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."

Customer Reviews Average rating - 4.0

Rating - 4 Date: 2008-12-04
Content: I knew relatively little going into this book...and what little I did know was from less than 100% accurate retellings such as in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or references from cheesy shows or horror flicks (I think perhaps there was a reference in Scooby Doo somewhere?). I had the basic gist...there's a guy, Dorian Gray, who has some magical painting that ages while he stays young and wonderful forever. Not much to go on, but I was still excited to read it. I was pleasantly surprised that the book had much more depth to it.

Plot
The plot is intriguing and has been used in other stories, though I think this one has more depth than I've seen before. Essentially, Dorian makes a wish that he will be forever as pristine as the painting made of him and that instead the painting will take on it the toils of his life. Whatever supernatural forces allow this to happen are irrelevant...the wish is granted.

It's more than a simple "young forever" contract. Although age plays into the plot in a couple of places, the primary things that distorts the picture are the vices that Dorian engages in. The first transformation of the painting happens after an intense argument with the first woman he loved. It was interesting to me how quickly Dorian recognized the cause of the change for what it was, but had he belabored the motive for too long, the pacing of the book would have stalled and become unacceptable.

Dorian uses his "power" to be ruthlessly reckless in his living. Dorian Gray becomes entirely uninhibited, taking everything to its limit, seeking absolute pleasure. He even sneaks out at night (so as not to tarnish his pristine reputation) to the "bad side of town" and lives a sort of double life in opium dens with gangs and prostitutes.

In many ways (perhaps because I so recently read it), I felt many similarities to the morale commentary presented in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I felt that Wilde did a better job of delving into the psyche of the hypocritical character, largely because we were able to get into Dorian's head and think and feel with him, while in Jekyll/Hyde, we were kept at a distance by a third person narrative.

Characters
There are three pivotal characters in this book.
The first, obviously, is Dorian himself. For the first many chapters (perhaps nearly the first half of the book in fact), I wasn't terribly pleased with Dorian as a character...he felt very flat to me. He was basically a mirror to one of the other primary characters (Harry) and didn't ever show his own opinion. He was hailed as pure and beautiful. Perhaps it's all the art references in the book, but I often felt as if Dorian existed more as a classical statue than as a living, breathing character. As his interaction with the 'picture' progresses and once he takes some rather unexpected steps, he became a deeper character and a lot of fun to be with.
The second primary character is Lord Harry (or was it Henry...blast those Brits for swapping those names interchangeably so often *grin*). Harry exists as the provocative, cynical, always-with-a-comment-about-anything mentor to Dorian. Harry is absolutely encouragable and a lot of fun to listen to. His speeches often have to do with the pursuit of pleasure at any and all costs and the hazard of a virtuous and peaceful life. His influence over Dorian is profound. As I mentioned above, it often felt as if Dorian existed merely as a mirror for Harry's advice. Harry didn't seem to follow all of his own advice, but Dorian took it readily to heart and strove to live a 'come-what-may' existence. Harry had some of the funniest and most profound comments of the entire narrative. He's a fabulous character.
The third character I want to point out actually existed as more of a background character, but I feel the need to call him out merely because of his pivotal involvement in the plot. I actually can't even remember his name now...but it will suffice to call him, "the artist." He's the one who paints Dorian's picture. He's the one who introduces Dorian to Harry. He's the one who tries to give Dorian good advice to counter all the reckless advice that Harry poisons him with. The artist was kind of like Dorian's "Jiminey Cricket"...his conscious that was often (always?) ignored until it was far too late. He showed up in surprisingly few scenes considering the huge importance he had to the plot.

Style, Pacing, etc
The language used in this book was truly beautiful. Wilde wrote flowing, vivid descriptions of characters, places and actions. At times it was very poetic. It may be a bit too flowery for readers who don't enjoy that sort of description...it came very close to being 'over the top' to me in a few places. Still, I generally enjoyed the formality of it and the life it gave to the text. The first dozen or two pages were tedious to me...whether because of the language or just the style and thematic pacing, I'm not sure.

The pacing was a bit slower than I would have liked. The main difficulty I saw was that Wilde was trying to present so many themes that he often had to result to lengthy passages praising or condemning one thing or another. There were often very long monologues by one of the three primary characters mentioned above. Harry's were generally offset by bits that made me laugh by their extremity while speeches from Dorian and the artist sometimes made me want to slap them and tell them to shut up.

Overall
I was a little torn on my overall feeling for the book. It took me a while to get into it and there were long passages that were drudgerous to push through. However, from a high level, this is one of the better books I've read this year...or even for numerous years. It had a plenitude of intriguing themes that left me thinking in between readings. It had a lot of humorous quips and paradigms as presented by Harry that I laughed out loud at. It had surprising twists and tension that left me curious as to the true outcome (as opposed to that from rip-off stories). There are a couple of spots that could be considered "climax"...the confrontation with the artist is the main turning point in the book. Personally, I would have rather seen more pages after that turning point than before it. I think the last 1/3 of the book was far more engaging. At the same time, the buildup was necessary to promote the intended mood.

Overall, this is a book I definitely recommend, with the caveat that you should be aware that it does slow down at points. Just push through those. The overall work is worthy of a couple of slow zones. In fact, perhaps those slow zones serve the purpose of allowing more pondering.

****
4.5 stars
Summary: Decadent

Rating - 5 Date: 2008-11-25
Content: This was a rather difficult book to get through. Lots of old English and lots of footnotes describing what the words or phrases meant. I struggled through about 3/4 of the book, but then it picked up and I managed to get it read. In the end, it was worth the time and effort but does take some patience to get through. Not for everyone.
Summary: Birdmonkeygirl

Rating - 4 Date: 2008-11-23
Content: a classic literary staple of the modern world! a must read for any intellectual. every sentence is brimming with stimulating ideas and paradoxes.
Summary: classic

Rating - 5 Date: 2008-11-13
Content: Basil Hallward is an artist, who paints a portrait of Dorian Gray, a very good looking and naïve young man. The portrait is a masterpiece that in reality depicts Basil's feelings for Dorian, as well as, Dorian's youth and beauty.
Lord Henry Wotton, a seductive emotional predator and selfish pleasure seeker, is a friend of Basil who meets Dorian at Basil's house and gives him a philosophical speech about the fading nature of youth and beauty. Dorian whose greatest qualities are his youth and beauty pledges his soul to stay young and beautiful. As part of the deal Dorian Gray's portrait becomes the surrogate for the disgrace and aging of the real Dorian Gray.
Under the growing influence of Lord Henry over Dorian, the later embraces Hedonism and increasingly sinks into a sinful corrupt life and shows no regard for values or morals. A tragic event caused by Dorian's behaviors starts the projection of Dorian's ugliness and self -centeredness on the portrait. Dorian creates excuses and excuses himself with lame explanations for the tragedy and hides his portrait so he can't see the hideous transformation of himself reflected in his picture. As long as his beauty remains, he can ignore the changes in his portrait. It's interesting how Dorian tries to avoid his inner feeling of ugliness by trying to surround him self by beauty, and other beautiful distractions such as roses and music.

Basil's love for Dorian, which is likely a real life reflection of Wilde's love for Lord Alfred Douglas, causes Basil to defend and protect Dorian, even from his self destructive acts, until the last shocking event. I'm tempted to describe the ending event, but I won't deprive the reader from the pleasure of exploration and discovery.

Given the period when this novel was written, Wilde is artistically candid and courageous beyond belief. Wilde displays his usual wit, sarcastic playful ways and funny style, while he walks us through serious dilemmas like the supremacy of youth and beauty, homosexual feelings, repentance and murder. Wilde grabs the reader through the use of shocking events that not only criticize Victorian morality, but ironically displays a moral lesson about vanity and narcissism.

"The picture of Dorian Gray" is a wonderful piece of literature in which the portrait asserts itself as Dorian's conscience in a superficial society that places values on looks and wealth while ignoring the real value of humans. Simply, a one of a kind work.


Summary: "Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter"-Oscar Wilde

Rating - 1 Date: 2008-11-12
Content: As was the case with quite a few other readers, I had been snookered into believing this was a near-universally lauded classic. Hello? The emperor has no clothes and this book has no redeeming qualities. The writing style was absolutely maddening!

The only reason I read the entire thing was because I purchased the book and felt compelled to get my money's worth (not entirely possible with such a low quality "classic")

After reading it in its entirety, I felt the type of satisfaction one feels after completing a particularly odious chore. Removing my copy from my home will be most satisfying. Bottom line: Boooooooooooooring!
Summary: What a SNOOZE!!!!!