The Picture of Dorian Gray scandalized readers when it was first published in 1890. Written in Wilde’s signature style, the story has gone on to become an enduring tale of man’s hubris and narcissism. The well-known artist Basil Hallward meets the young Dorian Gray in the stately London home of his aunt, Lady Brandon. Basil becomes immediately infatuated with Dorian, who is cultured, wealthy, and … cultured, wealthy, and remarkably beautiful. Such beauty, Basil believes, is responsible for a new mode of art, and he decides to paint a portrait of the young man. While finishing the painting, Basil reluctantly introduces Dorian to his friend Lord Henry Wotton, a man known for scandal and exuberance. Wotton inspires Dorian to live life through the senses, to feel beauty in everyday experience. Dorian becomes enthralled by Wotton’s ideas, and more so becomes obsessed with remaining young and beautiful. He expresses a desire to sell his soul and have the portrait of him age, while he, the man, stays eternally young. A tragic story of hedonism and desire, The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only published novel.more
The Picture of Dorian Gray
By oscarwilde
One of my all-time favorites – just an amazing book – the writing is as tight and witty as writing can get, while all the while filled with dread and creeps.
Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite authors, and this is my favorite Oscar Wilde book! It’s so entrancing and sophisticated, and yet poignant at times, too.
A strange story that tells a strange truth—even the author could not escape from the realities that shape the human journey. This is one of those stories that sticks in the mind and plays with small incidents, delving deeper into the reasons why we do what we do—asking uncomfortable questions. A great conversation starter with students and kids. Just don’t expect the conversation to end any time soon.
So I read Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest back in high school and found it amusing, but it did nothing to prepare me for this. I mean, I knew the premise of the story, of course–that Dorian Gray has a painting of himself that ages while he remains the same age. But what I didn’t realize is that this is a real horror book, with murder and suspense, even a fairly seedy scene in an opium den.
Dorian Gray starts off as a young aristocrat who’s so unusually handsome that everybody is drawn to him. He’s also charming and good-natured, hardly aware of his own beauty, and appears well on his way to a happy, upstanding life. Dorian has a somewhat older painter friend, Basil, who finds inspiration in Dorian’s appearance and is always having him drop by to work on a portrait. In fact, Basil paints the best he ever has when Dorian is sitting for him, feeling himself as a conduit for some sort of primal artistic force. When the portrait is finally complete, he shows it to Dorian, who never realized before quite how good-looking he is. Basil agrees to give the painting to him, and when Dorian hangs it, he gives a sort of prayer asking that such unblemished beauty should never be marred.
Basil introduces Dorian to another friend, Henry, who’s a great cynic. Henry considers himself a student of human psychology, and enjoys manipulating people so he can see how they react in various situations. When he sees how handsome Dorian is, he takes him under his wing, knowing Dorian will provide many opportunities to see the workings of human nature. He encourages Dorian to indulge his senses, and loans him an evil but fascinating book about a Frenchman who dedicated his life to pleasure. (I don’t believe the author is ever specified, but perhaps the implication is that the book was by the Marquis de Sade?)
Under Henry’s tutelage and the influence of the book, Dorian becomes ever more materialistic, interested only in owning beautiful things, having pleasurable experiences, and living as if his life itself were a work of art. At a rundown playhouse in a bad part of London one night, Dorian happens to see an amazing young actress named Sibyl Vane. He goes backstage and woos her after her performances, eventually promising to marry her, although he never tells her his real name. He brings Basil and and Henry to the playhouse to see her, but it turns out that Sibyl’s performances were inspired by her longing for love, and now that she’s found real love in Dorian, she can no longer act.
Dorian, disgusted by Sibyl’s terrible performance and embarrassed in front of his friends, ends their relationship. The distraught Sibyl, who is only seventeen, commits suicide. Dorian finds himself unmoved by her suicide, since she was no longer of any interest to him. He happens to notice that the painting of him has changed–the lines around the mouth appearing crueler, the eyes colder. He realizes that the painting will take all the burden of his sin and aging, while he himself will remain ever youthful.
Thus begins Dorian’s long descent into degradation. I won’t describe how it proceeds any further, other than to say this is a fully satisfying horror tale. As one might expect, Oscar Wilde’s prose is exquisite and the conversations sparkling. I especially liked the lengthy but fun descriptions of all of Dorian’s costly purchases–tapestries and jewels and antiques, all described as vividly as Dorian himself would do.
I’ve decided to credit this book with my No Excuses tag–meaning a short, important book that’s so easy to read that there’s no excuse for never tackling it. I’m not sure what took me so long to get me to this one! It’s fun and goes quickly and is something of a classic. For those who would be interested in an exquisitely written horror novel, I recommend it highly.
I knew the story and I’ve seen several movies about Dorian Gray, but I’d never read the book. I’m glad I finally decided to to do. I love the language and wit that Oscar Wilde uses to tell the story of his doomed friend, Dorian Gray , who gives over his soul to have everlasting youth and beauty. I say friend because it is thought that Mr. Wilde considered himself to be the character of Lord Henry Wootton in real life. And, if Dorian is the vain innocent that chooses a life of debauchery over virtue, then Lord Henry is surely the devil that tempted him along that path. The story is classic and the lesson it teaches is worth reflecting on. Does anything worth having come without a price? Probably not.
“Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding if his hands even.”
This book is brilliant, smart, entertaining, haunting, and filled with truth. Oscar Wilde has such a way with portraying the soul and what we do when no one is watching. Some of the lines in here gave me the chills. So good. SO GOOD.
Whenever I’m asked which book is my favorite, I point the person in this direction. This story is not only my favorite but it was also the one that inspired me to pursue my love of writing.
This is my favorite book of all time. You have to read it! 😀
The original haunting classic, who’s premise has been used time and again in so many shows and movies. Yet none can surpass Mr. Wilde’s writing style and prose which makes this book a must read classic.
I’d give this book 4.5 stars. My family and I are doing a ‘classic’ book club, where we read a different classic novel each month, and my brother chose this one. He said Oscar Wilde is one of the best authors of all time. I honestly see why he has this opinion!
This book was SO different than what I thought it would be. It’s very philosophical and obviously way before it’s time. But I am not surprised at all that it is considered a classic.
Dorian Gray…..what an interesting character! He is definitely the classic example of someone who always claims to be the victim, blames all his sins on other people and then withholds forgiveness when he is the one who caused the problems. His complete lack of empathy just baffled me! It’s unfortunate that he chose such a poor mentor who steered him in all the wrong ways.
Speaking of Dorian’s mentor: Harry. If anyone was supposed to represent Satan, it was this guy. He was subtle and gently pulled Dorian down while praising him for bad behavior and cushioning every one of Dorian’s bad decisions.
The only reason why I would have dropped half a star (if I could) is because there’s a couple chapters in the middle where there are long drawn out descriptions of Dorian’s clothes and possessions, as well as stories in this book that Harry gave him that Dorian claims to have shaped the whole of his life choices. I kinda zoned out during that part.
I thought I knew how this was going to end (because this is a well known story and I already knew the very basics about it before I read it) but I was still very surprised!
For a classic novel, this book was easy to read in my opinion. I could understand everything that was happening and could understand all the conversations and verbal parts. I actually listened to the audio provided with the Amazon Classic Kindle Unlimited version of this book. I really enjoyed the narrator.
If anyone can’t decide weather or not to read this book, I’d suggest you do!
I thought this book was pretty interesting. I took a few chapters for me to really get into it but once I was I was hooked.
You can never get tired of a classic
It was based on an interesting premise: A man makes a wish that he will remain as young and beautiful as a painting of himself at age 20. The wish comes true and the painting ages and worse, shows the sins of the man over time. The story is about the effect on Dorian Gray and his soul.
The writing was beautiful, poetic at times. I listened to it on CD, and I think the entire disk 4 (or maybe 3) was basically a poetic narrative of Dorian’s life from age 20 to 38. I got lost and my mind drifted because there were no scenes. It was way too much summary in my opinion. Of course, the book was written in the late 1800s, so it was probably appropriate for the times.
But my biggest issue was the characters. I have a difficult time loving books if I can’t identify or at least root for a character. And there was nothing to like about Dorian. He was a rich, vain man who did nothing but take advantage of his looks. Getting into his deluded mind was very creepy, especially when he killed (won’t say who) someone with no remorse. At the end, I thought he might redeem himself as his began to realize how terrible his sins were. But even then, he made excuses and continued to act selfishly. And I didn’t like his friend, Sir Henry much better.
Oscar Wilde wrote Dorian 5 years before his public trial which scandalized and ruined his career. Full of interesting predictions and projections about art and beauty and a peek into the future of Wilde’s downfall. A fascinating read.
I should have read this book years ago.
Most of you have probably heard of this book, and most literature buffs have probably read it. If you haven’t, I should tell you that this is gonna be a GIANT SPOILER ALERT from here on out.
So the book is a philosophical novel about a young man who realizes that his beauty is fleeting, and that he will one day not only grow old, but lose the beauty that he’s been taking for granted for the last twenty years. In a fit of desperation, afraid to lose the one thing that he seems to be truly good at being (aka: beautiful), he unknowingly sells his soul to the devil, wishing that the portrait of him that shows his beauty will grow old in his stead.
It’s only a few months later that he realizes that for every wicked deed he commits, for every day he ages, the portrait starts to wither away. Realizing that his wish has come true, Dorian spends the rest of his life flitting from person to person, causing damage to all he meets, except for his friend Harry, a reputable Lord who seems to be the only one unaffected by Dorian (more on this later).
Dorian, as far as the reader knows, causes the suicide of two people, the accidental death of another person, and actually murders someone else. And with every cruel deed, every heart he breaks and every single year that goes by, the portrait grows uglier and older. And Dorian stays a young, beautiful lad of twenty, even eighteen years after his first truly terrible action.
The story ends quite satisfactorily, with Dorian realizing the error of his ways and taking his anger out on the painting, killing himself and restoring the painting to its former glory as a true work of art. And while I enjoyed reading it, I had so many questions by the end of it.
1. Why is Harry the only person who isn’t affected by Dorian?
I thought about this for a while after I finished reading the novel, and I’ve come to two conclusions.
a) Harry is some sort of devil’s advocate (quite literally), and is the one who sold Dorian’s soul to the devil in the first place.
b) Harry’s philosophy on life – his hedonistic, carefree approach to life and everything in it – is the reason that Dorian became what he did. Maybe this means that he’s actually worse than Dorian, since he’s the one who ‘infected’ him in the first place.
2. How did Dorian sell his soul to the devil without any actual contact?
I would have loved to see an interaction between Dorian and Satan, where he sells his soul to him in the traditional way I understand it – with a contract and all that. But there was no such scene, which saddened me a little bit. But, to link back to what I said earlier, what if Harry was the one who sold Dorian’s soul to Satan by proxy, by being in the room when Dorian made the wish?
Or maybe Harry himself is the devil?
I might just be clutching at straws here.
3. What did Dorian blackmail Alan with?!
This one I’m pretty confident in my ability to figure out.
My first impression of both Dorian and Basil upon meeting them in the novel is that both are incredibly gay men. Considering the fact that Wilde himself was a convicted sodomite, this wouldn’t be too much of a stress. Basil almost openly admits to Dorian that he’s in love with him, which is why he starts to distance himself from him in the first place. Dorian, in fact, admits that the friendship was tainted by romance. Sounds pretty much like a wicked case of the nineteenth century friendzone to me.
But Dorian also seems pretty gay too – it’s almost like he’s too pretty to be straight. And while he claims to fall in love with women, it always seems so superficial. His only real close relationships throughout the novel are Basil and Harry. However, Harry himself remarks that Dorian has a lot of young male companions throughout his prolonged youth that, when the relationship ends, leave the room when he enters. Sound like scorned lovers? Yeah, I thought so too.
But here’s the kicker. Alan is one of the people who Dorian was very close to, until they just stopped talking for some reason. When Dorian asks Alan for help with disposing a body, Alan refuses, until Dorian writes down one thing on a piece of paper that changes Alan’s view completely. Alan says that he’s been forced to do it, lest Dorian will reveal what’s on the paper to their friends at the club.
Now, what could possibly be so bad in a society like nineteenth century London?
Remember how I said Wilde was a convicted sodomite?
So yeah, that’s just my two cents on this novel. Quite a length book review this time around, but I needed to get my feelings out somewhere.
Final rating: 4/5. Unanswered questions are the bane of my existence, but damn if I didn’t love reading this book anyway.
Audiobook Review
Read by Russell Tovey
My first time picking this classic up and I loved, loved it! Way darker than I expected it to be but that is okay. I loved Dorian’s character development as well as the other characters. Wilde wrote in such a way that it truly painted a picture in my mind. Russell Tovey did an excellent job with the narration, especially when moving from character to character. My new favorite classic!
“How dare I say anything bad about Oscar Wilde, literary demigod. Loved the first chapters but starting to drag on at 62% through … almost impossible to follow when I’m sleepy. Still who’m I ? Anyway will finish it, only slowly.”
In case you never read this famous novel by Oscar Wilde (his only novel), this is one classic that doesn’t feel dated or no longer relevant. In our image-obsessed Instagram world, the lessons of Dorian Gray’s strange life are more relevant than ever! This is also, in some ways, an LGBTQ+ novel (or as much as a book could be back then), written before you could say any of those words out loud. Same-sex relationships were illegal in Wilde’s day. A fascinating take on beauty, class, society, “sin” and other matters.
MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS. This book ensnares the reader with the faulty, sinful character of the vain young Dorian Gray, and his attempts to stay youthful and beautiful forever. It captures the sins and crimes committed by the man, and how it turns him from a mere vain person, to something much, much deeper. Wilde portrays the character of Gray in a way that is eye-opening. He talks about deep topics, such as character development, sins, pride, and love. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one you simply cannot put down, especially if you adore Wilde’s work.
I finished the Picture of Dorian Gray and I must that it was an incredibly awesome book. Oscar Wilde was a genius. The thought processes of his different characters almost reminded me of the C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape letters. The fact that Dorian went through so much guilt besides his displays of joyful evil takes us full spectrum through the journey of a human mind. The prodding of Henry who molded Dorian into the confused and dark person he was, and then turning on him in the end reminded me of Job and his ill-advising friends. I highly recommend this novel if you haven’t read it yet. I agree I’m late in reading some of these classics, but that shouldn’t stop me, should it? I have never seen any of the films TV or otherwise of this story. I’m glad. The book is rich. It isn’t just about the story, it’s about the philosophies, the concepts, the processes that gets us to the end.