The Picture of Dorian Gray (Vintage Classics)
By now, most people are aware of the basic plot of this book: young man foolishly wishes that, upon seeing his current beateous youth captured forever in a picture, he could remain in that moment of youth forever, and the picture age in his stead. Not only that, but the picture becomes twisted and cruel as a result of the callous hedonistic behaviour perpetrated by Gray in his perpetual youth. At first, Gray is horrified, but then finds himself submitting to it…
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a fantastic novel, so fantastic that it made me sad that the eminently quoteable Wilde has only written the one. At one point, a bad-influencing friend of Dorian’s lends him a novel that Gray is charmed by, a novel that tells of a man who lives a hedonistic lifestyle, with care only for pleasure and enjoyment, and it’s this novel that kick-starts Gray’s eventual downfall as it affects Gray’s behaviour, leading him to eventually describe it as dangerous. Wilde’s novel is possibly one of these books: it’s seductive discussions on hedonism, pleasure, and the real joys of life almost make one want to throw mores out the window and life such a life oneself, or at least wish intensely for a period that one has or could. Henry Wotton, Gray’s witty, philosophical influence is a raconeteur, a man of life, who knows its pleasures and derides it’s follies, chosing simply to ignore them. It’s his discourses that are particularly charming and fascinating. There’s obviously a temperance to his message (in terms of the whole arc of the novel), but that’s almost neither here nor there. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a superb book, fascinating, witty, supremely intelligent and philosophical, romantic and gothic and chilling also. It’s one of those books that might lay a bomb under your life, and it deserves its classic status.
‘A heady late-Victorian tale of double-living’ – Sarah Waters
This edition of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’(1890)is better than other editions as it appears to be the most recent and up to date (Vintage Classics 2007). The introduction by novelist Irvine Welsh is a helpful insight into the novel’s structure and offers literary criticism. Both Welsh’s introduction and the epigraph before this provide basic and helpful information regarding the novel’s origin and Oscar Wilde’s life. From here, we are able to read the novel with a clearer view of the intertextuality, censorship and idea it created.
Such examples of intertextuality include ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, ‘Frankenstein’ and the works of Shakespeare and theatre. These postmodern traits become more obviously identified once having read the introductions.
This edition is perfect for study or reading for pleasure.
A Dark Delicious Classic
Though The Picture of Dorian Gray is a short book it has hidden depths and very dark undertones. We first meet the image of Dorian Gray in a painting which Lord Henry Wotton sees at his artist friend’s house, Basil Hallward and falls in love with the painting as he thinks the person depicted may be one of the most beautiful and alluring people he has scene. When Dorian then arrives Henry sees in the flesh he is even more so. Soon the two people Bail is closest too and never wanted to meet have struck up an unlikely friendship and under Henry’s influence Dorian comes to believe youth and beauty are the only thing that matter. He then makes a fateful wish as he wants never to grow like the painting of him. He soon notices that indeed the picture does begin to age and as it does so it gets crueller looking as if the painting is the true Dorian himself.
Now if the plot wasn’t enough the book is also very much about society and which on a first read years ago I didn’t care for I completely and utterly loved. Looking at the upper classes who have endless money to burn and too much time on their hands other than to `chase the dragon’ or embark on affairs the thing they go very well is gossip and discuss. I could easily write endless wonderful quotes from the book as to what they say “he is sure to be furious and I couldn’t have a scene in this bonnet. It is far too fragile” and also how they are described “she was a curious woman, whose dresses always looked like they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest” in fact so many quotes it would probably make up 98% of the book.
