Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray (2009, Penguin Group UK)
eBook
English language
Published June 30, 2009 by Penguin Group UK.
Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succes de scandal. Early readers were shocked by its hints of unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at his trial at the Old Bailey in 1895.
Oscar Wilde would not appreciate me trying to place unintended meaning atop this classic work of fiction so I'll just say that it's a beautiful representation of Wilde as an artist - sumptuous prose with cutting wit, disarming passages that wax poetic buttressed against satire, social commentary and (forgive me, Oscar) a little cynicism. A delight.
