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| The Picture of Dorian Gray (Penguin Longman Penguin Readers) | 
 enlarge | Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher: Longman
Category: Book
List Price: £5.20
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Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 876190
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 64
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.2
ISBN: 0582418089
EAN: 9780582418080
ASIN: 0582418089
Publication Date: November 1, 1999
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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From Amazon.co.uk
A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife", Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden." As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Further reading September 8, 2008
If you want a new slant on this classic novel,read 'The Ripper Code' by Thomas Toughill. This is the book which reveals that Oscar Wilde was blackballed by the Oxford Union.
 Good August 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Very challenging to begin with, although I can't explain whether this was primarily due to Oscar Wilde's writing style or getting to grip with the gentry from Victorian times. The novel seems to span a period of about 20 years although there were some serious jumps in time as nothing seemed to take that long. It wasn't until Dorian met a character later in the novel and mentioned an incident from 18 years earlier that I realised the time frame.
A clever novel whereby we need to think about what we wish for as the grass is not always greener on the other side and we never think about the consequences of our desires. Dorian in facts dreams of what most people wish for - to remain young. He offers his soul to a beautiful portrait of himself in return for perpetual youth. This is fine to begin with and whilst his beauty does remain, the portrait takes on the images of wildness and slow dilapidation of his soul. He is involved in crime and death in pursuit of his passion, resulting in his eventual surrender.
A clever novel focusing on every narcissistic thoughts of the human race have. A good reflection on the `dandy' of the Victorian era and a lovely portrayal in general of life in London at this time. The blurb states that this novel caused outrage when first published, which I was aware of and can understand why. However, it also states that this novel marked the onset of his own fatal reputation (as a homosexual I would presume) and his eventual downfall - which I don't understand why. From a difficult beginning this book had me hooked from a quarter of the way in. I look forward to seeing this interpreted on stage when I see it in September.
A good read July 22, 2008
Wilde's only novel is full of wonderful witty one liners and is very thought provoking!!! An interesting read!
 Were it not for Henry Wotton this would have been a complete waste of time July 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
For some reason I found myself reading this novel in the style of Stephen Fry, which seemed wholly appropriate in my mind.
Despite this I failed to find any real interest in the story or characters. In my opinion the novel's fame has more to do with its notoriety than actual content. The only character I truly took an interest in was Lord Henry Wotton - though I believe this may have something to do with me imagining him as the literary incarnation of the aforementioned Fry.
The portrait on the cover of this edition also bares an uncanny resemblance to my cousin.
A Tale of Three Characters May 14, 2008
I read this book a long time ago and have recently re-read it for a book group. My opinion of it has changed dramatically now that I am older.
I find Lord Henry Wooton one of the most wicked, selfish, egotistical and self-absorbed characters in English literature. Hypothetically if ever I dined with him I would probably stab him in the hand with the dessert fork. The one slightly redeeming section for him is at the end of the book where he appears a bit naive in response to the intensity of Dorian's despair.
I do think that Dorian is inherantly wicked due to his vanity. However, Basil Hallward has no small part to play in his downfall as he encouraged this by his obsession with his handsome looks.
I love one of the comments in my version of the book. It said that Oscar Wilde was quoted as saying that the world thought that he was Lord Henry Wooton, he, however, saw himself has Basil Hallward, but would like to have been Dorian Gray in other circumstances.
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