Picture of Dorian Gray Price Review

173 of 188 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Forever young, February 6, 2001
By Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) This review is from: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Mass Market Paperback) This sophisticated but crude novel is the story of man’s eternal want for perennial youth, of our vanity and frivolity, of the dangers of messing with the laws of life. Just like "Faust" and "The immortal" by Borges. Dorian Gray is beautiful and irresistible. He’s a socialité with a high ego and shallow thinking. When his friend Basil Hallward paints his portrait, Gray expresses his wish that he could stay forever as young and charming as the portrait. The wish comes true.Allured by his depraved friend Henry Wotton, possibly the best character of the book, Gray jumps into a life of complete pervertion and sin. But, every time he sins, the portrait gets older, while Gray stays young and healthy. His life turns into a maelstrom of sex, lies, murder and crime. Many day he’ll want to cancel the deal and be normal again. But Fate has other plans. Wilde, a man of the world who unclearly resembles Gray, wrote this masterpiece with a great but black sense of humor, saying every thing he’s to say. It’s an ironic view of vanity, of superflous desires. Gray is a man destroyed by his beauty, to whom an not known magical power gave the chance to contemplate in his own portrait all the vices that his looks and the world put in his hands. Love becomes carnal lust; passion becomes crime. The characters and the scenes are perfect. Wilde’s wit and sarcasm come in full splendor to tell us that the world is dangerous for the soul, when its rules aren’t followed. But, and it is a big but, it isn’t a moralizing story. Wilde wasn’t the man to do that. It’s a fierce and unrepressed exposition of all the ugly side of us humans, when unchecked by nature. To be rich, beautiful and eternally young is a sure way to hell. And the writing makes it a classical novel. Come go with Wotton and Wilde to the theater, , then to an orgy. You will wish you age peacefully.

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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars A Thrilling Read, March 13, 2000
By Ellen See all my reviews This review is from: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback) I 1st was presented to Dorian Gray through a book club, and I thought ‘Oh no, Oscar Wilde, here I go, another hard to read boring society book". I was wrong. Inside the 1st two chapters of Dorian Gray I has been intrigued and fascinated. This book deals with some number of issues that are as vital now as they’re today: the way our culture worships beauty and youth, an admiration that boarders on homosexual love, virtues, the differences between men and women, and what art is and what makes it really art. Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man, who sees a portrait of himself and says "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and awful, and dreadful. But this picture will remain generally young.If only it were the other way! If it were I who was to be generally young, and the portrait to grow old.I could give my soul for that!" The book takes off from there, leading you from a small theater to great parties. While younger readers may find many of the wording as tough as an old gym shoe, anybody older than 13 with an interest in mystery, romance, and how society runs, will find this a pleasurable and haunting read.

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59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars Be cautious what you wish for, June 8, 2002
By Daniel Jolley “darkgenius” (Shelby, North Carolina USA) See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) This review is from: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback) The Picture of Dorian Gray is a mesmerizing read dominated by two amazing personalities. Dorian Gray is surely interesting, but I was more impressed by his friend and mentor Lord Henry Wotton. Dorian is a perfectly nice, well meaning young man when we 1st meet him in the studio of the painter Basil Hallward. Hallward in fact is so drawn to the youth that he draws his greatest inspiration from painting him and just being with him. It’s the influence of Hallward’s friend Lord Henry which leads to Gray’s downfall. There are not many characters in literature as decadent, witty, and somehow enchanting as Lord Henry. He’s never at a loss for words, fatalistic observations of life and people, sarcastic philosophical musings, and brilliantly devious ideas. Among his world of social decadents and artistic do nothings, his charm remains redoubtable and greatly sought after. Gray now falls under his spell, soon devoting himself to living life to its fullest and enjoying his youth and beauty to the utmost. He solemnly wishes that he could remain young and beautiful forever, that Hallward’s exquisite picture of him should bear the marks of age and debauchery rather than himself. To his surprise and final horror, he finds his wish fulfilled. Small lines and creases 1st appear in the portrait, but after he cruelly breaks the heart of an unfortunate young actress who then takes her own life, the 1st real signs of horror and blood manifest themselves on his portrait. His love for the ill fated Sibyl Vane is a sordid, heartbreaking tale, and it marks the culmination of his descent into debauchery. He frequents opium dens and houses of ill repute, justifying all of his worst actions to himself, while the influence of Lord Henry continues to work its black magic on his soul. He hides his increasingly grotesque portrait away in an upstairs room, on occasion going up to stare at it and take pleasure in the fact that it rather than he bears the stains of his iniquities. In time, his obsession with his secret grows, and he’s constantly scared that it’ll be discovered by someone. For eighteen years he lives in this manner, moving among the members of his society as a revered figure who magically keeps his youth, but sooner or later he begins to see himself as he really is and to curse the portrait, blaming its magic for his depressing life of ill begotten pleasures and loss of moral character. The last pages are well written, and the climax is eminently satisfying. Exhibiting the undeniable influence of the French Decadence motion of the late 19th century, this great novel serves as a morality play of kinds. One can understand why its distinctive nature upset a British society rising from the social constraints of Victorianism, but this reader is hard pressed to see why this novel proved so damaging to Wilde’s eventual imprisonment and punishment. Dorian Gray is no hero, nor does his final interior struggles and yearnings for rebirth inspire one to engage in the sort of life he himself sooner or later came to regret. The only “dangerous” character in this novel is Lord Henry; his delight in working his bad influence on others as a kind of moral experiment and the silver tongued charm he exploits to aid him in such misbegotten quests have the possible to do harm to a susceptible mind like that of Dorian Gray. Lord Henry’s bad genius makes him more interesting than his disciple Dorian Gray. By today’s standards, this book isn’t shocking, and indeed it’s more dangerous to censor work like this than it’s to read it. This book in eminently quotable, and it still manages to cast a magical spell over readers of this day and age. Quite simply, The Picture of Dorian Gray deserves a place on the counter of the world’s greatest literature.

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