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by: Oscar Wilde
Amazon.com's Price: $4.95 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9781593080259
ISBN: 1593080255
Label: Barnes & Noble Classics
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: May 01, 2003
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Sales Rank: 4285
Studio: Barnes & Noble Classics
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
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:
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works. Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged—petulant, hedonistic, vain, and amoral—while a painting of him ages and grows increasingly hideous with the years, has been horrifying, enchanting, obsessing, even corrupting readers for more than a hundred years.
Taking the reader in and out of London drawing rooms, to the heights of aestheticism, and to the depths of decadence, The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a melodrama about moral corruption. Laced with bon mots and vivid depictions of upper-class refinement, it is also a fascinating look at the milieu of Wilde’s fin-de-siècle world and a manifesto of the creed “Art for Art’s Sake.”
The ever-quotable Wilde, who once delighted London with his scintillating plays, scandalized readers with this, his only novel. Upon publication, Dorian was condemned as dangerous, poisonous, stupid, vulgar, and immoral, and Wilde as a “driveling pedant.” The novel, in fact, was used against Wilde at his much-publicized trials for “gross indecency,” which led to his imprisonment and exile on the European continent. Even so, The Picture of Dorian Gray firmly established Wilde as one of the great voices of the Aesthetic movement, and endures as a classic that is as timeless as its hero.
Camille Cauti, Ph.D., is an editor and literary critic who lives in New York City. She is a specialist in the Catholic conversion trend among members of the avant-garde in London in the 1890s.
Download Description:
Dorian Gray has just had his portrait painted. It is a perfect likeness of the quite extraordinary beautiful young man, and it prompts him to make a mad wish for eternal youth. In the years to come, he devotes his public life to and aestheticism-and his private one to decadence and debauchery.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Faustian Bargain
Oscar Wilde's classic gothic tale of a man who is granted his wish to remain forever young is still a fine and compelling read. Dorian Gray is captured at the height of his physical charms in a painting and soon discovers that the corruption of his body and soul is reflected in the painting while he retains his youthful attractiveness. His life becomes one of increasing debauchery and narcissism.
The most quotable of authors, Wilde uses a friend of the young man to deliver an endless collection ... Read More
Rating: - A list of some of the amazing epigrams from this book
Other reviewers have already covered the plot of Dorian Gray as well as the numerous reasons why you should read the book. I've contented myself with providing you a list of epigrams contained in the book I found especially wisdom-filled or humorous:
"The moments were lost in vulgar details. It was with a renewed feeling of disappointment that she waved the tattered lace handkerchief from the window, as her son drove away."
"...to be highly organised is, I should fancy, the object ... Read More
Rating: - "An exquisite poison in the air"
Is your soul a good bargaining chip for perpetual youth and beauty? Young Dorian Gray was led to believe so and impulsively struck that bargain. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is the story of his decline into depravity following that ill-advised trade-off. The story is well-known in popular culture. An artist becomes obsessed with his young model's attractiveness. He and his jaded friend compete for influence over the young man. The friend corrupts young Dorian, encourages him to embrace a life of sensual ... Read More
Rating: - Great Gothic Horror, but not for everybody.
While this is Oscar Wilde's only foray into novel-writing, I must say it is justifiably called a classic. The use of descriptive language and mood is exquisite.
The only downsides that I can mention would be how slowly it moves in some spots. Once in a while, the story takes sort of a vacation, and you are given a lot of details that don't really apply to the overall plot. Some of the things that are discussed are good at shedding light on some of the things that Mr. Gray was doing throughout the ... Read More
Rating: - A Marvelous Useless Corruption
Am I no less agreeable? I remain in good humor and fine favor. Yet I am changed. My approbation of this miracle is boundless. This work intoxicates and leaves one wanting more. In my esteem nothing is more beautiful or useless than this masterpiece
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