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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 823.8 EAN: 9780375751516 Edition: Modern Library ISBN: 0375751513 Label: Modern Library Manufacturer: Modern Library Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 304 Publication Date: June 01, 1998 Publisher: Modern Library Release Date: June 01, 1998 Studio: Modern Library Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: 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." Product Description: Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps." Average Rating:
 Rating:  - BirdmonkeygirlThis was a rather difficult book to get through. Lots of old English and lots of footnotes describing what the words or phrases meant. I struggled through about 3/4 of the book, but then it picked up and I managed to get it read. In the end, it was worth the time and effort but does take some patience to get through. Not for everyone. Rating: - classica classic literary staple of the modern world! a must read for any intellectual. every sentence is brimming with stimulating ideas and paradoxes. Rating: - "Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter"-Oscar WildeBasil Hallward is an artist, who paints a portrait of Dorian Gray, a very good looking and naïve young man. The portrait is a masterpiece that in reality depicts Basil's feelings for Dorian, as well as, Dorian's youth and beauty. Lord Henry Wotton, a seductive emotional predator and selfish pleasure seeker, is a friend of Basil who meets Dorian at Basil's house and gives him a philosophical speech about the fading nature of youth and beauty. Dorian whose greatest qualities are his youth ... Read More Rating:  - What a SNOOZE!!!!!As was the case with quite a few other readers, I had been snookered into believing this was a near-universally lauded classic. Hello? The emperor has no clothes and this book has no redeeming qualities. The writing style was absolutely maddening! The only reason I read the entire thing was because I purchased the book and felt compelled to get my money's worth (not entirely possible with such a low quality "classic") After reading it in its entirety, I felt the type ... Read More Rating:  - What Does Unbridled Hedonism do the Human Soul?Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is a thought-provoking novel that vacillates between ambling, seemingly directionless conversation and a riveting narrative thread that eventually bubbles up to the surface with the intensity of a volcanic eruption. The Picture of Dorian Gray, though not much more than a century old, has already been deemed a "classic" by literature-lovers, and after reading the book, I can understand its status. Wilde's command of the English language is almost unparalleled ... Read More |
