The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.
The longer and revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface—a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake—based in part …
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic and philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Fearing the story was indecent, prior to publication the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.
The longer and revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface—a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake—based in part on his press defences of the novel the previous year. The content, style, and presentation of the preface made it famous in its own right, as a literary and artistic manifesto. In April 1891, the publishing firm of Ward, Lock and Company, who had distributed the shorter, more inflammatory, magazine version in England the previous year, published the revised version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by Wilde. It exists in several versions: the 1890 magazine edition (in 13 chapters), with important material deleted before publication by the magazine's editor, J. M. Stoddart; the "uncensored" version submitted to Lippincott's Monthly Magazine for publication (also in 13 chapters), with all of Wilde's original material intact, first published in 2011 by Harvard University Press; and the 1891 book edition (in 20 chapters). As literature of the 19th century, The Picture of Dorian Gray "pivots on a gothic plot device" with strong themes interpreted from Faust.
Välillä täytyy lukea klassikkoja. Kuten kaikki tietävät, Oscar Wilde on eittämättä yksi kirjallisuushistorian suuria sanan säilän mestareita. Tämäkin teos sisältää kuolemattomia onelinereita lähes joka sivulla. Jaana Kapari-Jatan suomennos välittää tässä hyvin Wilden kielen sujuvuuden.
Tarinana sen sijaan koin teoksen lähinnä luotaan työntävänä. Yläluokkaisten kusipäiden tunnontuskailut ja tekosyvälliset filosofoinnit lähinnä ärsyttivät. Tarina on olevinaan moraliteetti, mutta se ei oikein vakuuta, kun suoranaiset henkirikoksetkin näyttäytyvät lähinnä abstrakteina esteettis-moraalisina ongelmina. Luokkanäkökulma loistaa kokonaan poissaolollaan; alempaan yhteiskuntaluokkaan kuuluvien ihmisten kohtelua roskaväkenä ei juurikaan problematisoida. Hedonistisia filosofisia näkemyksiään sivukaupalla lateleva Lordi Henry on yksi vastenmielisimmistä hahmoista, joihin olen kaunokirjallisuudessa törmännyt, enkä ole aivan varma, oliko tämä Wilden tarkoituskin. Sinänsä uskon, että kirja kuvaa viktoriaanisen Englannin yläluokan arvomaailmaa jokseenkin realistisesti, mutta olisin tarvinnut kriittisempää suhtautumista siihen, että kirja olisi alkanut innostaa.
Normally I find stories about terrible people to be uninteresting, but I found this classic of gothic horror to be an entertaining read mainly due simply to the word crafting of Wilde.
Note: this is not the edition I read. With nearly 14,000 editions of this work in the database, I'm not going to attempt to find the correct one, especially since I'm not sure it's even listed. For the record, I read the Monochrome Books edition of 2023 featuring white text on black paper, and for which the publisher did not see fit to procure an isbn number.
Review of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
All these many years I'd thought it [a:Oscar Wilde|3565|Oscar Wilde|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1673611182p2/3565.jpg]'s [b:The Picture of Dorian Gray|1857397|The Picture of Dorian Gray|Oscar Wilde|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1314903532l/1857397.SY75.jpg|1858012] was simply about a painting that aged while its subject didn't. That's not wholly accurate. What happens is that the painting shows not only age but the negative side of Dorian Gray's being. The image begins to look cruel and evil as Dorian himself continues to look like an innocent handsome young man. Dorian is, by the way, what would now be called an influencer, and I'm waiting for something to come out about a YouTube star whose image and real being contrast in an interesting way. This book is so full of quotes that the page immediately inside the front cover references several of them. On nearly every page, though, you can find a Wilde witticism. He was the [a:Fran Lebowitz|8127311|Fran Lebowitz|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1536147926p2/8127311.jpg] of his day, which was …
All these many years I'd thought it [a:Oscar Wilde|3565|Oscar Wilde|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1673611182p2/3565.jpg]'s [b:The Picture of Dorian Gray|1857397|The Picture of Dorian Gray|Oscar Wilde|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1314903532l/1857397.SY75.jpg|1858012] was simply about a painting that aged while its subject didn't. That's not wholly accurate. What happens is that the painting shows not only age but the negative side of Dorian Gray's being. The image begins to look cruel and evil as Dorian himself continues to look like an innocent handsome young man. Dorian is, by the way, what would now be called an influencer, and I'm waiting for something to come out about a YouTube star whose image and real being contrast in an interesting way. This book is so full of quotes that the page immediately inside the front cover references several of them. On nearly every page, though, you can find a Wilde witticism. He was the [a:Fran Lebowitz|8127311|Fran Lebowitz|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1536147926p2/8127311.jpg] of his day, which was the last decades of the nineteenth century. I don't know what the literary device is called, but Wilde uses contradictory balanced exchanges often. A: What about dumb people? B: Dumb people are the smartest of all. Excerpt:
"Never marry a woman with straw-colored hair, Dorian," he said, after a few puffs. "Why, Harry?" "Because they are so sentimental." "But I like sentimental people." "Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed." "I don't think I am likely to marry, Harry. I am too much in love. That is one of your aphorisms. I am putting it into practice as I do everything you say."
Beautifully written. However, there was one or two chapters in the middle that devote themselves to talking about Dorian's various fads and passing interests, and while I enjoyed the flowery prose they just meandered uninterestingly and I didn't see how they added to the plot or to the allegory—although it's very likely that I could've just missed the meaning. Other than that though, I really enjoyed it. Wonderful philosophical introspections (including questionable ones by Lord Henry), and a consistent but hidden underlying allegory (although admittedly obvious if you know about Wilde's personal life).
Unrelated, but even if I didn't know Wilde was primarily a playwright I still would've been able to tell because all the dialogue feels like a play rather than a novel.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde offers the reader a compelling lesson how how narcissism and hedonism lead to inevitable pain and suffering for both the pleasure-seeker and those whom he or she crosses in their lives.
The story opens as a conversation between an artist, Basil Hallward, and a minor English lord, Henry "Harry" Wotton. The subject of their conversation is Hallward's infatuation with a young, up-and-coming nobleman named Dorian Gray who, among other things, represents the ideal of male beauty and youthful innocence. Hallward has neared completion of what he considers a masterpiece—a portrait of the young Dorian Gray.
Both Hallward and Wotton perceive Dorian Gray as an "uncarved block." The "uncarved block" is a symbol in Taoism which indicates an individual who does not yet bear the stain of learning and civilization. Thus, Hallward sees Gray as embodying an artistic ideal and the potential to …
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde offers the reader a compelling lesson how how narcissism and hedonism lead to inevitable pain and suffering for both the pleasure-seeker and those whom he or she crosses in their lives.
The story opens as a conversation between an artist, Basil Hallward, and a minor English lord, Henry "Harry" Wotton. The subject of their conversation is Hallward's infatuation with a young, up-and-coming nobleman named Dorian Gray who, among other things, represents the ideal of male beauty and youthful innocence. Hallward has neared completion of what he considers a masterpiece—a portrait of the young Dorian Gray.
Both Hallward and Wotton perceive Dorian Gray as an "uncarved block." The "uncarved block" is a symbol in Taoism which indicates an individual who does not yet bear the stain of learning and civilization. Thus, Hallward sees Gray as embodying an artistic ideal and the potential to do unlimited good through his physical and emotional charms. Wotton, however, sees Gray as an interesting experiment in his "new hedonism" philosophy that argues life boils down to the pursuit of pleasure and the retention of youth and beauty.
As the story progresses, Wotton exerts an enormous amount of influence over the young Dorian Gray. The completion of Gray's portrait, as well as, the consistent praise Gray receives from his companions convinces him that he must preserve his physical beauty at all costs. Gray prays that his physical body might never see the slightest imperfection of age, while the painted Gray would age and bear the burden of any sinful behavior. What I found most compelling about this portion of the work is how narcissistic behavior is often encouraged and born from environmental factors. Gray was relatively unassuming and lacked any complete awareness of his physical charms. However, he soon became "hooked" on the constant hype from Hallward and Wotton and soon believed that, aside from his beauty, he possessed very little of worth. This obsession with physical qualities and constant adoration reminds me of our current social context wherein the young chase "likes" on platforms such as Instagram or Facebook that reinforce one's conception that they are uniquely endowed with beauty.
The rest of the plot unfolds predictably as Gray becomes consumed by his pursuit of pleasure. He ruins the lives of those he crosses paths with—many commit suicide, others are driven to drug use, alcoholism, or addiction. Women are besmirched by having the remotest contact with Gray. Like most behavioral addicts or substance abusers, though, the "high" that Gray receives from the pursuit of various "passions" requires evermore risky behavior. Meanwhile, he begins to suffer the mental toll of sin and guilt although his physical body remains perfect despite the passage of time.
The climax of the story occurs when Gray murders his former friend, Hallward, in a spat of emotional rage. From there, Gray descends into madness and self-absorption. In the end, even Gray's meager attempts to be "good" were mere imitations of the real thing—he was only pursuing the "good" in an effort to boost his own ego or reputation, not for the sake of being good. The final scene presents Gray hoping to reform his life and "start over." He will destroy the portrait that has caused him such grief and hopefully end his "deal with the devil." Even this act, though, Wilde presents as another manifestation of Gray's survival instincts. This final action, perhaps Gray's most magnanimous in the entire book, is still entirely motivated by selfish desire.
All in all, a very interesting thought piece on the logical results of hedonism and self-centered behavior.
Review of 'Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I am so glad that you have never done anything—never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.
I enjoyed it, but Oscar Wilde clearly has a problem with women, jews, and anyone who isn't wealthy. Also, some parts dragged -- at one point he was literally just naming gemstones.
Review of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Oscar Wilde is immensely quotable and witty, I’m sure you’ll all recognise some bits of his prose. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a gothic tale full of various themes, but centrally the fear of aging and the idea that our sins are visible to the outside world through our aging. What would happen if you could halt that process?
I did feel a bit sorry for Dorian in places. He does seem rather naïve at the start and is led astray by Lord Henry Wotton, who thinks being a good person is incredibly dull. It doesn’t go into detail about the sinful things Dorian gets up to but it’s inferred through the fact he ends up with a pretty awful reputation. Yet every now and then there’s a glimpse of the old Dorian and I wished for him to finally see the error of his ways.
This 1891 edition …
Oscar Wilde is immensely quotable and witty, I’m sure you’ll all recognise some bits of his prose. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a gothic tale full of various themes, but centrally the fear of aging and the idea that our sins are visible to the outside world through our aging. What would happen if you could halt that process?
I did feel a bit sorry for Dorian in places. He does seem rather naïve at the start and is led astray by Lord Henry Wotton, who thinks being a good person is incredibly dull. It doesn’t go into detail about the sinful things Dorian gets up to but it’s inferred through the fact he ends up with a pretty awful reputation. Yet every now and then there’s a glimpse of the old Dorian and I wished for him to finally see the error of his ways.
This 1891 edition is an extended version rather than that which first appeared in a magazine, and it was also censored in places that hinted at a same sex romantic relationship. I still think it’s quite obvious that Basil fancied Dorian to a modern reader but my clothbound version included endnotes explaining what had been changed. I think I would have liked to have read the original version because I did think it went on a bit in places, it spends a long time talking about the opulence of their surroundings and a lot of conversations about art.
Not that it doesn’t have things to say about the nature of art, but really I wanted to get back to the painting and what Dorian was going to do. Another thing in the back of the clothbound, is a section containing contemporary reviews and, oh my, weren’t the critics scathing in their day? More-so that even the snarkiest blogger, and these were people writing in the national press. Oddly a Christian paper seemed to say the nicest things about the book, seeing it more as a moral tale than one of degradation.
Lord Henry Wotton is pretty sexist, I’m not sure if he’s meant to reflect Wilde’s own views or not, but in his mind women are air-headed, sub-humans. I could have done without all his mean comments but you wonder how much the way society made women act, made them come across that way. Perhaps the societal pressure around marriage was too much for Wilde, so he lashed out against the opposite sex. Maybe he was just angling for laughs.
Review of 'Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I have a few niggly problems with this book. Oscar Wilde seems to have cut quite a few corners, Dorian figures out the painting straight away and automatically accepts that as true. His life gets a bit out of control, he has got people in trouble but no reference to that happens and somebody commits suicide and that is mention only in passing. But once Oscar gets on to describing curtains and materials he has loads to say, pages and pages in fact.
All that aside I really did like this book, there is one scene in the middle which is so sudden and violent it is really shocking, very clever stuff. Also Sir Henry and his views on marriage and women had me laughing.
My copy of the book said it was uncut, all the parts that were banned due to homosexuality had been put back in. I have …
I have a few niggly problems with this book. Oscar Wilde seems to have cut quite a few corners, Dorian figures out the painting straight away and automatically accepts that as true. His life gets a bit out of control, he has got people in trouble but no reference to that happens and somebody commits suicide and that is mention only in passing. But once Oscar gets on to describing curtains and materials he has loads to say, pages and pages in fact.
All that aside I really did like this book, there is one scene in the middle which is so sudden and violent it is really shocking, very clever stuff. Also Sir Henry and his views on marriage and women had me laughing.
My copy of the book said it was uncut, all the parts that were banned due to homosexuality had been put back in. I have the feeling that was a lie cos I didn't notice anything... Maybe I am just super-innocent.
Review of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Continuing my quest to read through the classics. I can't believe I've not read this one before.
Art. Vanity. Hedonism. Sin. Murder. This book runs the gamut of debauchery. It was quite scandalous in 1890. Written by Oscar "Buck" Wilde, it was part of the evidence in his gross indecency trial and conviction. So many tragic ends in this one. Poor Sybil Vane! Poor James Vane! Poor Basil Hallward! No one who crosses Dorian's path comes out ok. Not even Dorian.
Enjoy this piece of classic horror, and if an artist friend asks you to sit for a portrait, tell him, "no thanks".