The Picture of Dorian Gray

Penguin Popular Classics

By Oscar Wilde

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Average Rating: (See all 6 reviews) Format: Paperback, 256 pages, New edition Edition Published In: United Kingdom, 24 February 1994 Quantity Available: 260 Ships within 6-12 days Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was a succes de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895. About the Author Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. After his marriage to Constance Lloyd in 1884, he tried to establish himself as a writer, but with little initial success. However, his three volumes of short fiction, The Happy Prince (1888), Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), together with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), gradually won him a reputation as a modern writer with an original talent, a reputation confirmed and enhanced by the phenomenal success of his Society Comedies -- Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, all performed on the West End stage between 1892 and 1895. Success, however, was short-lived. In 1891 Wilde had met and fallen in love with Lord Alfred Douglas. In 1895, when his success as a dramatist was at its height, Wilde brought an unsuccessful libel action against Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde lost the case and two trials later was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for acts of gross indecency. As a result of this experience he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He was released from prison in 1897 and went into an immediate self-imposed exile on the Continent. He died in Paris in ignominy in 1900. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0140620338 EAN: 9780140620337 Dimensions: 18.0 x 110.0 x 1.0 centimeters

I REALLY loved this book.
it is SO QUOTABLE. it is a literary artifact! so beautifully written, so astonishingly witty, so thought provoking! ahhh, i'm finding it difficult to use words to express how impressed i am with it... ahhh. just get yourself a copy and then you will understand.

oscar wilde is another of the most clever and witty authors of all time. this novel has one of his most clever plots: dorian gray is an attractive young man, but he personifies the sayign that beauty is only skin deep, and when he sells his soul to be young for ever only the picture of him grows old and ugly.

I love Oscar Wilde's wit. I also like the premise of this story: a narcissistic man whose portrait in the attic grows old but yet he never does. Dorian Gray is the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is completely infatuated by Dorian and believes that Dorian's beauty will set new trend in aesthetics. Through Basil Dorian meets the worldly and decadent Lord Henry Wotton and is influenced by his philosophy that the only thing worth attaining in life is beauty and gratifying the senses. Dorian knows that his beauty will fade and wishes that the portrait will age instead of him - which is what happens. No matter what decadent or debauched act he commits, his face still remains innocent, pure and beautiful. The portrait takes all the battering.

This is a classic gothic/horror fiction. It also deals with homosexuality which at the time was rather controversial.

I would imagine that there is not a very large chance you would find this book in the waiting room of any plastic surgeon's office. An example of a story that suggests be careful of what you wish for. A young man makes a deal to keep himself young and youthful looking. Unfortunately there is a secret associated with this that is hard to hide.

A dark and compelling cautionary fable from the infamous Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray is about an innocent young man who gets his wish to never age - becoming corrupt and evil in the process but his face remains pure while his portrait manifests his sins. Fascinating stuff rich deep dark and provocative.

Quite a haunting story of a young man who unwittingly makes a devilish pact to ensure his external beauty never fades, while his inner qualities become more and more perverse. Under the manipulative influence of Lord Henry ("The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it . . . Resist it and the soul grows sick with longing") Dorian slowly loses his youthful innocence, which is recorded on his portrait; while his appearance remains ever-young and handsome, his portrait ages and becomes uglier with each sin committed...

Pretty dark, but very, very readable...