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The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
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...  more »
ISBN-13: 9781593081751
ISBN-10: 1593081758
Publication Date: 9/20/2004
Pages: 288
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 24

3.8 stars, based on 24 ratings
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 216 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
From Amazon.com
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.
dellrosie avatar reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
One of best horror stories ever written.
Read All 10 Book Reviews of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

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reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 9 more book reviews
Very interesting read.
reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 53 more book reviews
Personally it bored the crap out of me. I didn't even finish it.
reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on
I really enjoyed this book because it is a very unusual book. I won't ruin it for you but the story is wonderfully told and the moral of the book catches you off guard.
reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 4 more book reviews
This is a wonderful classic by Oscar Wilde.
reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 3 more book reviews
This edition actually has an ISBN #0-965-072298, but it does not show up on PBS's system.
reviewed The Picture of Dorian Gray on + 25 more book reviews
Good book! Interesting take on outer and inner beauty.

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