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Oscar Wilde: The Picture Of Dorian Gray

mehastings

mehastings

Active Member
November 2005 Book of the Month

Amazon: 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."
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I enjoyed it quite a bit.

It took me a bit longer to make sure I truly understood evrything but it was well worth it. I also enjoyed the many things that Wilde was able to imply Dorian was into without ever saying he was. I enjoyed the portrait as a true mirror into the corrupt nature of Dorian's soul. Even when trying to better himself towards the end, the picture reflects selfish motives.

Well worth the time to read.
 
The book was still used against Oscar Wilde during his trial for homosexual acts. Even downplayed, the book was also deemed to be immoral and thus used as evidence against Wilde. Thanks for the link, Mari.
 
I didn't really care for this book. I'm a little burnt out on the classics right now, so this may not have been the best time for me to read this. But, I just didn't find a single character likable, and didn't really enjoy where he went with the story. Everyone in the book was just so damn smarmy and pretentious. And while I have no doubt that he nailed how the English gentry acted in that time, it didn't make for a very enjoyable read.
 
Going straight from Lolita to The Picture of Dorian Gray was sort of like --
well, it was like -- well, it was as if all of life's subtleties were suddenly missing. This is not (I'm certain) entirely Wilde's fault. It felt a bit as if I had been caught in a reverse time-warp or something. Perhaps if I had done it backwards it would have all turned out better, but I simply flunked out on this one, folks.

I've plunged myself into good old fashioned Elizabethan frippery for the nonce. Mayhap that will do the trick.

:eek:
 
I'm so glad this book was chosen for this month. I've never read it before and was debating whether to get it, as it didn't sound like quite my thing. When Mari posted the link (thank you, Mari!) I downloaded the text onto my PDA and have been reading and enjoying it since. I'm not finished with it yet, but the obvious subtext has made me wonder what Wilde may have written had he been completely free to write as he wished, without fear of reprisals. Again, thanks for bringing to my attention a book I likely would not have read if it weren't for this board. I may post with more comments later once I've finished the story.
 
yeah

I really enjoyed this book. Enough to give one of my friends a copy.
It was rather hard to enjoy the long conversations during the dinners, but not the least boring. I really like the book and plan to reread it soon. Along with The Great Indecencies of Oscar Wilde. (not 100% positive that that's the title..?)
 
I read it several years ago and loved it.

I remember he described the flowers in the garden so vividly I thought I could smell them. It is a pity he wrote no other novels.
 
I read this coincidentally a few weeks ago. In my personal internal rating system I gave it four out of five. It's overwhelmingly clever, but that means it can be a little, well, overwhelming. Sometimes with witticisms and paradoxes (there was one page where I counted six or seven sallies batted back and forth among members of a party) one can have too much of a good thing, and the wit when so concentrated can begin to seem forced.
 
Shade said:
I read this coincidentally a few weeks ago. In my personal internal rating system I gave it four out of five. It's overwhelmingly clever, but that means it can be a little, well, overwhelming. Sometimes with witticisms and paradoxes (there was one page where I counted six or seven sallies batted back and forth among members of a party) one can have too much of a good thing, and the wit when so concentrated can begin to seem forced.
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Yes at times you really see that he was used to writing plays, not regular novels. Its been a few years since i read this, but i really enjoyed it although the witticisms were a bit over-the-top at times. Its almost like he tried to push in as many quotable one liners as possible.
 
...the wit when so concentrated can begin to seem forced.
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I got back on the horse.

This is my second reading, and while I'm glad that he wrote it (and I'm glad to have read it), I have to admit to feeling a bit bludgeoned at times.
 
A bit bludgeoned at times? Were some of the themes and ideals too strong for you? Admittedly, the beginning is a jump into a psychological battle of beauty, vanity, sin, etc. But I thought it was clever, like the angel and the devil sitting atop Dorian's shoulders. And, as most humans, the devil won with no visible contest.
 
A bit bludgeoned by the rococo prose. If I had been reading this a hundred years ago, I suppose I might have been appropriately jolted by the theme.

I guess I'm jaded -- or maybe I read too much?

:eek:
 
Wilde´s prose

I find that Oscar Wilde´s prose is one of the greatest merit and beauties of his work. I particularly enjoy the thorough description of Doryan´s gallery of ancestors. I have yet to find an author that can be so deft and delicate in describing objects, and I wish modern authors specially those who write historical or costume pieces would elaborate more in milieu description.
 
I was so shocked the day I first realized the possible interpretation that Oscar Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray in order to demonstrate his perception of the ugliness inherent in the Christian notion that all sins may be forgiven. Wilde may have seen such forgiveness as sort of sweeping all the ugliness under the carpet.



In the very last chapter we read:



Ah! in what a monstrous moment of pride and passion he had prayed that the portrait should bear the burden of his days, and he keep the unsullied splendour of eternal youth! All his failure had been due to that.

Better for him that each sin of his life had brought its sure swift penalty along with it. There was purification in punishment. Not "Forgive us our sins"
but "Smite us for our iniquities" should be the prayer of man to a most just God.
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I suspect that Wilde's attitude might have been influenced by his bitterness over the judgment and ruin often brought upon people by Christian society because of their sexual orientation, and the hypocrisy Wilde saw in such a society.

Christian forgiveness is seen by some existentialists as a lovely tapestry which conceals the indelible, ugly handwriting on the wall beneath, written by our actions and freewill choices, which tell us that we have been "weighed and found wanting."

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

-- Omar Khayyam
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http://www.robotwisdom.com/jaj/irishlit.html

I find 1890-91 as the date give for "The Picture of Dorian Gray", prior to his trial. Wilde spent two years in prison from 1895 to 1897.
 
That interpretation sailed right on over my head, Sitaram, until this very moment. I humbly thank you. I also took a moment to look up the word "rococo", and got a whole 'nother education there. :eek:
 
I aren't usually too much for classics, but this is brilliant. Every line has lots of meaning. Wilde brilliantly deals with the fears of homosexuality and the idea of the double-self. I disliked Wotton for his influence on Dorian, but very much sympathised for Basil who lost a good friend when introducing the other two men.
 
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