The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Oscar Wilde, Simon Callow: The Picture of Dorian Gray (AudiobookFormat, 1999, Harpercollins Pub Ltd)

audio cassette

Published Sept. 1, 1999 by Harpercollins Pub Ltd.

ISBN:
978-0-00-105460-8
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4 stars (23 reviews)

A remarkably handsome youth, Dorian Gray, meets Lord Henry Wotton and is corrupted into a life of terrible evil. Granted eternal youth, Dorian Gray lives a wild, dissipated life while his portrait grows old and haggard. Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works.

156 editions

Review of 'The picture of Dorian Gray' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

On one level it's an enjoyable gothic horror/comedic classic, with very "extra" characters swooning around and making declarations.
But considering Wilde's own life and his very public conduct thereof, it's just a tragic self-portrait of a man wracked by guilt and shame and a public who validated his self-condemnation.
Lord Henry's outrageous inversions of common values are often comedic nonsense. But sometimes they seem more authentic than the original sentiment they play off, and it's those moments when Wilde's self-flagellation is paused and his punishing art hits society broadside. Hey wait, what? He must have seemed like such a troll to the Victorians.

Review of 'Picture of Dorian Gray' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

For such a small novel, there is plenty of content. And that is how it should be, for if the main theme is Art (as the prologue might suggest)it ought to be complicated and thoughtful. After all, how would you answer the question: what is art?

In Wilde's only novel, Art is personified in Dorian Gray. The artists (there are two, Basil and Lord Henry)each contribute to this Art in their own way, and together with Dorian Gray, prove that "Art is quite useless." But what draws us to the Art? What is its soul? Is it constant like the Dorian's youth or does it change like his portrait in the attic? Does the application of Art determine its morality? Does it have morality?

This, of course, is just one layer of this insanely complex novel. It is also an analysis of a sort of nihilism, of innocence vs. experience, …