Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Unavailable
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Unavailable
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    The Picture of Dorian Gray

    By Neil Bartlett and Oscar Wilde

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    Believe me, no civilised man ever regrets a pleasure...

    As London slides from one century into the next, a young man is cursed with the uncanny ability to remain both young and beautiful while descending into a life of heartless debauchery. With its glittering dialogue, provocative imagery and radical questioning of sexual and moral freedoms all brought sharply into focus by this brand-new adaptation, Oscar Wilde’s infamous parable has lost none of its power to provoke and disturb.

    Using Wilde’s original words, a company of sixteen actors and all of adaptor Neil Bartlett’s trademark theatricality, this new stage version of Wilde’s black-hearted parable was commissioned by and first produced at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre in the autumn season of 2012.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOberon Books
    Release dateOct 1, 2012
    ISBN9781849436816
    Author

    Neil Bartlett

    Born in 1958, Neil Bartlett has spent twenty-five years at the cutting edge of British gay culture. His ground-breaking study of Oscar Wilde, Who Was That Man? paved the way for a queer re-imagining of history ; his first novel, Ready To Catch Him Should He Fall, was voted Capital Gay Book of The Year; his second, Mr Clive and Mr Page, was nominated for the Whitbread Prize. Both have since been translated into five European languages. Listing him as one of the country's fifty most significant gay cultural figures, the Independent said "Brilliant,beautiful, mischievous; few men can match Bartlett for the breadth of his exploration of gay sensibility". He also works as a director, and in 2000 was awarded an OBE for services to the theatre.

    Read more from Neil Bartlett

    Related to The Picture of Dorian Gray

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      My 21st-century Touchstone Play: Theatre Stars Share The Shows That Shook Them To The Core

      Feb 19, 2021

      Here at the Evening Standard, we recently tried to pull together the 21st-century’s greatest plays (read our list and see if you agree). But what about those plays that impact us more personally, that seem to speak to us directly and leave us getting

      7 min read

    • Article

      Wilde Bunch

      Mar 5, 2023

      Wilde Bunch
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Censor Returns

      Jan 27, 2022

      The Censor Returns
      7 min read

    • Article

      Jim Broadbent

      Mar 6, 2020

      Jim Broadbent
      2 min read

    • Article

      Manual Transmission

      Nov 7, 2022

      Manual Transmission
      7 min read

    • Article

      Anne McElvoy on Theatre

      Mar 28, 2024

      WE START WITH A PICTURE: well, we would, given that Oscar Wilde’s quirky fin de siècle gothic horror, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is about the power of portraits and the quest for eternal youth, themes as old as the Greeks and as contemporary as the

      3 min read

    • Article

      Correct Casting

      Mar 21, 2022

      As a Latino in Canada, I soon became aware of the unique potential of my position as General Director of two performing arts organizations to help steward progress for other Latinos and facilitate opportunities for friends in the lyric theatre who la

      5 min read

    • Article

      On Broadway!

      Mar 16, 2023

      On Broadway!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Artists

      Feb 19, 2021

      Artists
      12 min read

    • Article

      Love And Dedication Can Conquer All

      Mar 18, 2020

      CRITICS are often snooty about amateur theatre. Kenneth Tynan described it as ‘an exhibitionist alternative to bridge’ and James Agate, in his heyday at The Sunday Times, used to say that the difference between amateur and professional actors was tha

      4 min read

    • Article

      Kenneth Branagh

      Oct 14, 2021

      Kenneth Branagh
      14 min read

    • Article

      ‘I’m Lily Savage, The Blonde Bombsite’ – The Genius Of Paul O’Grady, By Suzy Eddie Izzard, Russell T Davies And More

      Mar 29, 2023

      In the mid-90s, I was a writer-for-hire at Granada TV, bashing out soaps, sitcoms, quizzes, anything. One day, they said: “Paul O’Grady, d’you know him? He’s Lily Savage. We want you to meet him. He wants to do a sitcom as Lily. And he needs a writer

      7 min read

    • Article

      Antonio Banderas

      Jul 26, 2022

      Antonio Banderas
      14 min read

    • Article

      Arts

      Apr 3, 2024

      Arts
      9 min read

    • Article

      Noises Off

      Aug 11, 2021

      Noises Off
      2 min read

    • Article

      PRINCE of PANTO

      Dec 20, 2020

      PRINCE of PANTO
      7 min read

    • Article

      Craig Hassall

      Aug 4, 2022

      Craig Hassall
      5 min read

    • Article

      Enigmatic, Transgressive, Gleefully Queer: The 1970s Cult Film You’ve Never Seen

      Jun 8, 2022

      The late 1960s and early 70s was a fecund time for US cinema, but not every revolutionary film from that period has achieved the hallowed status of a Mean Streets or a Badlands. One, at least, has been lost for almost half a century. Emerging out of

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Revival For The Ages

      Apr 14, 2020

      A Revival For The Ages
      4 min read

    • Article

      Films

      Oct 15, 2020

      Films
      5 min read

    Reviews for The Picture of Dorian Gray

    3.5/5

    50 ratings234 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I was kind of underwhelmed by this one. Some interesting ideas were brought up, but the story itself wasn't as riveting as I thought it would be.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. I liked the aging picture thing. Everyone always says that this book has a theme of homosexuality, but I just didn't see it. Perhaps I will re-read it. But ironically it does remind me of being gay, but because of personal things happening at the time with friends rather than what is actually in the book, so you'd think I would have seen it.
    • 3/5
      Not anywhere near as entrancing as the first time I read it - but that's likely due to me aging a decade. Initially, I found Wilde's witticisms (mainly via Lord Henry) thought-provoking and... sparkly:"The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror."This time 'round, they veered more toward shit-stirring, sound-bite nonsense (intentionally? Lord Henry exists to suggest corruption and watch the show). But so long as you don't view it through the lenses of a purely self-indulgent fuck, I agree AMEN:"To be good is to be in harmony with one's self. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. One's own life - that is the important thing. As for the lives of one's neighbors, if one wished to be a prig or a Puritan, one can flaunt one's moral views about them, but they are not one's concern. Besides, Individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one's age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality."And it still managed to resonate, albeit less so (which probably means I'm less of an asshole than I was, or just more aware of fellow life):"All ways end at the same point - disillusion."*reread*
    • 4/5
      As the novel opens, artist Basil Hallward is painting a portrait of an extraordinarily handsome young man, Dorian Gray. In a conversation with his friend, Lord Henry Wotton, Hallward tells him that he believes the portrait is the best work he’s ever done. Lord Henry arranges to meet Dorian and he soon gains influence over the impressionable young man. The finished portrait is remarkable, and Dorian unthinkingly expresses a desire that the portrait would age while he maintained the beauty of youth. Lord Henry encourages Dorian to hedonistic excess. To Dorian’s horror, his portrait becomes uglier as Dorian’s character becomes more and more corrupt. It’s as if the portrait reveals the true state of Dorian’s soul. Although I haven’t seen the academy award-winning film version of this book, I have a feeling that I’d probably like it better than the book. Wilde doesn’t leave enough to the imagination, and much of the horror in the story is diluted by wordiness.
    • 5/5
      Another one I hadn't read since the '70s, and I wondered whether it might have aged badly, but no, like the picture itself, this is one book that has stayed as fresh and young as when it was created.

      Wilde's way with an aphorism is brilliant, and not just Dorian, but Sir Henry Wooton in particular are fully rounded characters, and perfect foils for Wilde's wit and almost casual brilliance.

      I wondered whether the movie representations would change the book for me, but all they have done is remind me how little of Wilde's inimitable style has ever transferred to the big screen.

      Beautifully written, sharp and incisive and strangely grotesque in places, I was immersed for the duration. A true classic.
    • 3/5
      How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!
      Basil, the painter, puts all his soul into his full-length portrait of Dorian Gray. The painting is the most beautiful work the artist has ever created and after speaking with Lord Henry begins to think beauty is the only thing worth pursuing in life.Upon seeing the finished portrait, Dorian so strongly desires to stay as young as he is depicted instead of growing old that his wish ends up coming true. Throughout his life, the painting is hidden and kept locked away. It shows the wear and tear of Dorian's life and sins while his face remains beautiful. Is a beautiful life the only one worth living, or has Dorian received more than he wished for in the end?


      For this review and more visit Under Literary Construction.

      This book was selected by my book club this month and I was pretty excited to start reading it, which might have been this books downfall. Sometimes, I get so excited to get my hands on a book or movie that when I finally read or watch it, it fails to meet my expectations. Not that I didn't enjoy this, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

      Overall, I am glad I was finally able to read this book. Here are the Pros & Cons:

      PROS:

      • The story was a little bit of horror, a little bit of romance, a lot of dialogue, and a bit of suspense tossed in for good measure. Dorian cursing himself and his painting was both expected (because I knew a little bit about the story already) and unexpected. When it happened, it was still a bit of surprise and the amount of damage that was shown on the painting over the years was shocking. Dorian really did some damage in his lifetime.


      • I felt like it provided a clear image of the time. The dialogue, while it wasn't my favorite part of the novel, was dated and I mean that in a good way. Lord Henry had something to say about everything and everyone and was never a man to not have an opinion, which leads me to my next point.


      • The characters were striking. At one point, I didn't like any of them. I hated Lord Henry, I despised Dorian, and I thought Basil was a bit snooty. As time went on, I still disliked Henry (but he gets a dose of karma in the end), I felt bad for Basil, and I almost sympathized with Dorian, just barely.


      • The preface was one of my favorite aspects. The preface was added after the first publication as a sort of "Here is what I think of your criticism" from Wilde. In it, Wilde defends his novel about criticism, remarks on how his novel should be read and explains the artist's role in society.

        • "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."



      • The length is long enough to provide a detailed story but short enough to not be too difficult to get through. One of my problems with large books is that, usually, I get bored at some point because too much of it seems like filler. With Wilde's novel, it was just the right length to enjoy and take my time with it.


      CONS:

      • I felt myself having to analyze the dialogue for hidden meanings. The banter back and forth was a little boring at times. Don't get me wrong, one of my favorite parts about being an English major is dissecting texts, but I don't like to have to do this all of the time with my personal readings. I want something that is more entertaining than the texts I have to read for school and, at times, this novel was more work to read than fun.


      • The story was slow to get moving. I had trouble getting into it at first and even after I made it to the halfway point, I had trouble diving in once I picked it back up. Some books, 2 sentences in and I'm transported to another world, but with this novel there were some chapters that I was reading just to get through to the next chapter and I wasn't enjoying.


      • The last 1/4 of the book was the best part. I list this as a con because, as a whole, much of the novel has not left a mark on me. There is the part in the beginning where Dorian's painting is revealed and then the series of "Oh my gosh" events in the end, but much of the novel is a bit of a blur. It isn't memorable.



      While I enjoyed reading Wilde's classic novel, it didn't exactly live up to my expectations. I would, however, like to see this movie come to life. I think the plot is fascinating and appeals to a wide array of audiences and should be a book that everyone reads at some point or another. Honestly, I am surprised I haven't been assigned this novel and were instead assigned The Importance of Being Earnest recently, but I am not quite done with school. There is still a chance Dorian Gray will appear in my future and I am fine with that. I do not regret reading it, I just think my expectations were a little high since I have heard so many "That book is amazing" comments.

    • 1/5
      Absolutely horrid. I had wanted to read this book for a very long time, but it sat on my shelf for many years; I have now determined that that is precisely where it should have stayed. The novel is really a mix of an essay on Morals, Philosophy, Religion, and Art, with the story awkwardly mixed in. I found myself skipping huge sections of Lord Henry's awful sentiments about Life. The only redeeming part of the novel is that instead of embracing his descent into immorality, like so many modern characters seem to do, Dorian Gray is pronouncedly unhappy, and in the end, loses what he has so hoped to preserve.
    • 3/5
      A good book and a pretty easy read. Started out slow and wasn't quite what I expected. I expected a more grisly portrayal and the book was somewhat subtle. It may in fact be a good thing. The ending definitely made up for the dull moments in the story.
    • 5/5
      This book is amazing. I had a hard time picking my favorite quotes because in every page I would find long sentences, numerous expressions, whole paragraphs to underline or highlight! My copy already looks like a coloring book.I loved seeing the Dorian Gray go down and decompose. It was fascinating to me.Oscar Wilde is, of course, the master of epigrams. Some of them I had to read three and four times to understand.
    • 4/5
      Lush and sensual language, an extremely delicious (and malicious) wit, characters so well-drawn I could feel distaste and pity creeping over me—I wish Wilde had written more than one novel.
    • 4/5
      Beauty and youth can become a deadly trap
    • 4/5
      Very interesting book, especially for the time period it was written in. The writing style seems very different from the other books I've read from the time period. And the premise of the story based on debauchery with no lawful repercussions probably upset quite a few people. I liked the story. My father was actually named after Dorian Grey, so I've been meaning to read this book for a while to see what inspired my grandmother to use the name. Not that my father partakes in debauchery, of course. :) Actually I don't know why my father was given the name. Anyways, this is a classic I am not just glad to check off the list and have in my reading repertoire. I ended up enjoying the book and purposefully sat and cross-stitched instead of my other plans just so I could finish the book on audio.
    • 4/5
      Q. What's Dorian's least favourite spice?A. Basil. * ba-dum cha* Seriously though, it's an amazing novel. The world just needs to stop doing adaptations and focusing on queer culture IMO.
    • 4/5
      A great story that held my interest to the end, but I couldn't help but feeling that it's a stretched novella rather than a short novel. I think the same story could have been told just as well in half the length.
    • 4/5
      Loved it. Consistently interesting, though a few of the speeches dragged on as did a few of Wilde's "detailing paragraphs." Though I may not have agreed with everything that was said, overall it was very good, and Wilde is a beautiful writer.
    • 5/5
      What a truly remarkable book! Henry is a wonderful, funny, deep character and Dorian's hubris is captivating. Best book I've read in a long time.
    • 4/5
      Oscar Wilde wrote a great book, but, y'know, I think he might've been full of himself.
    • 4/5
      "When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.” This book has become a classic of gothic fiction, though it might not be the first or even the tenth novel to come to mind when thinking of the gothic style. Still, it fits, and I am surprised that it has taken me so long to get to it. It's good, and the story itself, I would even argue, is great - it suffers in the delivery. It's too long. Wilde really takes his time winding up the story and setting into place the plot device, which we know is going to be the portrait - I mean, it's right there in the title. Too much conversation that is not needed to move the story forward - the angst, the ennui, the rumination...WE GET IT. I would have set this one aside had I not really wanted to know the entire story. And I would have missed something great - once we get to the picture of Dorian Gray actually becoming relevant, the story takes off. That is, it takes off until chapter eleven where we come to a dead halt while we learn about how Dorian becomes obsessed with collecting one thing after another. Right. Obsession. Greed. Narcissism. Just say that, already. Almost twenty pages later, we are released from the eye-roll worthy cataloging of hobbies and interests. And again the story takes off and does not disappoint all the way to the end. So, this could be truly fabulous if only it had been edited to be tighter, more concise. And this is where I mention that I noticed that Audible has an abridged audiobook of this narrated by Stephen Fry. I never do abridged, and I always wonder why they would make an abridged version of anything - either read it or don't, but let's not desecrate it. However, now I get it. SO, if you do audio, I would recommend going that route because Stephen Fry and less book. If you opt to read the print version, just know that it is a slow starter and that chapter eleven runs away with itself, but the story is worth hanging in there through all of that. And my copy was the Penguin Deluxe Edition, which has deckled edge pages, so there was that.
    • 4/5
      From a footnote of my book, I looked up Faust legion. Thank you Wiki. It pretty much sums up the entire book. What happens when the handsome and wealthy Dorian Gray worries about losing his youthful bloom and will immediately look minutes, then days, weeks, years older than the just completed picture of him? His random outburst of giving his soul to stay looking the same as the picture was granted. Be careful what you ask for!With the (mostly bad) influences of Lord Henry, a natural and encouraged narcissism, and a trigger point of the death of a potential bride, Dorian finds it necessary to test the limits of self-indulgence, a hedonistic lifestyle of the highest of the high (music, art, jewels, etc.) and the lowest of the low (opium, etc.). All the while, he blames the picture and its artist for forcing him to live such a life. How delusional and self-absorbed can a person become when they already have more in life than virtually the entire population? Like many Victorian literature, I expected long, wordy descriptions. For this book, I additionally struggled with the put-down of women. “… no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.” Perhaps this is why I’ve known intelligent men who choose to love a woman because she is “simple”, whatever the hell that means. And “We have emancipated them, but they remain slaves looking for their masters, all the same. They love being dominated.” Argh, how crude. Despite efforts to place myself into the era and that this is supposed to be ‘witty’, I still find the verbatim words insulting. The Longman cultural edition I have is highly informative with footnotes to explain references, including how this book was used against Oscar Wilde’s then-upcoming indecency trials. I recommend this edition.Some Quotes:On brains vs. looks – I laughed at this and then wondered if I should become dumber – kidding!!“…But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid.”On the power of words – perhaps this is why words can bring such joy and be so hurtful too:“…Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?”On old age:“…But we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our sense rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were much too afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to…”On influences – this sent chills in me in the worst way, knowing others have influenced me and vice versa, so controlling and brain washing:“…Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow… There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence… To project one’s soul into some gracious form, and let it tarry there for a moment; to hear one’s own intellectual views echoed back to one with all the added music of passion and youth; to convey one’s temperament into another as though it were a subtle fluid or a strange perfume: there was a real joy in that.”On faithfulness – this was, hmm, interesting…“My dear boy, the people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect – simply a confession of failure.”On love and marriage – Bundy style perhaps:“When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.”And“Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.”And“’What nonsense people talk about happy marriages!’ exclaimed Lord Henry. ‘A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.’”On the mind and body connection – if only it’s this simple:“That is one of the great secrets of life – to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the sense by means of the soul.”On experiences – this is different than anything I’ve ever read on the word “experience”:“As it was, we always misunderstood ourselves, and rarely understood others. Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”On the small things in life – this is sweet:“…a chance tone of colour in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you had once loved and that brings subtle memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play – I tell you, Dorian, that it is on things like these that our lives depend.”
    • 4/5
      I cannot say much about this book without giving it away, other than it was stunning. Spectacularly written, although at times I did tend to lose track of what Wilde was talking about when he went off on some loosely-tied-in tangents. This didn't take away from the story at all, however, and I found it very tragic, haunting, and enjoyable. A favorite to add to the shelf for sure.
    • 3/5
      Sometimes you decide that you should make up for having never read any works of Oscar Wilde and learn that this book is far weirder than you ever imagined. The Picture of Dorian Gray is highly melodramatic and is tuned to Victorian era sensibilities of morality. This portrait in this book famously ages while it's subject remains young and beautiful, but the story is not about aging but the representation of Dorian Gray's evil acts in the visage of his picture. I was also surprised about how frank this book is about homosexuality for the time. At any rate, it's a nice surprise to finally read a book you think you know what it's about, only to find yourself very surprised.
    • 4/5
      Wilde didn't write many novels during his painfully short career; in fact, this is about the only one I can think of. It's incredibly beautiful though, and a very powerful comment about what beauty, and the search for it and conquest over it, can do to people.
    • 4/5
      I can see why this book became/is a classic, but I can't say I really enjoyed reading it. The premise is interesting but completely predictable-- though perhaps just because it has become part of the fabric of our literary culture. I found the relationships between the men to be, uh, well, gay. I know the period and culture were very different but I can't image men speaking to each other like Basil spoke to and about Dorian. I guess my biggest complaint is that there are several long tedious passages, with one extraneous analogy or example after another (the same is true of his Children's stories). It's a great allegory and would probably be more interesting to study than to read for pleasure.
    • 4/5
      I was kind of underwhelmed by this one. Some interesting ideas were brought up, but the story itself wasn't as riveting as I thought it would be.
    • 5/5
      I had tried to read this a few years ago, when I was in high school, liking the idea of the plot, but couldn't get through it at all. Now, being 20, I loved it. True, Wilde takes a few places to go on philosophical tangents with Lord Henry, but I thought they were fabulous. The ideas astounded me, and reading it reminded me of the poisonous book that Dorian reads. In any case, the plot of the book is amazing, almost a side note to the philosophies, and the meaning of the book is dark and obscure. It's amazing. I will definitely be reading it often from now on.
    • 4/5
      While I understand the allegorical importance of the meticulous brushstrokes with which Wilde paints the details of his portrait of Dorian Gray and his language is certainly elegant, there's making a point, then there's overkill, then there's beating a dead horse, then there's roughly 50 pages of this book driving home the same point. Great central conceit, certainly worth reading for Gray's descent into madness, but a bit much.
    • 5/5
      Wow is all I have to say about The Picture of Dorian Gray. I didn't think I would like this book and I was pleasantly surprised with this book. This is the first book I have ever read by Oscar Wilde.The writing in the book was wonderful. The characters words just flow like music as you read the book. I found myself not wanting to put the book down as I was reading. Dorian, Lord Henry and the Artist Harry interact so well with each other. There is a different relationship between all 3 of them and to see the relationships change through the book was enthralling.The ending of the book was quite a surprise to me. When I read it I laughed at how well written the story was and the fact that I never realized the ending until the very last second.I can't wait to read more books written by Oscar Wilde!!
    • 5/5
      I loved this book and all of the characters in it. I couldn't help but being both disgusted and intrigued by Dorian Gray. By the time the book was finished I was quite saddened to have it be over.
    • 4/5
      I have heard a lot about this book and, having read a few of Oscar Wilde's plays and enjoyed them, decided to give it a try. Overall is was a good book, if a bit inconsistent in pacing at times. Dorian Grey is a beautiful young man, who is corrupted by a Lord to worry about how his looks might one day fade. While a portrait of him is being painted he wishes to never grow old. Later he realizes that the portrait is changing to reflect any cruelty in his nature, yet he remains the same.Oscar Wilde is a genius at writing. The cleverness of the language he uses and the sharpness of the commentary on society is deftly done and makes the story a joy to read, most of the time. The footnotes in this version of the book help to explain some of the more subtle jokes that I would have missed without them. The book does have some flaws, especially when compared to modern literature. Wilde takes nearly half to book to set up his characters. You can tell Wilde is a playwright at heart because many of the characters wander off into multiple page long dialogues that get to be a bit too much and sometimes a bit boring. Even in the second half of the book there are times where Dorian is reading from the book he is obsessed with and it just goes on and on and on.The second half of the book is by far the strongest. Wilde stimulates the imagination by talking about Dorian's unspeakable acts but never revealing what the majority of the horrible acts are. I was a little disappointed that there isn't a lot more to the plot than what you read on the back of the book. That being said, the end of the book is remarkable and really made the book a wonder to me. Overall this is a very interesting book and worth the read. Some of the lengthy dialogues can get a bit trying to read through, but most of the book has a quick wit to it that is amusing. The ending of the book holds some wonderful surprises. I would recommend reading this, especially if you are a fan of Wilde's writing style.
    • 2/5
      This book probably was not meant to be read by someone like me. Most of the time I just found this book to be too odd (I was mostly half-asleep while reading this, so that could have been a major factor). I didn't like any of the characters in this book, and found myself skipping pages where there were long lists of things that Dorian enjoyed. I liked the moral behind the story but that just couldn't save this book for me. I guess from now on I'll just stick with the kind of books I normally read.