, a vast majority of this book is about Dorian taking a wife. Meanwhile, every man in this book just has full page monologues telling Dorian how beautiful he is. And then I sat down to do my review, and I started doing my research. It’s no secret that Oscar Wilde was a gay man. Hell, he was even jailed for his sexuality, and died soon after from all the inhumane injuries he endured while in prison. All three major male character in this book read very… not straight. My friend, Destiny, told me that a lot of readers in the Horror circles make strong arguments that Dorian is in fact pansexual, which makes me happier than I can express with words. Yet, I can’t help but think about parallels with this book that Wilde crafted about “secret sin” and how it mirrored his life and perhaps his sexuality that he ultimately died for. You guys, I have no words. In the 1880s people thought homosexuality was some disease, something to be cured, something not okay to simply just be. Something that was a criminal act. Something that Oscar Wilde was jailed and forced to do hard labor for. And once you start seeing the similarities between Wilde’s life and the events that take place in this book, you will realize that like The Picture of Dorian Gray is so much more important that the surface value of just reading this story. Okay, I do suppose I should tell you about the story now. This is a tale that centers around three men that live in an upper-class London society: ➽ Basil Hallward - Artist who befriends Dorian because he is obsessed with his beauty and lives his life painting many portraits of him, but more importantly, he paints the portrait that this story surrounds. ➽ Lord Henry Wotton - Basil's friend, which is how he meets Dorian. Henry is a manipulator that heavily influences Dorian with his views about what is important in life. ➽ Dorian Gray - Our main character, who starts out so young, innocent, and impressionable. He later is harboring a major secret and will stop at nothing to hide this secret and the events that lead him to this secret. “There are only two kinds of people who are fascinating - people who know absolutely everything and people who know absolutely nothing.” In this book, the value of appearance is heavily touched upon. Youth and beauty seem to be everyone’s priority. It’s scary and sad how much this also mirrors 2018. There is also a huge discussion to be had about good versus evil and how we view that grey area in-between. Yet, these discussions are held in this seamlessly woven story. Overall, even though I didn’t five star this, I really enjoyed it and it was able to evoke a lot of emotion from me. More importantly, I recommend you all to read My dear friend Navessa’s review, which ended up evoking even more emotion from me. She linked this article, which then made me weep. Again, this story is so much more than a paranormal painting, and a man trying to hide secrets. This is a masterpiece and my heart will forever break thinking about this story. Trigger/content warnings: death, murder, suicide, and a ton of misogynistic comments.

5 stars for the book, 2 stars for the publisher. The book is great but the print is so condensed it is hard to read. Probably better off buying a good used book with a larger font and higher quality print.

This novel is one of the best classics available. It is more entertaining for its controversy value than for anything else. Lord Henry Wotton is probably the most engaging character in the entire novel, and one gets the impression he is the mouthpiece of Oscar Wilde himself. For the rest of this review, it will probably be enough to suggest you read it if you haven't, and include some quotes from Lord Henry: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love; it is the faithless who know love's tragedies. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot. I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones. She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm. I can sympathize with everything, except suffering. Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different. "Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess?" he asked, looking at her across the table. "A great many, I fear," she cried. "Then commit them over again," he said gravely. "To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies." Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes. Punctuality is the thief of time. Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed. The people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect - simply a confession of failure. You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit. Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects. A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her. It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true. Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. To be popular one must be a mediocrity. It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly. A woman will flirt with anybody in the world as long as other people are looking on. Anybody can be good in the country. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

If you could retain your youth, what would you give up? What would you be willing to barter? Imagine, you're always young, vibrant, desired and the envy of all those who age around you? The Picture of Dorian Gray doesn't set out to answer the question, just to pose it. Oscar Wilde writes like no other I've read. The prose moves along along like a tempestuous sea. It rolls, it sways, it rocks and occasionally calms before the next surge. Amazing penmanship. Verbose conversations stir between the players as they seek to answer each other's questions and address each other's comments. The main character of the book, for me, was Lord Henry Wotton. A dandy gentleman who, for his own sake, is way too educated. It always seems to be Henry who plants the seeds of thought, or challenges the conventional wisdom which, in turn, sets the other players thinking. Henry meets Dorian as his portrait is finished by Basil Hallward. Henry, struck by Dorian's youth and beauty, remarks that, as Dorian ages, the picture will constantly remind him of who he was. Dorian wishes it the other way around and, his wish is granted but, at what cost? The picture always remains at the age when Dorian was painted yet, the face reflects Dorian's soul. The soul that becomes more dark and damaged. Chapter XI of this book describes, at Sir Henry's urging, Dorian's exploration into life. I don't think I've ever read anything like it before. Oscar Wilde seemed to have gone mad with the pen as he describes riches, wealth, decadence and hedonism. The finest details of objects of desire are described so richly you can almost feel them. This outpouring of prose meanders over many pages. At the end of the chapter I let out a "phew" as I felt Wilde had probably thrown down his pen and gone for a nap. I was exhausted from reading it. How he felt after writing it is anyone's guess. Gray does some horrible things as he develops and eventually, he sees what he's become. The picture, a mirror of his soul, becomes darker and darker as his soul becomes heartless and self-serving. It's great stuff. The book is relatively short yet overflowing with rich text and thought provoking idioms. Enjoy it, digest it, this one is a classic.

I am dumbfounded by this book. I probably highlighted half of this book, that’s how amazing and profound it is. I understand why this book was a revolutionary and as feared as it was when it came out, this book confronts you with the morality of humanity, it makes you think, it makes you question who you are and your beliefs. I sometimes had to remind myself this book was published in 1891, because it definitely feels timeless. Or maybe it’s rather that we lives in a constant cycle of life and tend to repeat our patterns over and over as humans. One of my favorite things was the exploration of the relationship between art and artist and how they intrinsically connected and evolved in life and in the way we perceive the world. It surprised me, it made me gasp, it made me hate it and love it at the same time. A must read. This has been my favorite read of the year so far.

Does anybody on here write a bad review of Oscar Wilde? I am not qualified to give this author less than five stars 🤣

Idk like fake printed? It was a weird size and the paper felt like printer paper other than that it was fine

Très bon livre

Undoubtedly the best novel written by Oscar Wilde... Storyline is quite attractive, and you will find many profound comments concerning such as love, art, life,etc. Readers should keep in mind that Lord Henry (intimate friend of Dorian Gray ) is the 'shadow main character' of this story.

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