The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Original 1890 Edition (A Oscar Wilde Classic Novel)

Whether you've read it or not, you probably know the story, or at least the main premise. When you meet someone who looks remarkably young for their years, you ask them if there's a portrait in the attic that's somewhat the worse for wear. In many ways, I felt like I'd already read the novel, having come across Dorian Gray in many guises. Cameos in films like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen spring to mind although really bear very little resemblance to the character that fills these pages.Analysis of the human condition is a major underlying theme of the novel. The influence of others on a person's development is very much explored and is perhaps the main moral of the story. We trust people but might not give too much thought to the ways in which they are shaping our lives by adding mere moments to our experience. You could explain it as `beware of people, especially those that mean well'.Wilde's writing is somewhat like Dickens' although less weighty. Dickens Lite you might say. If you were to highlight every quotable phrase, you'd have very little plain text left by the end. Everyone knows of the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde. Most of us know a quote or three from his work. What I didn't realise was that so many of those little pearls would be crammed into just one book.A Picture of Dorian Gray is a very enjoyable read, and quick. There is one chapter, though, that proves the exception to that statement, and it's a matter of taste not Wilde's writing that made it that for me. Oscar may have been a little carried away with sharing of his own knowledge at this point. However, that one chapter done, the tale resumes and takes some sinister twists and turns that put it quickly out of mind. If you choose to read it, you'll realise the chapter and I'll tell you the secret - it doesn't make a blind bit of difference if you read the first and last sentence of each paragraph and let that suffice!The characters could not be said to be boring or ill-drawn. Several distinct personalities emerge and you can't help but feel there is some basis in reality for them - there seems a deep knowing of the figures that means the reader feels that knowing also. You don't become confused about who is who or what among the pages.Whether it was because I knew roughly what was to come, I can't be sure, but the plot seemed to take a while to develop. The three main characters were very well known before the real `meat' of the story was served. Foresight can be a terrible influence on the passage of time though. Like anything you're waiting for, be it a bus or Christmas, a plot development takes an age to happen when you know it's due any minute.Picture is well worth a read, if only to know to just what you've been alluding all these years. You will sometimes snigger at some of Wilde's epigrams and sometimes realise that people really haven't changed much at all since his day. I rate it five stars despite the rogue soporific chapter. It deserves its legendary status among literature and definitely provokes thought on many levels.

Set in the 19th century, London, the story begins on a beautiful summers day with two wealthy men talking. Basil Hallward, a painter and Lord Henry, who lives a luxurious, decadent lifestyle.They are at Basil's house and Basil is telling Lord Henry about the painting he has created of a young, stunningly good looking man called Dorian Gray who comes and sits for him. He explains how Dorian Grey has changed the way in which he paints, how he has improved his character, his art and his view on life including his obsession with him.By chance, whilst Lord Henry is there, Dorian drops by. On being introduced to Lord Henry, even his cynical character is surprised at the beautiful looks of Dorian. He observes Dorian for a while and comes to the conclusion that while Dorian is extremely handsome he is not really aware of his good looks.Lord Henry decides to take Dorian out into the garden and have a quiet word with him and basically tells him he has youth and looks on his side. But these will only last a few years, and when they begin to fade, nobody will be interested in anything he has to say or do. So he should live for the moment using and taking everything he can by utilizing his looks and youth to live life to the full and experience the sensual world.These words really strike a chord with Dorian as nobody has ever pointed this out to him before.Dorian returns to inside Basil's house and resumes to sit for the picture. Basil completes it and tells Dorian he will not be exhibiting it but will give it to Dorian as a gift.When asked to look at the finished painting, on seeing it, Dorian bursts into a fit of tears. Exclaiming that he hates it as he declares that as he ages this picture will remain the same and be a constant reminder of the beautiful looking man he once was. Going as so far as to demand he wants the painting destroyed. Basil is about to do so by slashing it with a knife, but just at the final moment, Dorian tells him to stop and says he will keep the painting. He takes the painting home. He wishes that the painting would age while he maintains his looks. He gets his wish...Dorian falls in love with an amateur actress, Sibyl Vane, that performs at a dingy theatre in Holborn. He goes to watch her perform every night in various different roles. He is in love with the way she acts as much as her beauty. They meet regularly backstage and they are enamoured with each other.One night he invites Basil and Lord Henry to see her perform. At this point Sybil has decided she is no longer fully in love with her art of acting and prefers to dedicate her love to Dorian. The night Basil and Lord Henry are watching her, she performs extremely poorly. They both dismiss her to Dorian saying she's nothing but a mediocre actress with a pretty face. Not only does this humiliate Dorian but it also causes him to lose his affections towards her as her charm for him was the combination of her art and physical beauty. He cannot accept her with just one of those facets. After the end of the play he goes back stage and very abruptly breaks off the romance with her, leaving her a crumpled sobbing mess on her stage room floor.On arriving home Dorian takes a look at his self portrait and notices that the mouth has significantly altered in a crude hideous fashion. He thinks about what he has just done to Sybil and his wish of the picture to age in his stead. This intensely bothers him. He feels the painting is showing him his true soul, and every sin he commits the picture will distort further. Unable to look at his distorted mouth any longer he drapes a tapestry over the painting and decides he will make amends with Sybil and regain his love for her.Shortly after ending their affair Dorian is informed by Lord Henry who brings him the paper which states that Sybil Vane was found dead in her dressing room after having consumed prussic acid. He is initially shocked but the callus Lord Henry tells him not to waste his grief on her, that they would never have been happy together and to forget her. Lord Henry lends him an influential, dark book of corruption which seems to make a strong impression on Dorian and from this point onwards his character significantly changes. He leads a double life. Attending lavish dinner parties with London's elite and alternately, in disguise, would frequent opium dens, behave promiscuously, drink heavily and get into fights with sailors. He would use his ageless good looks to lure people in to becoming friends with him but after some time of his company these people would leave the room whenever he entered, talk of his misdemeanours behind his back and couldn't even bare to look upon his face. It was as if his mesmerising visage was now working against him...There is also a subplot where by Sybil's younger brother, James, had sworn earlier in the novel that if he ever believed that Dorian has treated his sister badly he will hunt him down and kill him.One night Dorian decides to take a look at his portrait and is horrified at what he sees. A haggard, old, withered man looks back at him from the picture.Without spoiling the culmination of the novel, from here on, Dorian is pushed over the edge.I enjoyed reading this book as I have heard so much about what a great piece of work it is but I've never really known what it was about. I read it out of curiosity really.It's definitely a philosophical book regarding vanity, looks and how people are treated in society if they are considered extremely attractive.Clearly you have to suspend disbelief in terms of the story line but there is certainly a clear moral lesson that the author is conveying by the end of the novel.For the first half I felt that Lord Henry carries the story with his theories on love, women, marriage, all in a generally cynical and hedonistic fashion. He was the most interesting character in the book.From the moment Lord Henry sees Dorian Gray he views him as something innocent and easily corruptible for his own pleasure. It's as if Lord Henry lights Dorian Gray's blue touch paper, sits back and waits for the fireworks. By the end of the novel Dorian is a flake.It's an extremely elaborate read, that I felt required a fair amount of concentration. There were subjects that could have been described in half a dozen sentences that had extensive paragraphs written in order to get the message across. However the novel is also extremely eloquent and transports you to a bygone era which was enchanting to read.Even though this is the 'toned down' version of the novel, which Wilde had to rewrite because the original offended the Victorian publics sensibilities, the homosexual undertones are still very clear at the beginning.For fans of high society living in the Victorian era, this is a must read on your list.