The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde, Mariella De Souza, Alexandre Barbosa de Souza, et al.

Book Overview

An astounding novel of decadence, debauchery, and secrecy from one of Ireland's greatest writers. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Enthralled by his own... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587264692
• ISBN13: 9781587264696
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Borders
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Best Classic

This is the best classic I've ever read, and nothing will convince me otherwise.

Lovee

i love this book , gives me gay vibes but im only on like chapter 3

Book in terrible condition

Every time I get a book from here I literally worry what kind of condition it will come in. This book came with writing all over it, to the point where it was illegible. I ordered it in very good condition, so the condition of the book is contradicting!

haven’t read it yet but….

I haven’t been able to read it yet but I flipped through it last night and there is writing all over the book and not just little notes here and there it’s literally all over each page ?? and what got me was a piece of hair still in the book which is just so so disgusting and it stated that the book was in good condition, how is writing all over the pages good condition ?

No description of book quality

My book stated to be in good condition-- it nowhere specified that it was extensively written in and highlighted. For the price I am okay with this but it should clearly indicated the books actual quality and issues.

The Ugly Side Of Beauty

I didn’t find anything I didn’t enjoy in this story, I would’ve liked it to be longer, granted, Lord Henry’s character was pretty unlikable but also very interesting, he poisoned the mind of naive and beautiful Dorian, and was the biggest influence to his downfall, sometimes it sucks to be so beautiful.

Book Condition

Chose a book in vgc. But the book has tears on dust jacket. As well as misprints and missing pages

Book wasw covered in hightlighter and pen marks that covered the writing

I was really excited to get the book and I ordered the very good condition on this book bc I prefer my books to be in good condition but the book I got was covered in highlighter marks all over the pages, pen markings that covered words, and empty pages of the book were covered in notes and marker.

"Beauty is a form of Genius."

Oscar Wilde was one of the foremost representatives of Aestheticism, a movement based on the notion that art exists for no other purpose than its existence itself ("l'art pour l'art"), not for the purpose of social and moral enlightenment. Born in Dublin and a graduate of Oxford's Magdalen College, he initially worked primarily as a journalist, editor and lecturer, but gradually turned to writing and produced his most acclaimed works in the six-year span from 1890 to 1895, roughly coinciding with the period of his romantic involvement with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, sixteen years his junior. Douglas's strained relationship with his father, John Sholto Douglas, Marquees of Queensberry, eventually resulted in a series of confrontations between Wilde and the Marquees, which first led to a libel suit brought by Wilde against his lover's father (who had openly accused Wilde of "posing as a sodomite" and threatened to disown his son if he didn't give up his acquaintance with the writer) and subsequently to two criminal trials against Wilde for "gross indecencies," based on a law generally interpreted to prohibit homosexual relationships. Sentenced to a two-year term of "hard labor" in Reading Gaol, Wilde emerged from prison in 1897 a spiritually, physically and financially broken man and, unable to continue living in England or Ireland, after three years' wanderings throughout Europe died in 1900 of cerebral meningitis, barely 46 years old. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Wilde's only novel besides seven plays as well as several works of short fiction, poetry, nonfiction and two fairy tale collections originally written for his two sons, is critical to an understanding of Wilde's body of work and his personality primarily for two reasons: First, because it constitutes one of his earliest fully accomplished formulations of Aestheticism, and secondly because of its undeniable undercurrent of homoeroticism; an inclination which, after a six-year marriage widely thought to initially have been a true love match, Wilde had begun to explore more openly around the time of the novel's creation (1890). The story's title character is an exceptionally handsome young man who, both in the eyes of the artist tasked to paint his portrait, Basil Hallward, and in those of their somewhat older friend Lord Henry Wotton, epitomizes perfect beauty and is coveted by both men for that very reason. Seduced by hedonistic Lord Henry into believing that beauty can literally justify anything, including any act of immorality, Dorian sells his soul for maintaining his beautiful appearance, letting his portrait age in his stead. (In that, his character resembles Goethe's and Marlowe's Faust.) He then quickly turns from an innocent youth into a cruel and calculating man whom society, in its shallow adherence to appearances, nonetheless never associates with any of the results of his cruelty, never looking beyond the surface of his handsome exterior and assuming that a man so beautifu

A Thrilling Read

I first was introduced to Dorian Gray through a book club, and I thought 'Oh no, Oscar Wilde, here I go, another hard to read boring society book". I was wrong. Within the first two chapters of Dorian Gray I was intrigued and fascinated. This book deals with several issues that are as important now as they are today: the way our culture worships beauty and youth, an admiration that boarders on homosexual love, virtues, the differences between men and women, and what art is and what makes it truly art. Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man, who sees a portrait of himself and says "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young...If only it were the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the portrait to grow old...I would give my soul for that!" The book takes off from there, leading you from a small theater to great parties. While younger readers may find some of the wording as tough as an old gym shoe, anyone older than 13 with an interest in mystery, romance, and how society runs, will find this a pleasurable and haunting read.