book review the picture of dorian gray

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The picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde [a review].

The Picture of Dorian Gray had a notorious reputation even before it was used against its author, Oscar Wilde, at his trial for gross indecency. Where it may lack originality in its premise, it more than makes up for it in the evocation of the contrasts and contradictions of high and low 19 th century London society.

Cover image of The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel by Oscar Wilde

Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton manage to maintain a friendship despite being very different men. Hallward, a painter, is a man of strong moral convictions but, he fears, weak character. Situations that may lead him astray cause him great anxiety and will usually result in him seeking an escape. Wotton, an aristocrat and a dandy, in contrast, revels in his repute for being a hedonist and a libertine. In fact, Wotton is quite mischievous. Despite the reputation he cultivates, he does not act on his supposed principles. Rather, he enjoys the effect his scandalous remarks have on those around him and prefers to influence others to indulge themselves while he observes the results. Naturally, Hallward finds Wotton antagonising.

‘You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is merely a pose.’

Wotton senses a new opportunity for mischief when he visits Hallward to see his latest work – a full-length portrait of a young man of exceptional personal beauty. Initially, Hallward refuses to reveal the subject’s identity, before telling Wotton about his first encounter with Dorian Gray. Hallward certainly does not want Wotton to meet this man who has affected him so profoundly. It is at that moment that Gray’s arrival is announced.

Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him.

After being introduced to Gray, Wotton wastes no time to set in motion his usual tricks. Wotton immediately launches into delivering a sermon to the young man all about influences and impulses; sin and temptation; fear, courage and submission.

‘I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream – I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of [medievalism], and return to the Hellenic ideal – to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. […] The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.’ […] ‘Stop!’, faltered Gray, ‘stop! You bewilder me. I don’t know what to say. There is some answer to you, but I cannot find it.’

Gray, young, somewhat innocent and not very introspective, is impressed by Wotton’s ideas, especially when Wotton warns Gray that his beauty will inevitably fade. When Hallward shows Gray his portrait, Gray is initially joyful at the representation of his beauty, but, remembering what Wotton said, grows resentful. He is even jealous that, while his looks will fade, the painting will remain beautiful and mock him. He wishes their places could be reversed – that his likeness in the painting would age while he remained youthful.

‘How sad it is!’ murmured Dorian Gray, with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. ‘How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. It will never be older than this particular day of June…. If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the painting that was to grow old! For that – for that – I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!’

Under Wotton’s influence, Gray begins taking tentative steps outside his comfort zone and the walls of respectable society. When he cruelly breaks a young woman’s heart, he discovers that his wish has become true – his portrait bears the mark of his cruelty and he does not. Though he is briefly remorseful, Wotton counsels Gray out of his conscience. Gray now feels an unprecedented freedom to follow his desires, to succumb to temptations of sin.

Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins – he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all.

The Picture of Dorian Gray gets off to a great start. The descriptions of the characters and the locations, which come together in their social gatherings, immerses the reader with its impression of a privileged, elite, social class inhabiting London society of the late nineteenth century. Add to that the endlessly quotable witticisms of Wotton and the morality tale of Gray’s pursuit of vice without consequence, and the reader can be swiftly seduced into this world.

If you were already aware of the outline of the plot, you might assume that it is a fairly straightforward tale but in fact the novel has more complexity and thoughtfulness to it. In particular, I enjoyed some of the contrasts between the characters, major and minor, and how their aspects conflict and conspire. I thought the evolution of Gray’s character was well-worked and thought out. When we first meet Gray, he is very innocent and vulnerable. Once Gray begins his journey from innocence and vulnerability to self-corruption, he grows in confidence and self-assurance and knows his own mind well enough to be outspoken in disagreement. And, original or not, I thought the use of the transforming painting made an interesting literary device.

His unreal and selfish love would yield to some higher influence, would be transformed to some nobler passion, and the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him would be a guide to him through life, would be to him what holiness is to some, and conscience to others, and the fear of God to us all. There were opiates for remorse, drugs that could kill the moral sense to sleep. But here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls.

Though direct, I enjoyed a lot of the narration and some scenes were wonderfully dramatic and will be quite memorable.

Several interesting themes are explored in the novel. There is the superficiality in culture, especially amongst the social elites, and the premium it places on appearances, youthfulness and beauty. Wotton’s hedonistic philosophy, which he contemplates and observes rather than indulges in, is taken to its extremes by Gray who experiences its moral implications. Taken together, these combine to show the reader the error of mistaking appearance for reality, especially when making assumptions of good moral character on members of high society and the good looking.

Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.

There are questions about the role and purpose of art versus the aesthetic ideal. Heredity as destiny is explored as some characters embrace the legacy of the forebears while others seek to escape it. There is also the conflict between the public and private selves and the fantasy of living a double life.

There were a few things I did not enjoy in The Picture of Dorian Gray . Wotton speaks mostly in epigrams which, at first, can be deliciously witty. There are, in fact, far too many clever lines to quote. But I felt that this can soon become tedious and Wotton tiresome.

‘A woman will flirt with anybody in the world as long as other people are looking on.’ ‘How fond you are of saying dangerous things, Harry! […] You are talking scandal Harry, and there is never any basis for scandal.’ ‘The basis of every scandal is an immoral certainty,’ said Lord Henry, lighting a cigarette. ‘You would sacrifice anybody, Harry, for the sake of an epigram.’

Knowing that The Picture of Dorian Gray was Oscar Wilde’s only novel and that it was used as evidence against him at his trial, I had mistakenly assumed that it was written late in his career. In fact, it was published before his major plays, such as Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest , which recycled some of the lines from The Picture of Dorian Gray . The early parts of the novel read a bit like a novel written by a playwright. By that I mean it can be a bit dialogue-heavy and that dialogue is very direct and unsubtle. The reader can effortlessly imagine the scenes taking place on stage. Elsewhere, the novel could have used less subtlety – there are some key exclusions at important plot points.

One of the advantages of reading this Penguin Classics edition is that it includes an appendix of contemporary reviews of The Picture of Dorian Gray which give an impression of the novel’s reception and which I enjoyed reading. Most of the reviews were at least a little negative, some very. Some simply found the story and the writing to be not very good – stupid, vulgar, dull, boring and silly were some of the adjectives of one. But most critique the book for its ‘moral’. Some say the story does have a moral but it is an ‘evil’ one, some say it does not do enough to show a moral preference. Some reinforce their argument by saying that Wilde’s defence of the story’s moral is contrived and inconsistent while others contradict this by saying Wilde dismissed any moral interpretation of the story which they found untenable.

These seem a little exaggerated and unfair. I don’t think works of fiction necessarily need to show moral preference in their telling. Otherwise tragedy has little room to work with. Empathy and judgement of the characters and their actions can be left for the reader to interpret. One wonders if Edgar Allan Poe or Robert Louis Stevenson were similarly critiqued. On the other hand, since critiquing the idea that art should have some moral value or purpose, as opposed to the aesthetic ideal of ‘art for art’s sake’, is one of the points of the novel, such a reaction is probably fitting.

Some included in the selection were a bit more positive though not necessarily for flattering reasons. A review from the Christian Leader enjoyed the unfavourable portrayal of the ‘gilded paganism’ of the era which it likened to the worst excesses of Rome! It also enjoyed the fact that Gray is shown to have been led astray in part by reading a dangerous book.

This edition also contained the Introduction by Peter Ackroyd from an earlier Penguin Classics edition. My main takeaway from this introduction was Ackroyd’s point that London, like Gray, has a double life in the novel; the decadence of London’s exclusive clubs contrasted with its opium dens.

English readers were not accustomed to such a forceful characterisation of their civilisation, and Wilde went even further than this; he mocked both the artistic pretensions and the social morality of the English, and some of the most powerful passages in the novel disclose the grinding poverty and hopelessness against which ‘Society’ turned its face. Wilde, an Irishman, was putting a mirror up to his oppressors – and their shocked reactions would eventually encircle him when he stood in the dock at the Old Bailey.

My main takeaway from reading the new Introduction by Robert Mighall was the message in the novel of a mutual influence between culture and corruption – a point which immediately brought to my mind a modern double life immorality tale – American Psycho. Mighall seems sceptical of how much originality can be attributed to The Picture of Dorian Gray with reason. Tales of double lives, of fatal deals for eternal youth and magical paintings have a long history in ancient mythology and medieval legend – Faust and Narcissus being two that immediately come to mind.

Perhaps if I had kept some of these antecedents in mind while reading The Picture of Dorian Gray , I might have enjoyed it less. But maybe not. I think Wilde does enough to complicate the story with incidents, characters and themes outside of, and diverting to, the main story. If some elements are unoriginal, this is offset by the context of the period setting where the issues of the day are inserted into the story, giving it a point of difference to other iterations. It does have a complicated history, though, with controversy and multiple revisions that can confuse and irritate attempts at a consistent interpretation. For me, The Picture of Dorian Gray joins a very large pile of books that I did enjoy but not tremendously.

A Summary and Analysis of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s one novel, published originally in 1890 (as a serial) and then in book form the following year. The novel is at once an example of late Victorian Gothic horror and , in some ways, the greatest English-language novel about decadence and aestheticism, or ‘art for art’s sake’.

To show how these themes and movements find their way into the novel, it’s necessary to offer some words of analysis. But before we analyse The Picture of Dorian Gray , it might be worth summarising the plot of the novel.

The Picture of Dorian Gray : summary

The three main characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray are the title character (a beautiful young man), Basil Hallward (a painter), and Lord Henry Wotton (Basil Hallward’s friend).

The novel opens with Basil painting Dorian Gray’s portrait. Lord Henry Wotton takes a shine to the young man, and advises him to be constantly in search of new ‘sensations’ in life. He encourages Dorian to drink deep of life’s pleasures.

When the picture of Dorian is finished, Dorian marvels at how young and beautiful he looks, before wishing that he could always remain as young and attractive while his portrait is the one that ages and decays, rather than the other way around. When he proclaims that he would give his soul to have such a wish granted, it’s as if he has made a pact with the devil.

Basil’s finished portrait is sent to Dorian’s house, while Dorian himself goes out and follows Lord Henry’s advice. He falls head over heels in love with an actress, Sibyl Vane, but when she loses her ability to act well – because, she claims, now she has fallen in love for real she cannot imitate it on the stage – Dorian cruelly discards her. He had fallen in love with her art as an actress, and now she has lost that, she is meaningless to him.

Sibyl takes her own life before Dorian – who has observed a change in his portrait, which looks to have a slightly meaner expression than before – can apologise to her and beg her forgiveness. But Lord Henry consoles Dorian, arguing that Sibyl, in dying young, has given her last beautiful performance.

Dorian, shocked by the change in the portrait, locks it away at the top of his house, in his old schoolroom. Inspired by an immoral ‘yellow book’ which Lord Henry gives to him, Dorian continues to experience all manner of ‘sensations’, no matter how immoral they are. When he next takes a look at the portrait in his attic, he finds an old and evil face, disfigured by sin, staring out at him.

The novel moves forward some thirteen years. Dorian, of course, is still young and fresh-faced, but his portrait looks meaner and older than ever. When Dorian shows the portrait to Basil, who painted it, the artist – who had worshipped Dorian’s beauty when he painted the picture – is shocked and appalled. Dorian stabs Basil to death, before enlisting the help of someone to dispose of the body (this man, horrified by what he has done, will later take his own life).

Dorian slides further into sin and evil, until one day, the brother of the dead actress, Sibyl Vane, bumps into Dorian Gray and intends to exact revenge for his sister’s mistreatment at the hands of Dorian. But when he follows Dorian to the latter’s country estate, he is accidentally shot by one of Dorian’s shooting party.

Dorian becomes intent on reforming his character, hoping that the portrait will start to improve if he behaves better. But when he goes up to look at the painting, he finds that it shows the face of a hypocrite, because even his abstinence from vice was, in its own way, a quest for a new sensation to experience.

Horrified and angered, Dorian plunges a knife into the canvas, but when the servants walk in on him, they find the portrait as it was originally painted, showing Dorian Gray as a youthful man. Meanwhile, on the floor, there is the body of a wrinkled old man with a ‘loathsome’ face.

The Picture of Dorian Gray : analysis

The Picture of Dorian Gray has been analysed as an example of the Gothic horror novel, as a variation on the theme of the ‘double’, and as a narrative embodying some of the key aspects of late nineteenth-century aestheticism and decadence.

Wilde’s skill lies in how he manages to weave these various elements together, creating a modern take on the old Faust story (the German figure Faust sold his soul to the devil, via Mephistopheles) which also, in its depictions of late Victorian sin and vice, may remind readers of another work of fiction published just four years earlier: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (which we’ve analysed here ).

Indeed, the discovery of the body of Dorian Gray as a wrinkled and horrifically ugly corpse at the end of the novel recalls the discovery of Jekyll/Hyde in Stevenson’s novella.

To find the novel’s value as a book of the aesthetic movement, we need look no further than Wilde’s preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray , in which he states, for instance, that ‘there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book’ (what matters is whether the book is written well or not) and ‘all art is quite useless’ (art shouldn’t change the world: art exists as, and for, itself, and no more).

Lord Henry Wotton is very much the voice of the aesthetic movement in the novel, and many of his pronouncements echo those made by the prominent art critic (under whom Wilde had studied at Oxford), Walter Pater. But whereas Pater talked of ‘new impressions’, Lord Henry (or Wilde, in his novel) took this up a notch, calling for new ‘sensations’.

We tend to speak conveniently of ‘periods’ or ‘movements’ or ‘eras’ in literary history, but these labels aren’t always useful. Both Oscar Wilde and Elizabeth Gaskell, the author of Mary Barton and North and South , were ‘Victorian’ in that they were both writing and publishing their work in Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).

But whereas Gaskell, writing in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, wrote ‘realist’ novels about the plight of factory workers in northern England, Wilde wrote a fantastical horror story about upper-class men who are able to stay forever young and spotless while their portraits decay in their attic. They’re a world away from each other.

Wilde’s novel is a good example of how later Victorian fiction often turned against the values and approaches favourited by earlier Victorian writers. It was Wilde who, famously, said of the sad ending of Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop , which Dickens’s original readers in the 1840s wept buckets over, ‘one must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without’ – what, crying?

No. Wilde’s word was ‘laughing’. The overly sentimental style favoured by mid-century novelists like Dickens had given way to a more casual, poised, nonchalant, and detached mode of storytelling.

At the same time, we can overstate the extent to which Wilde’s novel turns its back on earlier Victorian attitudes and values. Despite his statement that there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a highly moral work, as the tale of Faust was. Dorian’s life is destroyed by his commitment to a life of pleasure, even though it entails the destruction of other lives – most notably, Sibyl Vane’s.

Far from being a book that would be denounced from the pulpits by Anglican clergymen for being ‘immoral’, The Picture of Dorian Gray could make for a pretty good moral sermon in itself, albeit one that’s more witty and entertaining than most Christian sermons.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is, at bottom, a novel of surfaces and appearance. We say ‘at bottom’, but that is precisely the point: the novel is, as many critics have commented, all surface. Lord Henry is so taken by the beauty of Dorian Gray that he sets about being a bad influence on him.

Dorian is so taken by the painting of him – a two-dimensional representation of his outward appearance – that he makes his deal with the devil, trading his soul, that thing which represents inner meaning and inner depth, in exchange for remaining youthful on the outside.

Then, when Dorian falls in love, it’s with an actress, not because he loves her but because he loves her performance. When she loses her ability to act, he abandons her. Her name, Sibyl Vane, points up the vanity of acting and the pursuit of skin-deep appearance at the cost if something more substantial, but her first name also acts as a warning: in Greek mythology, the Sibyls made cryptic statements about future events.

But there’s probably a particular Sibyl that Wilde had in mind: the Sibyl at Cumae, who, in Petronius’ scurrilous Roman novel Satyricon (which Wilde would surely have known) and in other stories, was destined to live forever but to age and wither away. She had eternal life, but not eternal youth. Dorian’s own eternal youth comes at a horrible cost: without a soul, all he can do is go in pursuit of new sensations, forever chasing desire yet never attaining true fulfilment.

It will, in the end, destroy him: in lashing out and trying to destroy the truth that stares back at him from his portrait, much as he had destroyed the artist who held up a mirror to his corrupt self, Dorian Gray destroys himself. In the last analysis, as he and his portrait do not exist separately from each other, he must live with himself – and with his conscience – or must die in his vain attempt to close his eyes to who he has really become.

About Oscar Wilde

The life of the Irish novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is as famous as – perhaps even more famous than – his work. But in a career spanning some twenty years, Wilde created a body of work which continues to be read an enjoyed by people around the world: a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray ; short stories and fairy tales such as ‘ The Happy Prince ’ and ‘ The Selfish Giant ’; poems including The Ballad of Reading Gaol ; and essay-dialogues which were witty revivals of the Platonic philosophical dialogue.

But above all, it is Wilde’s plays that he continues to be known for, and these include witty drawing-room comedies such as Lady Windermere’s Fan , A Woman of No Importance , and The Importance of Being Earnest , as well as a Biblical drama, Salome (which was banned from performance in the UK and had to be staged abroad). Wilde is also often remembered for his witty quips and paradoxes and his conversational one-liners, which are legion.

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‘Genius lasts longer than beauty’ – a very appropriate quote from Chapter 1

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The “yellow book”, referred to is probably Huysmans’s A Rebours, which was sold in a yellow jacket. It is not the Yellow Book quarterly (a publication featuring poetry, prose and illustrations from followers of the Aesthetic movement), which came later, and which probably took its title from the reference in Wilde’s novel.

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Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This book has some of the most long-winded and sesquipedalian (I wanted to use that word so badly) prose I’ve ever read, but I somehow managed to finish it in one afternoon, glued to my Kindle the entire time.

(By the way, anyone else love the irony of the word sesquipedalian? It has to be one of my favorite words for that reason)

About the Book

Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author: Oscar Wilde

Published: 1890

Genre: classics, Gothic/horror

Rating: 5/5 stars

(This book is in the public domain, so you bet I’m going to drop a million quotes in the review)

Book Review

“Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed.”

The Picture of Dorian Gray opens with the introduction of an artist named Basil Howard and his fascination with a young man named… Dorian Gray , whom we are told is very, very (very, very, very) beautiful. (It’s implied that Basil has romantic feelings for Dorian, which is actually what made the book controversial when it was published in 1890.)

When Dorian comes to Basil’s studio to get his portrait painted, he meets Basil’s cynical and slightly evil friend, Lord Henry, who enjoys saying oh-so-clever and casually callous one-liners during every lull in conversation.

“Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.” – Lord Henry, whom I loved despite the fact that he is the villain…

Lord Henry manages to freak Dorian out about getting old and losing all his beauty, tricking him into unwittingly selling his soul (?) for eternal beauty.

That’s right: Dorian will never grow old; instead, his portrait will bear all of the weight of his life choices. Dorian doesn’t realize this at first, but as he falls deeper into debauchery at the encouragement of Lord Henry, the portrait gradually grows more and more hideous, hidden in Dorian’s attic where no one will ever find it….

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

I’d been looking forward to reading this book for while. I had seen it on so many lists of “accessible” classics and best-books-of-all-time, so one day I finally went and downloaded it from Project Gutenberg to give it a try myself.

First of all, though it was slightly more on the long-winded side, the writing was great. While there were one or two places where I was almost tempted to skim through the long descriptions of Dorian’s opulent lifestyle and whatever the walls looked like, I couldn’t bring myself to because the language was just so immersive and quite frankly addictive.

There were also a surprising number of funny one-liners (said by Lord Henry, of course). Speaking of Lord Henry, although he is the obvious antagonist, Wilde writes him in such a way that the audience can disturbingly see themselves in him and almost sympathize with him anyway, an aspect of the book that really stuck with me .

One thing that took me out of the story were certain really dramatic and unrealistic situations that were just too over-the-top for me to take seriously. (the whole thing with Dorian’s fanatical crush was… super melodramatic, but that is characteristic of Gothic literature. I think. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on artistic movements.)

Let’s talk some more about the plot, though. The symbolism of the titular “picture of Dorian Gray” was a fascinating basis for a story, and the book keeps up its momentum through an intense feeling of this-is-not-going-to-end-well. You’re compelled to keep reading, even though it’s obvious that the story isn’t going anywhere good.

The ending was fitting, albeit kind of sudden, but I’m not going to discuss it because this is, after all, a spoiler-free review.

Recommendation:

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to read more classics and anyone in the mood for a contemplative and spooky-ish book.

Read-alikes:

I’m adding a new section to my reviews where I mention other books that remind me of the book I’m reviewing! For this one, I’m going to say it reminded me a lot of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley , and the premise is sort of like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab , which I haven’t read yet (so don’t hold me to that)

That’s it for today’s review! Have you read The Picture of Dorian Gray ? Do you agree with my points?

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The Picture of Dorian Gray: Book Review

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author : Oscar Wilde. Published : 1890, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Our Edition : 2015, Alma . Length : 288 Pages. Genre(s) : Classic, Gothic, Thriller. Rating : 5/5. Links : Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Audible

I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of Dorian, a young man who is corrupted by his narcissistic society. Once an innocent adolescent, he becomes an obsessive Machiavel who will do whatever it takes to hold onto his youth. He achieves this with the help of Basil, an artist who produces a detailed portrait of Dorian. Upon looking at the portrait, Dorian realises that, although he is young in the painting, he will not stay this way: over time, he will wither and die. In his misery, he cries out, asking the open air whether the portrait c ould age in his place.

His prayer is granted: as the years pass, Dorian grows older, yet no signs of age appear on his body. No lines gather around his features, and his eyes shine just as brightly as they did on the day that Basil painted his portrait. Meanwhile, up in Dorian’s attic, Basil’s portrait sits hidden away. It is the same picture with the same frame, yet its subject has changed. Instead of depicting a glowing youth, it displays a withered, decrepit man. It bears every pain Dorian inflicts on himself, a fact that Dorian takes full advantage of. He follows a path of sin, drinking to excess, spending time in opium dens, and abusing those around him. Yet despite these actions, his face remains pure and youthful. No one blames Dorian for his sins, for how could such a beautiful, innocent-seeming youth commit such atrocities?

Wilde’s novel weaves a dramatic tale of identity, sacrifice, and cruelty. As it considers the underlying principles of human nature, it uncovers our narcissistic habits, exposing our own superficiality, whilst weaving a fantasy tale that aligns itself with gothic imaginative works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula .

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a story about art: it concerns individuality, materialism, conscience, and pressures regarding a person’s appearance. At least one of these issues is still a big concern today, which is perhaps what makes this novel so interesting. Dorian’s fears about growing older are shared by many of us, including a number of poets . Yet unlike the rest of us, Dorian discovers a way of combating age. Whilst his portrait bears the signs of his crimes, Dorian walks around unscathed, able to beguile, trick, and murder without any hint of cruelty showing on his face.

Of course, many of the themes in this book are based on superficial constructs. There are characters who naturally assume that, because Dorian doesn’t look cruel, he is incapable of cruel actions. Nowadays, such logic can be easily dismissed as foolish, yet it is very real in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde reveals how important our appearances can be to us; Dorian is genuinely terrified of losing his youthful demeanour, even though growing older is a purely superficial transformation, and one that is natural for all of us. The materialism that we associate with modern society fully emerged in the Victorian period; Wilde lived during a time when material possessions passed easily from one hand to another, and The Picture of Dorian Gray comments on this burgeoning commodity culture: Dorian sees his youth as a precious commodity, and although he possesses an assortment of books, jewels, and fine clothes, it is his appearance that he values the most.

Although this novel considers a number of complex themes and ideas, its true beauty arguably does not lie with its content. The story is incredibly dramatic, and is sure to satisfy any reader: there are memorable characters, fascinating plot twists, and an element of the supernatural that adds a layer of mystery to the novel. Yet Wilde’s greatest skill arguably lies with his style of writing. This book is filled with a descriptive language that surpasses all expectations. When you read it, you may just wonder whether you are reading poetry, rather than prose. Wilde has a powerful command over the English language and it is thoroughly reflected in The Picture of Dorian Gray .

This is a novel that will really make you think. Its characters are so boldly imprinted on its pages that they become easy to picture. It raises a lot of questions, but rarely answers them. This results in a sense of mystery that hangs over the narrative, causing readers to question what Wilde really believed, as well as what he intended for his novel. Yet one of Wilde’s core principles is that a books do not have to mean anything. At the beginning of the book, he considers how art can exist for art’s sake. It does not have to mean anything and it does not have to question contemporary ideals. As a result, The Picture of Dorian may not have a true meaning; exists as it is: as an incredible work of literature.

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Jules_Writes

I’ve never read it but always meant too, maybe one day…

Emily | Literary Edits

Thanks for reading our review, Jules. The Picture of Dorian Gray is certainly worth reading if you can find the time for it; we thoroughly recommend it!

Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

I read this novel on a whim - I had never read any of Wilde before and did not know too much about him as an author apart from the fact he was put on trial and imprisoned during his life. The Picture of Dorian Gray was thoroughly surprising and unexpected. Dorian Gray, at the beginning of the novel, is perceived by Basil Hallward as an individual worth obsessing over, he is infatuated with him and without knowing Dorian yet, the reader is too. But then the reader is introduced to him physically and I realized he isn't all that. He's almost pompous but somehow clever and he's beautiful. Both Basil and his friend Lord Henry Wotton are influenced to see him more positively by that but I think the fact that Dorian is not tangible to the reader allows us to see him for who he truely is. According to Lord Henry, beauty is worth more than genius is, depicting which friend he prefers over the other. I wanted to sympathize with Basil because he was more sensitive than the others and I felt pity for him as I realized he was not a character anyone particularly cared immensely for. I preferred Basil over both Henry and Dorian because Henry's beliefs appeared rather traditionalist and were more controversial than common and the fact that Dorian was supposed to be a character without any fault was already a warning for me. Honestly, from the title, I did not know what direction the novel was going in from any point during the reading. To clear a few things up, Basil is an artist who paints a portrait of Dorian because he appreciates him in a more aesthetic manner than others who enjoy his company but the portrait appears to change into something more demonic as time goes on symbolizing how awful Dorian was becoming as a person. I mean, I needed to stop reading for a few minutes because I could not believe how little Dorian cared for others but I will admit that the absurdity of it all was entertaining. There is a lot of murder in this book which definitely makes the novel more interesting but then I guess I should also mention not get too attached to some characters. Reviewer Grade: 11

critical book reviews

Oscar Wilde
Apr 8, 2020

The Picture of Dorian Gray - critical review

I watched a series of lectures about the Supernatural and the evolution of the supernatural, and one key aspect of the course was the 'uncanny' and how it is explored. The idea of the Uncanny was developed by Sigmund Freud in his short essay in 1919. One example that he used in literature that would produce the 'uncanny' feeling was the use of 'the double.' After being really interested in the 'double' in Jane Eyre through the character of Bertha and Jane, I wanted to explore this further. Since particular reference was made to Oscar Wilde's only novel, 'the Picture of Dorian Gray', I thought I would start by reading this. After reading the novel, I watched a series of lectures on the novel and read an article about the characters in the book. The philosophical novel touches on themes of identity, art and its influence, morality and ethics, nature, religion and beauty.

Something I found interesting in the novel was the portrayal of the importance of art, and incorporating aestheticism and the ideas of the Decedent movement. Aestheticism was the rejection of Anglicanism and its moral purpose of art. Instead, it was fascinated by the imagination, individual and personality. It was enveloped by a group of writers, artist and critics and was later called the decedent movement (about 1860-1890s.) It was a series of rebellions against conventional art and the attitudes to it, believing that art shouldn't be a tool for social education or influence morality, but instead have no responsibilities apart from its purpose of being beautiful. 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', then, is ultimately a production of Aestheticism through its focus on both the painting and the mysterious 'yellow book.' It also references theatre, through the character of Sybil Vane, and throughout the entire novel is centred around arts and the beauty of it. Wilde was known as "the high priest of the decedents", and therefore agreed with the movement profoundly, and what struck me in the novel was this movement was carried throughout the book as a warning of the result of art being a gateway to influence and education, the opposite of what the decedent movement was preaching. Dorian's life, ultimately, gets destroyed by different forms of Art. Sybil Vane, who is a character made of up of a collection of Shakespearean characters, is a motif for the theatre and performance. It is portrayed that she is "never" Sybil Vane, and Dorian can't describe her character, only that of the different parts she performs in theatre. When Sybil falls in love with Dorian, she can't act her true love on stage, and this ruins Dorian's affection for her, and leads to their destruction of their relationship and ultimately, Sybil's death. When Sybil dies, he fictionalises it: "if I read all this in a book, Harry, I think I would have wept over it", which further creates her to be a character rather than an individual in reality. Therefore, the love that Dorian has for Sybil is destroyed due to the influence of art, since when it is taken away and the reality of Sybil is revealed, Dorian turns against it. Wilde portrays that if this aspect of art influences an individual too much, it ruins the vision of reality. Dorian falls in love with the characters that Sybil plays, instead of Sybil herself. Furthermore, Dorian Gray is also corrupted by the piece of literature he is given by Lord Henry: the mysterious 'yellow book': 'A rebours', or 'Against Nature' by Joris-Karl Huysman, an important piece of fiction of the Decadent movement in France, published in 1884, which portrayed the superiority of human creativity over logic and the natural world. This book is portrayed to 'poison' Dorian Gray. Furthermore, the painting itself, the most dominate source of art in the book, has corrupting influence over Dorian, and in the end, destroys him. Therefore, the novel seems a cautionary tale in light of the view that art should have a moral responsibility, which the decedent movement were trying to crush. Wilde in his preface of the book said that that the only purpose of art is to have no purpose, except for being beautiful and to entertain our 'intense admiration' and he presents this idea through Lord Henry's statement that "art has no influence upon action". Therefore, the fact the novel shows the opposite of this, in which art has influence over every action, and this leads to destruction, means it becomes a cautionary tale for this idea and the danger of corruption through the influence of art.

Another criticism of society which Wilde included in the novel was the superficial view of beauty. The whole novel is centred around the fact that Dorian would do anything for beauty, including selling his soul for it. This vanity carries on throughout the novel, in which he is transfixed by the painting, even when it is ugly and sinful. His obsession with his appearance links to Ovid's metamorphosis, in which Narcissus falls in love with his reflection, and this leads to his death. This myth is echoed in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', through Dorian becoming so encapsulated by his image that it leads to him destroying it. The dark vanity that is portrayed in Dorian is shown when the narrator tells us "he himself would stand, with a mirror, in front of the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him ... He grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his soul." Therefore, Wilde takes Narcissus' sense of vanity even further, through Dorian not only being obsessed with the beauty of his appearance, but also the image of his soul and its corruption. This self-obsession is so strong that he cannot prevent it, however hard he tries. The physical placing of the painting in the attic, covered with a blanket, portrays his conscious motive of trying to hide and forget the image, however, the fact he often goes up and looks at it shows his unbreakable obsession with himself, which only increases as his sin becomes more corrupted and his beauty remains immutable. This superficial nature of humanity is also portrayed through other characters, in which assumptions are made about Dorian in which the reader knows are not correct. The irony in the title portrays the difference in interpretations in his character: since the 'picture' that the characters see of his face lead them to misleading conclusions, and the 'picture' that we see through the narrative voice and painting show his true identity. Lady Narborough notes that there is little distinction between appearance and ethics, staying that "you are made to be good - you look so good." Furthermore, Henry is certain on his assumptions of Dorian as he notes that Dorian is a "perfect type", who the world "has always worshipped", confirming "people like you don't commit crimes." Therefore, the fact that peoples assumptions about Dorian are so incorrect conveys the reliance they have on appearance, portraying a superficial world. The only other character that is aware of Dorian's true nature is the reader, through the omniscient narrator's portrayal of Dorian and his true conscience. Therefore, this portrays a disconnection that beauty creates between people: in which appearances create relationships that are completely false and grounded on incorrect hypotheses, and the only person that truly knows Dorian, since we are the only ones to get past the appearance of him, is the reader.

Furthermore, the fact that Dorian contains such juxtaposing natures: his material appearance and his soul displayed on the painting, creates the question of who is more of a person. This conveyed the ideal of dualism, in which the soul and the material body are two natures that make up the whole of a person: therefore each state of Dorian's being: his beautiful appearance and his corrupted soul are only half of his identity. Not only does his attraction to the painting, despite various conscious efforts to hide it from itself, show his vanity and hedonism, but it also portrays that he can't be separated from his soul despite the vision of its corruption and ugliness. This idea uses the Victorian fascination of doubles and the idea of being a stranger to oneself, but Wilde takes it further in that Dorian finds the 'other' side of his nature fascinating and enthralling. The painting is both a double of Dorian and also a double of Basel's original painting. The painting is a visual mirror of the other half of Dorian, in which he can't destroy or escape. The fact, in the end, he does try to destroy it, and ends up destroying himself, portrays that the soul is inescapable from the material body. The fact the painting returns to the beautiful state that Dorian had encapsulated, and the description of Dorian's physicality incorporating the vulgarity of the painting, shows that the soul can live without the body, but the body can't live without the soul. Therefore, the fact the Wilde Gothicises the painting, in which it becomes a character in the novel itself, is a motif for the immortal soul that is inescapable from the body.

Moreover, the use the 'double' is further incorporated in the novel through the two characters of Henry and Basel showing two mutually exclusive attitudes to life, in which Dorian struggles over becoming. Henry is a nihilist and has a pessimistic view on human nature and nature itself. He argues that we have little control over higher forces, in which "good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their result is absolutely nil." He detaches himself from life, incorporating Walter Paitors study of arguing that to become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of one's life. He believes that intellectual curiosity is the only thing that that is neither futile or destructive and is superior to all else (he "would sacrifice anybody for the sake of an epigram".) In this view of an amoral universe, he incorporates an ethical egoism and uses the ethical system of utilitarianism: in which he pursues pleasure and avoids pain. He bases this on the assumption that the quest for pleasure is natural, also incorporating Bentham's utilitarian view that "nature is governed by two sovereign masters: pain and pleasure." He takes this further in creating sufferings of life into pleasures, creating the idea that reality can not be changed but can be improved in one's head, arguing that "names are everything." Therefore, Henry's cynicism enables him to become a spectator to life, in which he does not get involved with suffering and makes all decisions on the motive of personal pleasure. Some people have argued that Henry sounds like a spokesman for Wilde, however the fact his influence on Dorian is disastrous and his ignorance on Dorian's true nature shows a disconnection with personalism and a criticism on his hedonism. Basel displays the opposite of Henry in his attitude to life and identity. He believes in moral order and justice, and therefore one should live for sympathy. He believes that sin "cannot be concealed" and that God is the only being that can see the soul. He directly criticises the philosophy of Henry when he argues "if one lives for one's self", "one pays a terrible price for doing so." He wants to create art that portrays the union of feeling and form and wants Dorian to use his "wonderful influence ... For good, not for evil." Therefore, Basel portrays a foil to the hedonistic Henry.

Dorian, then, becomes the 'middle man', in which he is fought over by the two ideals. Both characters try to force their philosophy on him and in the end, Dorian's failure is his inability to reconcile the two. In many ways, he tries to use Henry's philosophy and attitude towards life. He decides there is no justice "in the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded" and wants to pursue control over his emotions: "I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions .. I want to dominate them." This control over his reaction to events is also shown when he urges to Basel "if one doesn't talk about a thing, it never happened" and that "the secret of the whole thing is not to realize the situation." He wants, and does at times achieve, the idea of becoming a spectator to one's life: in which he feels Basel's death is compared to the "terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I took a great part, but by which I have not been wounded." Often, the character of Dorian seems to dominate his emotions and detach himself from suffering. However, it is revealed that he cannot fully incorporate this lifestyle and destroy the nature of his conscience through his inability to suppress Basel's attitudes. He conveys that cannot live his life just pursuing pleasures, as "each of us has heaven and hell in him", therefore can't repress the natural form of his being. After rejecting any emotion, remorse or sadness towards the death of Sybil, he later reveals his regret and guilt and feels it is his "duty" to go back to her and "do what is right." Particularly, the word "duty" portrays he does have a sense of belief in eternal justice. The suppression of what Basel represents is further confirmed through the murder of Basel and the destruction of the portrait itself which symbolises the "hell" side of him in his nature. Overall, he can not deny the demands of his superego as well as being unable to repress his passions. He can't combine the two natures of the 19th-century morality in terms of hedonism and stoicism, instinct and consciousness. He is unable to combine the two parts of him to become fully human and confront both his body and soul. Houston A Baker confronted this in "the critic as Artist" through observing that Dorian did not fail through not choosing between the two ideals: conscious and instinct, but he fails to merge them: he cannot combine them and live successfully. He ultimately fails to incorporate his two opposing potential selves that Basel and Henry incorporate.

Something that is difficult to understand in the novel is the moral meaning behind it. There is a lack of justice in the novel, through all characters losing their lives apart from the hedonistic, individualistic and unsympathetic Henry. The moral order that Basel and Sybil preach does not seem to exist in the world of this novel: good and evil actions make no difference to a higher sense of reward and punishment. The narrator has no opinion on the matter, but rather is an omniscient observer of all the characters and their emotions and situations. The fact that the novel is far from the real world, shown from the beginning through all the flowers of different seasons blooming at the same time, portrays that it is a unique portrayal of reality, and so Henry survival in this novel may not be a representation of his survival (symbolising his achievement) in the real world. However, it does have a pessimistic overall tone that justice is not achieved. Overall, however, this may be a moral warning of influence, including the messages of aestheticism. All characters, apart from Henry, are influenced by another thing or being: Sybil by Dorian, Basel by his own painting and Dorian and Dorian by Henry, Basel and art. Henry's survival confirms Henry's view of influence being destructive: "all influence is immoral" since it is to "give him one's own soul", which he goes on to argue the result on the one who was influenced: "his virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not written for him." Therefore, the fact that Dorian has been influenced by both Basel and Henry, as well as art, leads him to become a faulty version of the combination of all the different ideals he becomes exposed to, which cannot be actualised in life and therefore leads to his downfall.

Overall, the novel takes on ideas of aestheticism and the Decedent movement which Wilde wanted to portray. The result of influence as destructive is a prominent message of the novel, and overall creates the novel to have such a tragic ending. The juxtaposition of Henry and Basel create a 'double', which Dorian struggles over: and ultimately fails to combine the two opposite philosophies that the two characters convey. Wilde stated that "it (the book) contains much of me in it. Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be - in other ages, perhaps", so in a sense, not only do Basel and Henry create the character of Dorian, but the three main Protagonists are also parts of Wilde himself, each conveying different moral messages which he wants to portray.

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Teen book review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

This review was submitted by one of our talented teen virtual volunteers .

Nowadays classics are seen as tired and overused. No one really wants to hear another story about a wealthy white man in the 1800s. However, there is something important to learn from the classics; that’s deeper than the skin color or gender of the character. It’s the plot, the theme. Its why Oscar Wilde and other writers like him in that era wrote their books the way they did.

The Picture of Dorian Gray follows the life of a young boy in the 1890s on the path to insanity.

Basil Hallward, Dorian’s first genuine friend, creates a painting that captivates his soul; while Lord Henry, the man for all the faults of Dorian, enraptures his mind. Whether it be dinner parties, nights at the opera, or life-changing moments at the club, everyone became entangled with Dorian’s beauty. Even in old age, even though he might’ve been the cruelest man alive, at least to him. They still could not take their eyes off of the boy whose face had never touched time.

The beginning of the book starts out with a conversation between Basil Hallward and Lord Henry enjoying a pleasant afternoon in Basil’s Garden. As, the story progresses we learn the complicated yet amusing friendship between the two. Basil, a simplistic painter, looking for the next person to change his life; his art, and Lord Henry; a man that came from wealth who spends his time gorging on all the knowledge passed down from his previous life. Lord Henry stated, “But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is itself a mode of exaggeration and destroys the harmony of any face.”

Progressing into the book Dorian gets introduced through Basil’s obsession with him, he informs Lord Henry that the young man will come over for another one of his paintings. He warned him not to project onto his innocent and beautiful soul. “Dorian Gray is my dearest friend–Don’t take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him.”, spoke Basil.

This book is an eye-opening journey of how innocence can all pass up in a moment, how time ruins everything beautiful and how wrinkles behind a smile can drive someone’s life. Therefore the picture of Dorian gray shows an altruistic point of view behind friendship, and even behind love. “Men who talked grossly became silent when Dorian Gray entered the room. There was something in the purity of his face that rebuked them. His mere presence seemed to recall to them the memory of innocence that they had tarnished.”, Wilde wrote.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was definitely one of the more enjoyable classics. Usually, this book is seen as a burden because it is attached with homework questions. But as someone who read it with free will, it is pretty enjoyable. Oscar Wilde always had a knack for making characters in a book seem all too real, it’s like you personally know them. Like other great writers in his time, he always knew how to build a world in your imagination. I have never seen a writing style like Wilde and that could be why we study his books the way we do.

Now rating The Picture of Dorian Gray is for sure difficult to do, as it is so controversial. However, on a rating scale of one to five, I would give it a 4.0 to 4.5. Mainly because of the amount of true understanding and effort it takes to read this book. Writing styles are not the same as they used to be, so as someone who isn’t used to a writing style like that, as most of us aren’t. It makes it difficult to understand the book and truly enjoy it. However, the suspense and the world Wilde builds takes over you, which allows you to overlook the complicated language. If you end up reading this book and are only a few chapters in regretting your decision, do stick with it. This book revolutionized my idea of mystery and thrill.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

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The picture of dorian gray, by oscar wilde, recommendations from our site.

“If you wish to participate in the novel, you have to appreciate it in the way that Dorian appreciates cabinets, carpets, tapestries and jewels. Is beauty deceptive or can beauty be a moral guide? Does the novel suggest that if you judge by appearances you’ll be led astray, like the people who think that Dorian can’t be guilty of the crimes that he has committed because he is beautiful? Or does the ending of the novel, in which Dorian magically becomes ugly as he is ‘punished’ for his sins, affirm the link between morality and beauty? You can offer equally convincing readings either way round, but only by discarding half the evidence in the novel. So, it’s a novel that engages with beauty, aesthetics and the idea of what an aesthetic life would be, but it offers no answers.” Read more...

The best books on Oscar Wilde

Sos Eltis , Literary Scholar

“ The Picture of Dorian Gray is now a part of the canon that no one would admit to not having read. Most of us have read it and delighted in its witticisms. It’s hard to imagine, but when Dorian Gray was first published, the book was not well received at all. It was totally panned. It was held against him as being an example of an effete character. It was being serialised by Lippincott’s Magazine , and the serialisation of the novel stopped when it became too inflammatory. One of the reasons why I wanted to recommend this book is that it is an example of literature being used as evidence itself. Most of us know the bones of the situation of Oscar Wilde being put on trial in 1895 – the father of his (homosexual) lover became inflamed and found all kinds of characters to use against him (in court). During his trial, Oscar Wilde had to answer for the attitudes expressed by the characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray .” Read more...

The best books on Sex and Society

Eric Berkowitz , Journalist

Other books by Oscar Wilde

De profundis by oscar wilde, the complete short stories by oscar wilde, the soul of man under socialism by oscar wilde, the happy prince by oscar wilde, the importance of being earnest and other plays by oscar wilde, our most recommended books, middlemarch by george eliot, war and peace by leo tolstoy, jane eyre by charlotte brontë, beloved by toni morrison, the arabian nights or tales of 1001 nights, the talented mr ripley by patricia highsmith.

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Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

More by trevin.

Warning – Spoilers Follow

Here’s the gist of the book. Dorian Gray is a young man whose physical appearance is handsome and innocent. An aspiring artist paints a beautiful portrait of Dorian. Dorian wishes that he always look like his youthful appearance in the portrait. The wish comes true. Dorian remains the same – youthful and charming, but the portrait begins to transform itself into the image of his soul.

When Dorian embraces a life of hedonism, he uses his good looks and charm to obtain whatever he desires in life. His insensitivity drives a friend to suicide. The evil desires of his heart eventually cause him to murder a friend in cold blood. Over a period of twenty years, Dorian becomes a monster on the inside (reflected by the portrait of his soul) even as he remains youthful and innocent on the outside.

Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality is no secret, and the reader can easily discern certain homosexual overtones in the book (especially at the beginning). Perhaps Wilde’s subtle innuendoes of homosexuality have made his works so appealing to lovers of literature who tend to sympathize and approve of homosexual behavior.

Upon reading Dorian Gray , however, I could not help but notice how the lifestyle of hedonism is so implicitly condemned by the narrative’s outcome. If Dorian’s hedonism includes sexual relationships with men as well as with women (and Wilde does hint at this), then homosexuality comes under the same umbrella as the rest of Dorian’s sinful passions. One can hardly characterize The Picture of Dorian Gray as a pro-homosexual book.

Readers of this blog will find the picture of depravity in Dorian Gray to be intriguing. Throughout the story, Dorian, even in his hedonism, acts in a manner that forces the reader to desire justice and redemption. The book’s end emphasizes the need for punishment and retribution – pointing at death as the wages of sin.

What does the life of unbridled hedonism look like? What does it do to the soul? What happens to the human being who seeks to fulfill his every passion and desire? How does sin affect us physically? Do we age because we sin? These and more are the questions that Oscar Wilde raises in The Picture of Dorian Gray .

Trevin Wax is vice president of research and resource development at the North American Mission Board and a visiting professor at Cedarville University. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin is a regular columnist at The Gospel Coalition and has contributed to The Washington Post , Religion News Service , World , and Christianity Today . He has taught courses on mission and ministry at Wheaton College and has lectured on Christianity and culture at Oxford University. He is a founding editor of The Gospel Project, has served as publisher for the Christian Standard Bible, and is currently a fellow for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He is the author of multiple books, including The Thrill of Orthodoxy , The Multi-Directional Leader , Rethink Your Self , This Is Our Time , and Gospel Centered Teaching . His podcast is Reconstructing Faith . He and his wife, Corina, have three children. You can follow him on Twitter or Facebook , or receive his columns via email .

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A Close Reading of the ‘Censored’ Passages of The Picture of Dorian Gray

"basil only likes dorian as a friend, we promise".

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book,” wrote Oscar Wilde in the preface to the 1891 edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray . “Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

Of course, even as Wilde wrote these words, he knew that the critics did not agree with his assessment. In fact, the entire preface is a protest; a response to the backlash created by the original publication of his now-classic novel. By the time he wrote the above in 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray had existed in three forms: the original typescript, commissioned by and submitted to J.M. Stoddart, the editor at Lippincott’s , the edited 1890 version published in the magazine (which had also published Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of the Four , earlier that year), and the re-edited and expanded 1891 version, published by Ward, Lock and Company.

That sounds reasonable enough on its face—there can’t be many novelists whose manuscripts were accepted for publication without their editors making any changes, and as I’ve noted before , substantial edits can accompany the leap from magazine publication to book for a variety of reasons. But it seems that most of the changes between these three versions were attempts to make the book more “moral” (that is, less gay) and that they were at least partially enacted, like Wilde’s preface, as a response to the critics, and also as a bulwark against prosecution of Wilde for homosexuality, which was a real danger at the time.

According to Nicholas Frankel , editor of The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition :

When Wilde’s typescript of the novel arrived on [editor J.M.] Stoddart’s desk, he quickly determined that it contained “a number of things which an innocent woman would make an exception to,” as he explained to Craige Lippincott, while assuring his employer that The Picture of Dorian Gray would “not go into the Magazine unless it is proper that it shall.” He further guaranteed Lippincott that he would edit the novel to “make it acceptable to the most fastidious taste.”

The vast majority of Stoddart’s deletions were acts of censorship, bearing on sexual matters of both a homosexual and a heterosexual nature. Much of the material that Stoddart cut makes the homoerotic nature of Basil Hallward’s feelings for Dorian Gray more vivid and explicit than either of the two subsequent published versions, or else it accentuates elements of homosexuality in Dorian Gray’s own make-up. But some of Stoddart’s deletions bear on promiscuous or illicit heterosexuality too—Stoddart deleted references to Dorian’s female lovers as his “mistresses,” for instance—suggesting that Stoddart was worried about the novel’s influence on women as well as men. Stoddart also deleted many passages that smacked of decadence more generally.

Still, according to Nicholas Frankel’s introduction to his uncensored version, Stoddart only cut about 500 words from Wilde’s typescript. Editorial practices were rather different than they are today, and Wilde had no idea about any of the changes until he read his own, less-explicit, piece in the magazine. But it was quickly clear that Stoddart had not gone far enough. The book was roundly criticized and badly reviewed by the British press, who were not only disgusted but offended. In fact, Britain’s biggest bookseller went so far as to remove the offending issue from its bookstalls, citing the fact that Wilde’s story had “been characterized by the press as a filthy one.” Here’s one review , from London’s Daily Chronicle :

Dulness and dirt are the chief features of Lippincott’s this month: The element that is unclean, though undeniably amusing, is furnished by Mr. Oscar Wilde’s story of The Picture of Dorian Gray . It is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French decadents—a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction—a gloating study of the mental and physical corruption of a fresh, fair and golden youth, which might be fascinating but for its effeminate frivolity, its studied insincerity, its theatrical cynicism, its tawdry mysticism, its flippant philosophizings. . . . Mr. Wilde says the book has “a moral.” The “moral,” so far as we can collect it, is that man’s chief end is to develop his nature to the fullest by “always searching for new sensations,” that when the soul gets sick the way to cure it is to deny the senses nothing.

You could count the number of old-timey euphemisms for “gay” in there, but you’d probably get tired.

Wilde worked with another editor to prepare the novel for publication in book form, enlarging it significantly and further reducing its allusions to homosexuality. Frankel notes that Wilde “also heightened Dorian’s monstrosity in the moments before his fateful, final encounter with the portrait, to bring the story to a more appropriate moral conclusion. In an atmosphere of heightened paranoia, Wilde and his publishers were unwilling to risk prosecution.”

Wilde even changed Dorian’s age in the 1891 edition, so that no one could argue that as a connection between them (they were both 32 at the time), and he had reason for caution—only five years after the book’s original publication, Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency” (read: homosexual acts) and sentenced to two years’ hard labor.

As mentioned above, you can now read all three versions of The Portrait of Dorian Gray , and Frankel’s edition does an excellent job of in-depth comparison. But on this, the anniversary of the novel’s first publication in Lippincott’s , and for those of us who don’t necessarily have time to read three similar books, I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at a few of the edited passages.

A conversation between Lord Henry and Basil Hallward about Dorian, 1890 magazine edition:

“. . . Tell me more about Dorian Gray. How often do you see him?”

“Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him every day. Of course sometimes it is only for a few minutes. But a few minutes with somebody one worships mean a great deal.”

“But you don’t really worship him?”

“I do.”

“How extraordinary! I thought you would never care for anything but your painting,—your art, I should say. Art sounds better, doesn’t it?”

“He is all my art to me now. . . “

A conversation between Lord Henry and Basil Hallward about Dorian, 1891 book edition:

“. . . Tell me more about Mr. Dorian Gray. How often do you see him?”

“Every day. I couldn’t be happy if I didn’t see him every day. He is absolutely necessary to me.”

“How extraordinary! I thought you would never care for anything but your art.”

“He is all my art to me now,” said the painter gravely.

The reason for the above edit is pretty clear: this exchange takes place quite early on in the book, in the middle of the first chapter, and in its original form it suggests that Basil has very strong personal (and more romantic) feelings for Dorian. He worships him! He’s even willing to double down on it. The edited version makes it all about the art and not at all about love.

Basil Hallward to Dorian, 1890 magazine edition:

Don’t speak. Wait till you hear what I have to say. It is quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman. I suppose I never had time. Perhaps, as Harry says, a really ‘ grande passion ‘ is the privilege of those who have nothing to do, and that is the use of the idle classes in a country. Well, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I quite admit that I adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly. I was jealous of everyone to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you. When I was away from you, you were still present in my art. It was all wrong and foolish. It is all wrong and foolish still. Of course I never let you know anything about this. It would have been impossible. You would not have understood it; I did not understand it myself. One day I determined to paint a wonderful portrait of you. It was to have been my masterpiece. It is my masterpiece. But, as I worked at it, every flake and film of color seemed to me to reveal my secret. I grew afraid that the world could know of my idolatry. I felt, Dorian, that I had told too much. Then it was that I resolved never to allow the picture to be exhibited. You were a little annoyed; but then you did not realize all that it meant to me.

Basil Hallward to Dorian, 1891 book edition:

Don’t speak. Wait till you hear what I have to say. Dorian, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power, by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream. I worshipped you. I grew jealous of every one to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you. When you were away from me, you were still present in my art. . . Of course, I never let you know anything about this. It would have been impossible. You would not have understood it. I hardly understood it myself. I only knew that I had seen perfection face to face, and that the world had become wonderful to my eyes—too wonderful, perhaps, for in such mad worships there is peril, the peril of losing them, no less than the peril of keeping them. . . Weeks and weeks went on, and I grew more and more absorbed in you. Then came a new development. I had drawn you as Paris in dainty armour, and as Adonis with huntsman’s cloak and polished boar-spear. Crowned with heavy lotus-blossoms you had sat on the prow of Adrian’s barge, gazing across the green turbid Nile. You had leaned over the still pool of some Greek woodland and seen in the water’s silent silver the marvel of your own face. And it had all been what art should be—unconscious, ideal, and remote. One day, a fatal day I sometimes think, I determined to paint a wonderful portrait of you as you actually are, not in the costume of dead ages, but in your own dress and in your own time. Whether it was the realism of the method, or the mere wonder of your own personality, thus directly presented to me without mist or veil, I cannot tell. But I know that as I worked at it, every flake and film of colour seemed to me to reveal my secret. I grew afraid that others would know of my idolatry. I felt, Dorian, that I had told too much, that I had put too much of myself into it. Then it was that I resolved never to allow the picture to be exhibited. You were a little annoyed; but then you did not realize all that it meant to me.

Again, we see the shift from a nebulous worship and love for Dorian himself to a more specific artistic appreciation of his form. The most important expurgated part, of course, are those two initial deleted lines: “It is quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman.” The juxtaposition makes it clear what he’s talking about without actually saying it—though to be honest, I get almost as much of a sexy vibe from “I was dominated, soul, brain, and power, by you.” Then there’s the inserted, detailed description of the “masterpiece,” which again doesn’t make him sound any less in love to me, and perhaps is only a fleshing-out for the longer book form, but is also more evidence that it’s all about the art. This is also evidence that this “censorship” isn’t all bad—without it we might not have ever gotten to read the phrase “seen in the water’s silent silver the marvel of your own face,” which is lovely.

Basil Hallward to Lord Henry (talking about Dorian), 1890 magazine edition and original typescript:

I know he likes me. Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him I know I shall be sorry for having said. I give myself away. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we walk home together from the club arm in arm, or sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things.

Basil Hallward to Lord Henry (talking about Dorian), 1891 book edition:

I know he likes me. Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things.

“Arm in arm”? Scandalous. But actually, the really revealing (and beautifully subtle) line here is “I give myself away”—which suggests there’s something to hide.

Basil’s thinking, 1890 magazine edition:

Hallward felt strangely moved. Rugged and straightforward as he was, there was something in his nature that was purely feminine in its tenderness. The lad was infinitely dear to him, and his personality had been the great turning-point in his art. He could not bear the idea of reproaching him any more. After all, his indifference was probably merely a mood that would pass away. There was so much in him that was good, so much in him that was noble.

Basil’s thinking, 1891 book edition:

The painter felt strangely moved. The lad was infinitely dear to him, and his personality had been the great turning point in his art. He could not bear the idea of reproaching him any more. After all, his indifference was probably merely a mood that would pass away. There was so much in him that was good, so much in him that was noble.

Apparently it’s fine for a lad to be dear to you, as long as neither of you are feminine!

Basil lectures Dorian, 1890 magazine edition:

Why is it, Dorian, that a man like the Duke of Berwick leaves the room of a club when you enter it? Why is it that so many gentlemen in London will neither go to your house or invite you to theirs? You used to be a friend of Lord Cawdor. I met him at dinner last week. Your name happened to come up in conversation, in connection with the miniatures you have lent to the exhibition at the Dudley. Cawdor curled his lip and said that you might have the most artistic tastes, but that you were a man whom no pure-minded girl should be allowed to know, and whom no chaste woman should sit in the same room with. I reminded him that I was a friend of yours, and asked him what he meant. He told me. He told me right out before everybody. It was horrible! Why is your friendship so fatal to young men? There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton, who had to leave England, with a tarnished name. You and he were inseparable. What about Adrian Singleton and his dreadful end? What about Lord Kent’s only son, and his career? I met his father yesterday in St. James’s Street. He seemed broken with shame and sorrow. What about the young Duke of Perth? What sort of life has he got now? What gentleman would associate with him? Dorian, Dorian, your reputation is infamous. I know you and Harry are great friends. I say nothing about that now, but surely you need not have made his sister’s name a by-word.

Basil lectures Dorian, 1891 book edition:

Why is it, Dorian, that a man like the Duke of Berwick leaves the room of a club when you enter it? Why is it that so many gentlemen in London will neither go to your house or invite you to theirs? You used to be a friend of Lord Staveley. I met him at dinner last week. Your name happened to come up in conversation, in connection with the miniatures you have lent to the exhibition at the Dudley. Staveley curled his lip and said that you might have the most artistic tastes, but that you were a man whom no pure-minded girl should be allowed to know, and whom no chaste woman should sit in the same room with. I reminded him that I was a friend of yours, and asked him what he meant. He told me. He told me right out before everybody. It was horrible! Why is your friendship so fatal to young men? There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton, who had to leave England with a tarnished name. You and he were inseparable. What about Adrian Singleton and his dreadful end? What about Lord Kent’s only son and his career? I met his father yesterday in St. James’s Street. He seemed broken with shame and sorrow. What about the young Duke of Perth? What sort of life has he got now? What gentleman would associate with him?”

“Stop, Basil. You are talking about things of which you know nothing,” said Dorian Gray, biting his lip, and with a note of infinite contempt in his voice. “You ask me why Berwick leaves a room when I enter it. It is because I know everything about his life, not because he knows anything about mine. With such blood as he has in his veins, how could his record be clean? You ask me about Henry Ashton and young Perth. Did I teach the one his vices, and the other his debauchery? If Kent’s silly son takes his wife from the streets, what is that to me? If Adrian Singleton writes his friend’s name across a bill, am I his keeper? I know how people chatter in England. The middle classes air their moral prejudices over their gross dinner-tables, and whisper about what they call the profligacies of their betters in order to try and pretend that they are in smart society and on intimate terms with the people they slander. In this country, it is enough for a man to have distinction and brains for every common tongue to wag against him. And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.”

“Dorian,” cried Hallward, “that is not the question. England is bad enough I know, and English society is all wrong. That is the reason why I want you to be fine. You have not been fine. One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness, of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there. Yes: you led them there, and yet you can smile, as you are smiling now. And there is worse behind. I know you and Harry are inseparable. Surely for that reason, if for none other, you should not have made his sister’s name a by-word.”

This one is interesting, because it gives Dorian a voice where he had none—he gets to interject into his own drubbing for a minute. Again, it may be an effort at fleshing out Dorian’s character, and making the text more book-length. But I wonder if this isn’t also a case of Wilde snapping back at his own critics, those “hypocrites” who “air their moral prejudices over their gross dinner-tables, and whisper about what they call the profligacies of their betters in order to try and pretend that they are in smart society and on intimate terms with the people they slander. In this country, it is enough for a man to have distinction and brains for every common tongue to wag against him.” You couldn’t blame him, if it was.

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Eryn Jean Norvill stars in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Picture of Dorian Gray, playing all 26 characters herself.

The Picture of Dorian Gray review – Eryn Jean Norvill dazzles in ambitious, whip-smart production

Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company Kip Williams directs the actor through 26 different characters in a tirelessly inventive performance that taps into our collective fears and obsessions

T here is a rare moment that happens in the theatre, and audiences and artists alike chase it their entire lives: the moment when a stage goes dark at the end of a performance, and after a second or two of stunned silence, the audience erupts. Everyone rises for a standing ovation. Everyone. They clap and clap, and then clapping isn’t enough: they whistle, they trample the ground beneath them to applaud with their feet. It is a generous, thrilled, addictive show of thanks for the gift of story.

It happened on Saturday night at the opening of The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted and directed by Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams. The novel – a classic of Victorian gothic laced with queer hunger – is neatly and minimally abridged here into a smartly measured, dizzyingly beautiful tour de force. Told in omniscient third-person narrative as in the book, Eryn Jean Norvill plays 26 characters in a series of wigs and coats and subtle transformations of the self. She populates the world.

Eryn Jean Norvill in the Sydney Theatre Company production of The Picture of Dorian Gray 2020

She is painter Basil Hallward, whose adoration of young beauty Dorian Gray – somehow, yes, Norvill too – culminates in that fateful portrait that becomes the site of Faustian bargain. She is Lord Henry Wotton, too, with his droll smile and knowing eyes; she is Sibyl Vane and her vengeful brother James; she is every duchess and lord and broken young man, and she is dazzling. If you didn’t see it before, you will see it now: she is one of the most gifted actors of her generation.

Williams centres and worships Norvill in this story (many of his works feel like love letters to her, his longtime collaborator and friend). She is everything here: she is desire and sin and the mercurial performance of the self. This production does perhaps sacrifice explicit queer male desire to instead revel in the implicit, but Williams has always been more interested in the expression of camp, especially what Susan Sontag calls the “off”, of things being what they are not (“not a woman, but a ‘woman’… to understand Being-as-Playing-a-Role.”) Sontag names this as the farthest extension of the metaphor of life as theatre, and Williams as director lives and thrives here.

Williams has also long been interested in the intersection of live and recorded video feed onstage to explore ideas of artifice and the real, often borrowing the filmic language of melodrama and camp. He reaches his apex here, long-simmering ideas fully realised in an often playful, sometimes devastating interplay of image and mode. (David Bergman is the video designer, and his team of camera operators do remarkable work). At one point, Norvill has a dinner party with seven of her selves; at another, Gray chides Norvill-the-narrator for telling his story. Sibyl Vane’s Romeo and Juliet plays out in miniature on a marionette stage. It’s witty and expansive.

As the story descends into murder and revenge, the staging – designed by Marg Horwell, our best queer aestheticist – explodes with colour and life. Clemence Williams’ composition and sound design leads the way into anachronism via the senses, tugging at us with era-appropriate piano and dramatic chords, and Nick Schlieper’s lighting design follows suit (Gray’s opium den is a pulsing, green laser-lit nightclub). Through this, the moral fable of the novel is made timeless: the ruffles and adornments of Victorian England; you’ll hear the familiar sinuous beats of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love as Gray embraces hedonism; there’s a lip-sync to a number from the 1966 Broadway musical The Apple Tree. Wotton casually receives Botox injections.

Face-tune, front-facing video and selfies punctuate old observations and make them new again. We’ve been preoccupied with youth and beauty and showing only our most aspirational selves for a long time now, and this production both exalts in these constructs and loathes them – much like a great many of us will vacillate between the two. This production knows us. How transformative it is to seen by a production so smart and tirelessly inventive.

We may be making a cautious return to gathering together and sharing space as we navigate the global pandemic, but there is nothing cautious about The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is ambitious, exuberant and whip-smart; it is an embrace of theatre’s past, present and future; it is in fluent conversation with our screens, with our feelings, with our fears, with our collective obsessions. It is in possession of that most rare thing: the transformative, ineffable thing that happens when a show sidles up to you and says directly to your heart: I see you, I know you. This production also says: don’t you love me for it? And we do.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

WARNING: The following note contains some plot details of this work of fiction

The Picture of Dorian Gray , the only novel by Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890. A substantially revised and expanded edition was published in April 1891. For the new edition, Wilde revised the content of the novel's existing chapters, divided the final chapter into two chapters, and created six entirely new additional chapters. Whereas the original edition of the novel contains 13 chapters, the revised edition of the novel contains 20 chapters.

The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Dorian is selected for his remarkable physical beauty, and Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode of art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new kind of hedonism, Lord Henry suggests that the only thing worth pursuing in life is beauty, and the fulfillment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, wishing that the portrait Basil has painted of him would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, subsequently plunging him into a sequence of debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, each sin being displayed as a new sign of aging on the portrait.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered one of the last works of classic gothic horror fiction with a strong Faustian theme. It deals with the artistic movement of the decadents, and homosexuality, both of which caused some controversy when the book was first published. However, in modern times, the book has been referred to as "one of the modern classics of Western literature".

The original manuscript can be found and viewed at the The Morgan Library and Museum ."

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Manuscript) ( transcription project )
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) ( transcription project )

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

Public domain Public domain false false

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The Picture of Dorian Gray: Illustrated edition with notes Kindle Edition

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ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D34BXQF8
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 11294 KB
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About the author

Oscar wilde.

Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford where, a disciple of Pater, he founded an aesthetic cult. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, and his two sons were born in 1885 and 1886.

His novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and social comedies Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), established his reputation. In 1895, following his libel action against the Marquess of Queesberry, Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexual conduct, as a result of which he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and his confessional letter De Profundis (1905). On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray review: a raw and rambunctious performance from Succession ’s Sarah Snook

By Evie Delaney

Sarah Snook takes on 26 identities in two hours in the new The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

Name a more delectable duo than Oscar Wilde and Sarah Snook. Perhaps just gin and tonic, and they were flowing at the press night of The Picture of Dorian Gray . The guest list, which included everyone from Cate Blanchett to Dame Harriet Walter, perfectly summed up the blending of West End and Hollywood glamour.

Taking on 26 identities and two hours of relentless character work is an extraordinary challenge, one that Snook will take on over the next 14 weeks at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is, according to adapter and director Kip Williams, perfectly suited to accommodate the modifications needed for a one person show. Why? Williams believes that Wilde saw the central characters of Dorian Gray as ‘expressions of three parts of his own personae,’ and Snook’s swift character flips provide the perfect vehicle to explore the dualities within the script.

Solo shows are having a moment in theatre, from Andrew Scott’s solo Uncle Vanya, to Eddie Izzard’s Great Expectations and Hamlet. And Williams' latest addition to the roster sees Snook embark on an epic journey which follows Dorian Gray’s 20 year struggle between conscience and freedom, the body and the soul, pleasure and consequence. A painting hidden away in the attic ‘bears the burdens of his passions’ whilst he remains glowing and gorgeous, with no ‘signs of sin' – it’s a very modern conceit. And one most relevant, surely, in Snook’s Hollywood sphere. Can we escape the process of ageing? Can we live without consequence? Like a modern parable against filters and fake lips, Dorian Gray’s descent into madness and murder says ‘no’.

The production is undeniably epic, weaving together on-stage action filmed live by a skilful Greek chorus of videographers and projected onto dancing screens, with pre-recorded footage. Part-theatre, part-endurance test, Snook becomes a canvas for Wilde’s wild and wonderful personae. And she does so with unquestionably brilliant brio, spiralling across the stage with unending fizz. But what begins with a subtle and artful use of Snook’s camelion-like abilities and deftly applied camera-work, descends into a farcical chaos, where extreme wigs, burlesque songs and filmed footage distract from an artful and raw performance.

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We begin the show with a familiar Snook, one we know and love from the hit HBO show Succession. It’s here that her shapeshifting abilities are most abundantly clear and instantly adored by a chuckling audience, as she flips wholly from the hapless, paint-brush clutching Basil Hallward to the suave and seedy Lord Henry. How? An artful raising of an eye-brow, change of posture and swap of a prop. Fleabag-style, she flips her head to camera, confiding in an audience immediately eating out of her palm. The stark stage, cavernous in its exposed fixtures and rudimentary set, is at once lit up with the kind of camp and cheek typical of Wilde’s texts. Like a liquid poured between different containers, Snook slides from one character to the next with immediacy and a light touch, magnified (literally – we can see every pore and crevice of the mega-stars visage) by the slick live footage, projected onto 20-foot screens.

But what followed – a cacophony of technical tricks and costume changes – felt like a distraction from a fantastic production with a clear message. Cartoonish makeup and filmic tricks muffled universally relevant themes. Whilst Snook’s performance flares to a screaming and spitting climax, the soul-bearing soliloquies felt somewhat undercut by the use of extended filmed sequences and stage craft. There was undoubted skill in the timing and musicality of scenes split between live action and recorded footage – including several surreal chase scenes – but what's the point? When you've got such an explosive mix as Sarah Snook and Oscar Wilde, why have the alchemy obscured by technology?

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Provocations about social media felt belaboured too, by the use of actual Instagram filters on stage. The ‘very sharpness of contrasts’ between Basil’s ageing painting and Gray’s unblemished face were forced into dull metaphors about ‘filters versus reality’, which felt more like infographic than art.

Williams is right that Wilde’s show is well-suited to a solo performance, particularly one as skilful and ferocious as Snook’s, where the metamorphosis from one character to the next becomes less like an ensemble show, and more like a manifestation of a schizophrenic descent. Wilde’s show feels prophetic of a modern society preoccupied by self-image and the pursuit of youth and beauty, but – as is so often the case in said society – technology becomes a distraction from the thrill of being human.

The Picture of Dorian Gray runs until 11 May, trh.co.uk

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
August 6, 2021. (Book 809 from 1001 books) - The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The Picture of Dorian Gray begins on a beautiful summer day in Victorian era England, where Lord Henry Wotton ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde [A Review]
The Picture of Dorian Gray had a notorious reputation even before it was used against its author, Oscar Wilde, at his trial for gross indecency. Where it may lack originality in its premise, it more than makes up for it in the evocation of the contrasts and contradictions of high and low 19th century London….
A Summary and Analysis of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's one novel, published originally in 1890 (as a serial) and then in book form the following year.The novel is at once an example of late Victorian Gothic horror and, in some ways, the greatest English-language novel about decadence and aestheticism, or 'art for art's sake'.
Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a must read for Oscar Wilde fans. Not only is it bursting with quotable passages, but I also felt, I learned more about the writer behind the words. Wilde's tragic destiny [he was imprisoned in 1895 for gross indecency and died five years later] really puts the writing into perspective.
Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The symbolism of the titular "picture of Dorian Gray" was a fascinating basis for a story, and the book keeps up its momentum through an intense feeling of this-is-not-going-to-end-well. You're compelled to keep reading, even though it's obvious that the story isn't going anywhere good. The ending was fitting, albeit kind of sudden ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Book Review
The Review. Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a story about art: it concerns individuality, materialism, conscience, and pressures regarding a person's appearance. At least one of these issues is still a big concern today, which is perhaps what makes this novel so interesting. Dorian's fears about growing older are ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Throughout the book, we see Dorian go from good to evil, and back again. Through the scandals and the sinful pleasures in which Dorian partakes, he's never really satisfied with his life, and as ...
The 100 best novels: No 27
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde's only novel, was published on 20 June 1890 in the July edition of Lippincott's, as a novella of 13 chapters, and was the leading contribution to the magazine ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray, moral fantasy novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde, published in an early form in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. The novel, the only one written by Wilde, had six additional chapters when it was released as a book in 1891. The work, an archetypal tale of a young man who purchases eternal youth at the expense of his soul, was a romantic exposition of Wilde's ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde.A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The novel-length version was published in April 1891. . The story revolves around a portrait of Dorian Gray painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian's and an artist infatuated with ...
Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Review. As a lover of writing, poetry, and pretentious philosophical tangents on the measurements of good art, I was bound to enjoy Wilde's only novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a beautiful tapestry of tragic corruption and its devastating effects. Albeit at times Lord Henry seems to ramble on about entirely uninteresting subjects, the ...
Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray, at the beginning of the novel, is perceived by Basil Hallward as an individual worth obsessing over, he is infatuated with him and without knowing Dorian yet, the reader is too. But then the reader is introduced to him physically and I realized he isn't all that. He's almost pompous but somehow clever and he's beautiful.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Furthermore, Dorian Gray is also corrupted by the piece of literature he is given by Lord Henry: the mysterious 'yellow book': 'A rebours', or 'Against Nature' by Joris-Karl Huysman, an important piece of fiction of the Decadent movement in France, published in 1884, which portrayed the superiority of human creativity over logic and the natural ...
Read an 1890 review of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Read an 1890 review of The Picture of Dorian Gray. By Dan Sheehan. July 24, 2023, 2:10pm. These days, if you use your book review to call an author a pervert and instruct him to abandon writing for the sake of public morality, most reputable editors will palm you a paltry kill fee and mothball your screed. Not so, it would seem, in 1890. Here ...
50 of the Best One-Star Reviews of The Picture of Dorian Gray
June 20, 2019. Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray first appeared on June 20th, 1890, in the July issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, to major controversy and no small amount of hostility. According to Nicholas Frankel, editor of an annotated edition of the novel, by August, Wilde had counted 216 attacks on his work, from critics ...
Teen book review: The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray was definitely one of the more enjoyable classics. Usually, this book is seen as a burden because it is attached with homework questions. But as someone who read it with free will, it is pretty enjoyable. Oscar Wilde always had a knack for making characters in a book seem all too real, it's like you personally know ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The best books on Oscar Wilde. Sos Eltis, Literary Scholar. " The Picture of Dorian Gray is now a part of the canon that no one would admit to not having read. Most of us have read it and delighted in its witticisms. It's hard to imagine, but when Dorian Gray was first published, the book was not well received at all. It was totally panned.
Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is a thought-provoking novel that vacillates between ambling, seemingly directionless conversation and a riveting narrative thread that eventually bubbles up to the surface with the intensity of a volcanic eruption. The Picture of Dorian Gray, though not much more than a century old, has already been deemed a "classic" by literature-lovers, and ...
"Oscar Wilde's Book": Early American Reviews of The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar wilde's only novel, the picture of dorian gray, first appeared in the july 1890 issue of the american periodical lippin- cott's Monthly Magazine? While the sometimes acrimonious reception of the novel in Britain has been routinely noted, less scholarly attention has been paid to the reception of Dorian Gray in the United States. Even when scholars allude to the reaction of the press ...
A Close Reading of the 'Censored' Passages of The Picture of Dorian Gray
Dulness and dirt are the chief features of Lippincott's this month: The element that is unclean, though undeniably amusing, is furnished by Mr. Oscar Wilde's story of The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is a tale spawned from the leprous literature of the French decadents—a poisonous book, the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray review
It happened on Saturday night at the opening of The Picture of Dorian Gray, adapted and directed by Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams. The novel - a classic of Victorian ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel by Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890. A substantially revised and expanded edition was published in April 1891. For the new edition, Wilde revised the content of the novel's existing chapters, divided the final chapter into two chapters, and created six entirely new additional chapters.
The Picture of Dorian Gray: Illustrated edition with notes
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" unveils a captivating tale of vanity, moral decay, and the consequences of unchecked desire in the opulent world of Victorian England. Focused on the eponymous Dorian Gray, a young and strikingly handsome aristocrat, the novel begins with the portrait painted by the talented artist Basil Hallward.
The Picture of Dorian Gray review: a raw and rambunctious performance
Solo shows are having a moment in theatre, from Andrew Scott's solo Uncle Vanya, to Eddie Izzard's Great Expectations and Hamlet. And Williams' latest addition to the roster sees Snook embark on an epic journey which follows Dorian Gray's 20 year struggle between conscience and freedom, the body and the soul, pleasure and consequence.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also promoted as LXG, is a 2003 steampunk /dieselpunk superhero film loosely based on the first volume of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it was released on 11 July 2003 in the United States, and 17 October in the United Kingdom.It was directed by Stephen Norrington and starred Sean ...

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