Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Loading...

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
11,83412378 (4.04)246
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

English (119)  French (3)  Spanish (1)  All languages (123)
Showing 1-5 of 119 (next | show all)
A great gothic tale with a fantastical twist. Even though it took me 50 pages to actually get engrossed, the story kept me quite interested. I have only ever read poetry and maxims attributed to Oscar Wilde, so this reading was a first for me. I was pleasantly surprised at how readable it was. Of course the macabre theme certainly helped, Wilde's obvious hedonism theme was written well into the story. It's hard for me to imagine a world where this book would cause such a controversy over its "homoerotic themes". There is no sex, no physical contact really between men, and the allusions to homosexuality could just as easily be considered platonic friendship. Besides, its not like Dorian Gray is a hero in anyway. He is obviously quite evil or at least grows to be. I'm simply having trouble imagining an educated critic read the novel and not see its satire.
Anyway, I enjoyed learning some new words, or old meanings of words, plus comparing the story of Dorian Gray to other Gothic tales like Uncle Silas. I felt this was a good introduction and I look forward to reading the rest of Oscar Wilde's work. ( )
  BenjaminHahn | Oct 31, 2009 |
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a well known classic and many people have some idea about the story line; a magic picture ages and bears the marks while Dorian himself doesn't change. While that is an important part, there is a lot more to the story. I felt it was well worth the time to read this one.

I admit ignorance in the subject but the first section of the book felt very much like a chaste homosexual romance. Recognizing the time it was written, I can see why many considered it lurid, one reviewer was almost apoplectic in his revulsion of the work (5-6 contemporary reviews of the work were available in the appendixes).

There were 3 main characters; Dorian, his artist friend Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotten. Basil and Henry gravitate around Dorian and appear to be like the little angel and the little devil that sit on each shoulder. Basil an artist in love with beauty and purity. Lord Henry, a cynic who enjoys putting down everything others hold in high regard. Since this is a moral tale, Dorian slowly listens to his little devil more and more, and as he suffers no serious repercussions for his forays into sin, his experiments become darker and more elaborate. His portrait, painted by Basil, is a road map and mirror to Dorian's depravity. This starts to eat away at Dorian's sanity.

Overall a fairly good tale, a little flowery like much of the Victorian lit but not nearly to the extent of Dracula. ( )
4 vote readafew | Oct 27, 2009 |
I was blown away by Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', an intelligently written piece of literature which cleverly shows the way that we value the visual, and how it can determine our actions in society. The characters of Lord Henry and Basil Hallward are powerful ideologies through which we find ourselves influenced through the initially innocent Dorian Gray, and as we follow him throughout the book, this influence leads us to view with horror how it can lead a human being to do things far from the imaginable. ( )
  kezumi | Oct 4, 2009 |
The writing is brilliant and witty but the content is horrifying. I particularly found myself loathing Lord Henry - he is one of the most truly evil characters - all gloss and polish and all nastiness underneath. In the end, I think Mr. Wilde makes a terrific case against the sophistries of men who think they can erase consequences merely by saying they don't exist. What you do does matter and does have consequences that you can't avoid. ( )
  tjsjohanna | Sep 30, 2009 |
I read a part of this book in our textbook and I wanted to know the whole story.
It's kind of the fantasy (horror) story.
Dorian Gray, main character of this story, believes the beauty is everything.
I don't think so but it is really important for his life... ( )
  kaho.i | Sep 28, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 119 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amid the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink flowering thorn.
La fragancia de las rosas llenaba el estudio y, al soplar entre los árboles del jardín la suave brisa estival, entraba por la puerta abierta el fuerte olor de las lilas o el perfume más sutil del rosado espino en flor.
Quotations
'Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are -- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks -- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.'
'Harry,' said Basil Hallward, looking him straight in the face, 'every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.'
He played with the idea and grew willful; tossed it into the air and transformed it; let it escape and recaptured it; made it iridescent with fancy and winged it with paradox. The praise of folly, as he went on, soared into a philosophy, and Philosophy herself became young, and catching the mad music of pleasure, wearing, one might fancy, her wine-stained robe and wreath of ivy, danced like a Bacchante over the hills of life, and mocked the slow Silenus for being sober. Facts fled before her like frightened forest things. Her white feet trod the huge press at which wise Omar sits, till the seething grape-juice rose round her bare limbs in waves of purple bubbles, or crawled in red foam over the vat's black, dripping, sloping sides. It was an extraordinary improvisation. He felt that the eyes of Dorian Gray were fixed on him, and the consciousness that amongst his audience there was one whose temperament he wished to fascinate seemed to give his wit keenness and to lend colour to his imagination. He was brilliant, fantastic, irresponsible. He charmed his listeners out of themselves, and they followed his pipe, laughing. Dorian Gray never took his gaze off him, but sat like one under a spell, smiles chasing each other over his lips and wonder growing grave in his darkening eyes.
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleThe Picture of Dorian Gray
Original publication date1891
People/CharactersDorian Gray, Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton, Sibyl Vane, James Vane, Alan Campbell
Important placesLondon, England, UK
Awards and honorsThe Observer's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (2003), 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006/2008 Edition), Guardian 1000 (Family and self)
First wordsThe studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amid the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink flowe... (show all)
Quotations'Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are -- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks -- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.', 'Harry,' said Basil Hallward, looking him straight in the face, 'every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is... (show all)
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
DescriptionDorian Gray has just had his portrait painted. It is a perfect likeness of the quite extraordinary beautiful young man, and it prompts him to make a mad wish for eternal youth. In the years to come, he devotes his public life... (show all)
Book description
Dorian Gray has just had his portrait painted. It is a perfect likeness of the quite extraordinary beautiful young man, and it prompts him to make a mad wish for eternal youth. In the years to come, he devotes his public life to and aestheticism-and his private one to decadence and debauchery.

Amazon.com (ISBN 014043187X, Paperback)

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."

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400)

(see all 6 descriptions)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 45,541,961 books!