The Picture of Dorian Gray - Softcover

Wilde, Oscar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420952625 ISBN 13: 9781420952629

Publisher: Digireads.com, 2016

Synopsis

Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” was first published in 1890 and is the classic tale of the moral decline of its title character, Dorian Gray. While Dorian has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward he is lectured to by Lord Henry Wotton, who espouses a hedonistic world view. Dorian is drawn to Wotton’s belief that beauty and sensuality are the only things in life worth pursuing and wishes that he would stay young while his portrait changes instead. In the years that follow Dorian pursues a life of vice and debauchery, committing unspeakable acts along the way. With the passage of time, Dorian’s wish comes true, as his age and withering moral character are reflected in his portrait instead of himself. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is arguably one of Wilde’s most popular works, which caused quite a scandal in Victorian England when it was first published, for its glorification of decadency. A chilling tale, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is at once both an intricate character study and a sharp criticism of the improprieties of the Victorian age. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

About this title

Review:

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."

Review:

"Every line that Wilde ever wrote affected me so enormously." --Morrissey, musician "A heady late-Victorian tale of double-living, in which Dorian's fatal, corruptive influence over women and men alike is suggestively indistinct." --Sarah Waters, author, Fingersmith

About this edition

• Publisher: Digireads.com
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1420952625
• ISBN 13: 9781420952629
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 162