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by: Oscar Wilde
Amazon.com's Price: $4.99 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781580493932
ISBN: 1580493939
Label: Prestwick House, Inc.
Manufacturer: Prestwick House, Inc.
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: December 01, 2005
Publisher: Prestwick House, Inc.
Reading Level: Young Adult
Sales Rank: 103735
Studio: Prestwick House, Inc.
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition⢠includes a glossary and readerâs notes to help the modern reader contend with Wildeâs many allusions and his complex approach to the human condition. Oscar Wildeâs only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, first appeared in 1891. Dorian Gray, a handsome young man, falls in with a group of âfriends,â whose amoral philosophies he finds quite appealing. After he has his portrait painted, his frivolity and general demeanor degenerate into wickedness, but only the portrait bears the effects of his descent into decadence and serves as a powerful symbol of Grayâs internal ruin. Dorian himself, however, remains as young and unspoiled as the day he first sat for the painting. Wildeâs exploration of life without limits or consequences shocked its late-Victorian audience and remains highly un- settling to modern readers. We, like Dorian, are forced to reconsider whether total freedom and absolute knowledge are really worth their costs.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Exquisite attention to detail
The experience of reading Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is tantamount to engaging in a philosophical debate with a person suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder--and they're winning. The exquisite attention to detail paired with a sharp analytical wit delivers an indomitable argument. One cannot help but succumb to temptations along with the charismatic Dorian and echo his cries of despair when the effects of sin become prominently displayed, marring the handsome features.
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Rating: - The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame
Wilde sees the world more clearly than any writer of fiction in the last century. It is for that reason that his work is so filled with countless paradoxes and contradictions that challenge the mind and titillate the senses. Wilde lived in an infinitely ironic age, when society had grown so influential as to crowd out the individuals that made it up. Today, we have taken for granted this incongruity and so our writers cannot express the kind of irony that Wilde mastered, despite the fact that we all ... Read More
Rating: - "Beauty is a form of Genius."
Oscar Wilde was one of the foremost representatives of Aestheticism, a movement based on the notion that art exists for no other purpose than its existence itself ("l'art pour l'art"), not for the purpose of social and moral enlightenment. Born in Dublin and a graduate of Oxford's Magdalen College, he initially worked primarily as a journalist, editor and lecturer, but gradually turned to writing and produced his most acclaimed works in the six-year span from 1890 to 1895, roughly coinciding with the ... Read More
Rating: - Wilde at his best, beware not to be poisoned by this book.
Unfortunately I made it through both high school and college without ever having been assigned this book. Over the years I have read plenty of Wilde's works, but for some reason or another, missed this one over and over. I recently sat down, and decided that it was time to give this a read. To be honest, I knew very little about this actual book prior to reading it, other than it involved a picture that aged rather than he in the painting.
I expected to have difficulty reading this book, ... Read More
Rating:  - Picture of Dorian Gray--Well Worth the Read
I had heard speak of The Picture of Dorian Gray, but I must admit I did not expect the depth and clarity of thought, the utter honesty to be found in this short novel. It is worth reading. It is worth buying. I wish I had read this when I was younger. This is one book I will give to my children. If I could, I would make this a part of highschool litterature versus many other pieces we were given to read. It is indeed a classic.
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