The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde Classic Novel, (Gothic Literature; Victorian Morality), Ribbon Page Marker, Perfect for Gifting Paperback – May 20, 2020

Dorian Gray is absurdly good-looking. Utterly infatuated, Basil Hallward captures Dorian's youthful beauty in a portrait.While posing for this portrait, Dorian meets Basil's friend, Lord Henry Wotton, who charmingly preaches hedonism. Lord Henry's efforts to corrupt Dorian work quickly. Convinced that youth and beauty are the only things worth having in life, Dorian looks upon his finished portrait with cruel jealousy. His image will never grow old, but he will.One wish sends the plot of the novel into action: Dorian wishes the portrait would age, while he stays youthful.Enter a lover whose heart Dorian breaks. Her despair coerces her to suicide. With her death on his conscience, he notices an evil glint in the eye of his portrait. Over the years, Basil's painting begins to age. Dorian sabotages reputations and even commits murder, all the while looking as young and beautiful as he did on the day his portrait was painted. However, the portrait-a grotesque reminder of his double life-documents every immoral act.Focusing on duplicity and aestheticism, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a captivating and cinematic tale. Oscar Wilde's knack for dialogue is what made him a famous playwright and parts of Dorian Gray are rich with clever play-like exchanges.Lord Henry's wit is exceptionally tantalizing. But he doesn't seem to take himself too seriously, whereas Dorian adopts everything Lord Henry preaches with the conviction of a Southern Baptist. He's basically just a dumb pretty person that everyone coddles despite the fact that he's a terrible human being.**Side note**The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's only novel. The book was scandalous when it was released in 1891 because of clear homoerotic undertones. Dorian's lovers are both men and women. Though not overtly sexual, Basil's infatuation with Dorian is questionable. Wilde himself had an affair with Robert Ross.

I chose this book to bulk up on my base of "classics" and I'm so glad I did. I love Oscar Wilde's writing style, so sad this was the only novel he wrote. From the very beginning I was mesmerized and was quite sad to finish the book. A classic story of the perils of vanity, I don't want to give anything away, just read it. It's a pretty quick read too.

Besides the clever fiction and vivid details that draws you in deep, this book brings out the shame of humanity and puts it on display so elegantly. The man got jailed for this book and boy was it worth it!!

Nice hard cover book. Very attractive looking book. Has the original story in it. So it is a really good buy.

One of the best stories I've ever read! Highly recommended!

i like to read

I knew what this story was about long before finally reading it. That's probably common. The famous premise is a fascinating one, though I found myself wondering if the narrative would have been even more impactful if written as a short story or novella length rather than stretched out to a full novel. The Lord Henry character who serves the purpose of putting bad ideas in Dorian's head gives multiple speeches throughout detailing his hedonistic world view. If the number or word count of these lectures was cut in half I don't think the story would suffer much from the absence. Another decision made by Oscar Wilde was not to show readers very much of Dorian's behavior. His first act of cruelty is laid out before us as is his final one, but in between we are only told that his bad reputation precedes him without being shown what he has done to earn it. It's left to our imagination. A few more scenes exhibiting decadent behavior rather than various dinner party conversations in which a pro decadence philsophy is expressed would have made for a juicier read. Would it have made for a better read? That's arguable, as perhaps it also is whether this book is intententially homoerotic or simply written during a time when heterosexual men were much more comfortable going on and on about how good looking a guy was. What's beyond debate is that Oscar Wilde came up with a great idea to build a story around, one that is as timeless as the desire for eternal youth.

The book is a fairly easy read and there are some clear morals offered from the story and a reflection on our culture's obsession with appearances and such. Some of the characters are interesting, particularly Lord Henry, who really captivates many readers of the book.

Croyant acheter un original, j'ai acheté une simple impression réalisée par Amazon...

Stay away from this edition at all costs. It is more expensive copy of the Penguin clothbound classics edition. It is the size of a children’s book with large print and cheaply produced. I am surprised at Amazon stocking this pirated copy. It is only when you look extremely closely at the details that you see that this is ‘independently published’, which is euphemism for a ‘rip-off.’

This book is a scam copy with spelling mistakes and it large with huge print

on dirait une encyclopédie un format énorme et pas du tout pratique très déçue.. Je m'attendais à un format roman normal bien plus petit et épais. La couverture est clairement un copiée collée d'une édition classique. Déçue

Oscar spelt wrong in the inside a4 bad quality. Complete knock off of the original CLOTHBOUND CLASSICS