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| The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oxford Bookworms) | 
 enlarge | Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Category: Book
List Price: £2.50
Buy Used: £0.58
You Save: £1.92 (77%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 374406
Media: Paperback
Pages: 64
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.3
ISBN: 0194216527
EAN: 9780194216524
ASIN: 0194216527
Publication Date: January 1, 1990
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 44 more reviews...
 A New Light..... September 27, 2008
After reading a review of "The Ripper Code" in the TLS, I had to return to my school favourite and reread it. It was fascinating to read it in a new light.
 Sublime September 25, 2008
I loved this book, not so much for the cautionary tale or the disintigration of Dorian's conscience, but for the beautiful philosophy embelishing the story; many of the things Henry says, for example, are interesting and thought-provoking theories on life. And I loved how youth and beauty were depicted in the book. The only criticism I would give is that it was far too short for my liking, and I thought that the part between Dorian's youth and his 38th year could've been elaborated on. Though an original, genius story!
WONDERFUL September 24, 2008
A great work that encapsulates many of the author's thoughts on the form and (non-)function of art, highlights various scientific modes of thought fashionable at the time, and focuses on effects of moral hypocrisy. All of which serve as a frame within which a highly entertaining and thought-provoking tale is told.
However, as Wilde himself said:
"All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It's the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."
So I shall say no more, except that it's an excellent read and one that will have to be read once more in order to again immerse myself in, and appreciate anew, the varied and colourful layers of the text.
Further reading September 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
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