What do you think?
Rate this book
The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde that was first published in 1890. It is the story of a young, handsome man named Dorian Gray who becomes corrupted by his own vanity and the influence of a hedonistic friend, Lord Henry Wotton. Dorian makes a Faustian bargain to keep his youth and beauty forever, while a portrait of him ages in his place. The novel explores themes of morality, decadence, and the corrupting influence of beauty and wealth. It is notable for its depiction of homosexuality, which was considered scandalous at the time of its publication. The novel has been adapted into numerous film and stage productions, and is considered a classic of English literature.
Paperback
First published July 1, 1890
2284 people are currently reading
20715 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,261 books38.5k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,380 reviews
December 23, 2024
This specific edition of Dorian Gray said, “no censorship, we shall lust after our homies like MEN.”
Want to read
February 20, 2023SO I HAVE THIS ON DISPLAY IN THE CLASSICS SECTION AND JUST OVERHEARD A TEENAGE BOY TELL HIS FRIEND “This is the uncensored version but I’ve heard it’s pretty tame, like no smut or anything :/“ AND HE SOUNDED GENUINELY DISAPPOINTED 😭
May 10, 2021
One star for every time this asshole threw himself dramatically across a sofa
Read
August 7, 2024When you reread a book after many years, it can seem like a different book. Time transforms it. Strokes of brilliance you were unable to spot the first time for lack of reading experience can emerge second time around, but for the same reason, flaws you were blind to back then become visible to your jaded eyes. I remember being very impressed by Lord Henry Wotton's ability to speak in epigrams the first time I read this book—witty speeches were one of the things I loved in Wilde's plays back then, and Lord Henry offers one epigram after another, almost without pause:
"I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else."
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."
"The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid."
But as I was reading the book this time, Lord Henry's string of well-honed phrases became too much for me. Say something unrehearsed, I kept urging him, but he never did—and as if he'd heard me ask, he said instead: "Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."
Still, I did notice that Oscar Wilde gave Lord Henry some awareness of his annoying tendency to aphorise—though it doesn't seem to bother him much: "Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies." And Lord Henry struck a light on a dainty silver case, and began to smoke a cigarette with a self-conscious and self-satisfied air, as if he had summed up life in a phrase.
His creator put a lot of himself into Lord Henry, I reckon.
But perhaps what made the biggest difference to my reading of Dorian Gray this time was the connections I saw with books I'd read in the intervening years.
I figured, for example, that the unnamed yellow book that Lord Henry offers Dorian Gray, and which artist Basil Hallward blames for causing Dorian to sink into a life of decadence, could only be JK Huysmans' Against Nature.
And when Dorian starts to lead two very different lives, I was reminded of Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Then when Dorian drives a young actress called Sibyl Vane to suicide, I remembered the story of Lermontov's Hero, Pechorin, who did something similar.
When Dorian later gets involved with a farmer's daughter called Hetty, I was back in the world of Eliot's Adam Bede.
I wondered if Wilde had read all those books too.
However, the story that had the most connections with Dorian Gray is one Wilde couldn't have read. Vladimir Nabokov's The Vane Sisters was written long after Wilde's time and could almost be said to be haunted by Wilde's novel. Nabokov names a character after Sibyl Vane (though he spells her name Sybil), and he makes Oscar Wilde appear at a seance and accuse Nabokov (or his narrator) of plagiarism!
Nabokov's story is a real puzzle in fact, and when I reviewed it recently, I was left with a sense of something unfinished. It was as if Nabokov were haunting me, whispering in my ear: go find the original of Sybil. That's why I went back to this book.
Truth to tell, I had little recollection of Sibyl Vane's role in Wilde's novel, and it doesn't seem at first as if she has much of role. She is an actress who falls in love with Dorian near the beginning of the book, he treats her badly and she commits suicide. End of Sibyl.
In Nabokov's story, Sybil Vane is not an actress though she is a bit of a drama queen. She too falls in love with someone whose name is only given as D.
D dumps Sybil just as Dorian did, and she commits suicide. That happens in the first few pages of Nabokov's story, and you'd expect that she would then disappear from the narrative. But Nabokov decided otherwise. He invented a plot around the possibility that a dead person can haunt the people they've known in life and direct their fate. He then sets up opportunities for Sybil to influence other people's lives, in particular her sister Cynthia's. Cynthia dies in turn and starts directing things in another character's life, bringing about the denouement of the story.
All of that was to the forefront of my mind as I reread Dorian Gray and so I interpreted Wilde's story in a new way. I began to see Dorian's dead lover Sibyl as responsible for the mysterious disintegration that happens to the portrait he keeps in his attic. Wilde implies that the portrait gets transformed because Dorian has done something despicable, and that it transforms further with every evil deed, but the only explanation for the phenomenon given in the story is the wish Dorian made when he first saw the portrait: that he might always look as beautiful as he did when Basil Hallward painted him, and that the painting might age instead of him.
Nabokov convinced me that it was the dead girl who was behind the changes in the portrait, or most of them. After all, it is directly after she dies that Dorian sees the first transformation. I imagined that Sibyl, who was used to acting the part of famous heroines in very dramatic scenes and in front of a range of painted backdrops, was now giving her best and most vengeful performance ever.
And when Basil Hallward, the artist who painted the portrait that Sibyl has been altering, dies in turn, I interpreted the denouement of the story as him vengefully intervening to make it happen—and restore the painting he loved to its former beauty.
So thanks for helping me to see Wilde's text in a new way, Vlad. It's almost as if you intervened and transformed the text.
"I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else."
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."
"The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid."
But as I was reading the book this time, Lord Henry's string of well-honed phrases became too much for me. Say something unrehearsed, I kept urging him, but he never did—and as if he'd heard me ask, he said instead: "Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."
Still, I did notice that Oscar Wilde gave Lord Henry some awareness of his annoying tendency to aphorise—though it doesn't seem to bother him much: "Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies." And Lord Henry struck a light on a dainty silver case, and began to smoke a cigarette with a self-conscious and self-satisfied air, as if he had summed up life in a phrase.
His creator put a lot of himself into Lord Henry, I reckon.
But perhaps what made the biggest difference to my reading of Dorian Gray this time was the connections I saw with books I'd read in the intervening years.
I figured, for example, that the unnamed yellow book that Lord Henry offers Dorian Gray, and which artist Basil Hallward blames for causing Dorian to sink into a life of decadence, could only be JK Huysmans' Against Nature.
And when Dorian starts to lead two very different lives, I was reminded of Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Then when Dorian drives a young actress called Sibyl Vane to suicide, I remembered the story of Lermontov's Hero, Pechorin, who did something similar.
When Dorian later gets involved with a farmer's daughter called Hetty, I was back in the world of Eliot's Adam Bede.
I wondered if Wilde had read all those books too.
However, the story that had the most connections with Dorian Gray is one Wilde couldn't have read. Vladimir Nabokov's The Vane Sisters was written long after Wilde's time and could almost be said to be haunted by Wilde's novel. Nabokov names a character after Sibyl Vane (though he spells her name Sybil), and he makes Oscar Wilde appear at a seance and accuse Nabokov (or his narrator) of plagiarism!
Nabokov's story is a real puzzle in fact, and when I reviewed it recently, I was left with a sense of something unfinished. It was as if Nabokov were haunting me, whispering in my ear: go find the original of Sybil. That's why I went back to this book.
Truth to tell, I had little recollection of Sibyl Vane's role in Wilde's novel, and it doesn't seem at first as if she has much of role. She is an actress who falls in love with Dorian near the beginning of the book, he treats her badly and she commits suicide. End of Sibyl.
In Nabokov's story, Sybil Vane is not an actress though she is a bit of a drama queen. She too falls in love with someone whose name is only given as D.
D dumps Sybil just as Dorian did, and she commits suicide. That happens in the first few pages of Nabokov's story, and you'd expect that she would then disappear from the narrative. But Nabokov decided otherwise. He invented a plot around the possibility that a dead person can haunt the people they've known in life and direct their fate. He then sets up opportunities for Sybil to influence other people's lives, in particular her sister Cynthia's. Cynthia dies in turn and starts directing things in another character's life, bringing about the denouement of the story.
All of that was to the forefront of my mind as I reread Dorian Gray and so I interpreted Wilde's story in a new way. I began to see Dorian's dead lover Sibyl as responsible for the mysterious disintegration that happens to the portrait he keeps in his attic. Wilde implies that the portrait gets transformed because Dorian has done something despicable, and that it transforms further with every evil deed, but the only explanation for the phenomenon given in the story is the wish Dorian made when he first saw the portrait: that he might always look as beautiful as he did when Basil Hallward painted him, and that the painting might age instead of him.
Nabokov convinced me that it was the dead girl who was behind the changes in the portrait, or most of them. After all, it is directly after she dies that Dorian sees the first transformation. I imagined that Sibyl, who was used to acting the part of famous heroines in very dramatic scenes and in front of a range of painted backdrops, was now giving her best and most vengeful performance ever.
And when Basil Hallward, the artist who painted the portrait that Sibyl has been altering, dies in turn, I interpreted the denouement of the story as him vengefully intervening to make it happen—and restore the painting he loved to its former beauty.
So thanks for helping me to see Wilde's text in a new way, Vlad. It's almost as if you intervened and transformed the text.
March 3, 2016
This original version is SO MUCH BETTER than the version that has been read by everyone for the past 120 years. I had thought that Wilde's original uncensored typescript was different only by a few "bad" words unacceptable to the Victorians. Well, I was completely wrong!
His first editors, and then Wilde himself, removed and altered substantial content, nearly all homoerotic, in response to severe and unrelenting criticism before and after its first magazine publication in 1890. In addition to this criticism, Wilde was deeply fearful he would be prosecuted under the new anti-homosexual behavior law which came into effect in England five years earlier in 1885, but which he hadn't taken seriously until then.
For the first book edition in 1891 (reprinted countless times down to the present) Wilde even added seven more chapters with heterosexual content to counter the now-toned-down homosexual relationships between Dorian Gray and his admirers (lovers) Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton. These new chapters also offer up an easy moral which makes the altered book too easy, too obvious, at the end.
You probably don't believe me, but just forget that you already read Dorian Gray, and read Wilde's uncensored original: it's much more edgy and honest, offers a less conclusive moral—thus giving more credit to his readers—and it doesn't sacrifice Dorian's essential homosexuality, and that of Wilde himself.
If you need an excuse to re-read this amazing book, this is it. Trust me.
His first editors, and then Wilde himself, removed and altered substantial content, nearly all homoerotic, in response to severe and unrelenting criticism before and after its first magazine publication in 1890. In addition to this criticism, Wilde was deeply fearful he would be prosecuted under the new anti-homosexual behavior law which came into effect in England five years earlier in 1885, but which he hadn't taken seriously until then.
For the first book edition in 1891 (reprinted countless times down to the present) Wilde even added seven more chapters with heterosexual content to counter the now-toned-down homosexual relationships between Dorian Gray and his admirers (lovers) Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton. These new chapters also offer up an easy moral which makes the altered book too easy, too obvious, at the end.
You probably don't believe me, but just forget that you already read Dorian Gray, and read Wilde's uncensored original: it's much more edgy and honest, offers a less conclusive moral—thus giving more credit to his readers—and it doesn't sacrifice Dorian's essential homosexuality, and that of Wilde himself.
If you need an excuse to re-read this amazing book, this is it. Trust me.
August 18, 2021
Oscar Wilde’s editor: but what do we do about the gays.. I mean how do we get rid of them
February 2, 2018
All the characters in this book assume wrongly some kind of positive correlation between a person's looks and his characters - as if we are born pure and beautiful; each immoral act committed by a person leaves imprinted a Cain's mark on his or her face. I don't know whether writer suffered from this kind of lookism - for Dorin's painting actually got uglier and uglier with each wicked act done by him, or maybe Wilde was criticising prejudice - for Dorin did remain to look handsome despite all wrongs he did.
Now things like principles, conscience, soul, morality etc great interest me - for I have none of my own. I often wonder what people mean conscience - remember reading somewhere it is the feeling that someone is watching or it is just 'sentimentalization of herd morality. as Eurus Holmes would have put it. Wilde seems to suggest it is the sight of one's own soul (used to mean 'a sort of map showing imprints of one's moral and immoral actions'; for lack of better word) - the portrait is supposed to be picture of Dorin Grey's soul; Grey is uncomfortable by the mere sight or idea of it and thus calls it his (oh! so very bad) conscience. It is thus people with bad conscience live - too conscious of their evil. Unlike most literary tragic characters who end miserably after choosing the path of folly and whose worlds break down to punish them; Grey was repeatedly saved from his punishment - he just couldn't live any longer with conscious of his own inner ugliness. He did try making amends- only it was too late - "Had it been merely vanity that had made him do his one good deed? Or the desire for a new sensation, as Lord Henry had hinted, with his mocking laugh? Or that passion to act a part that sometimes makes us do things finer than we are ourselves? Or, perhaps, all these?"
Now things like principles, conscience, soul, morality etc great interest me - for I have none of my own. I often wonder what people mean conscience - remember reading somewhere it is the feeling that someone is watching or it is just 'sentimentalization of herd morality. as Eurus Holmes would have put it. Wilde seems to suggest it is the sight of one's own soul (used to mean 'a sort of map showing imprints of one's moral and immoral actions'; for lack of better word) - the portrait is supposed to be picture of Dorin Grey's soul; Grey is uncomfortable by the mere sight or idea of it and thus calls it his (oh! so very bad) conscience. It is thus people with bad conscience live - too conscious of their evil. Unlike most literary tragic characters who end miserably after choosing the path of folly and whose worlds break down to punish them; Grey was repeatedly saved from his punishment - he just couldn't live any longer with conscious of his own inner ugliness. He did try making amends- only it was too late - "Had it been merely vanity that had made him do his one good deed? Or the desire for a new sensation, as Lord Henry had hinted, with his mocking laugh? Or that passion to act a part that sometimes makes us do things finer than we are ourselves? Or, perhaps, all these?"
March 1, 2024
I made a long-ass review last night and Goodreads just decided not to post it. Now I'm here, enraged, rewriting it... I took a really long time reading this book and usually this would be a bad sign, but not here darling. This art piece is absolutely MARVELLOUS, STUNNING, AND ELEGANT, AND MAGNIFICENT. Ugh, I love it so much. The writing is the best thing ever, so poetic, so thoughtfulness, and filled with paradoxes, and beautifully written descriptions. Oscar, thank you for blessing us with this.
Seriously, look at that: "he repeated her name over and over again. The birds that were singing in the dew-drenched garden seemed to be telling the flowers about her." I can't even start saying how beautiful this entire quote is. So fucking lovely. And this too: "I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain." this is what I expect to hear from my partner on my wedding day (said partner does not exist yet). And this simple: "You are more to me than all art can ever be" so short and yet so exquisite. Yeah, I'm sure I'm in love with this book. I can keep on quoting it until the day of my death...
About the characters. There is a maximum of 3 sane people in this book, basil being one of them. Basil is the only one with a sense of self-preservation and he is very sensible. I loved him and he deserved better. Henry is just a very bad influence, but his ideas are so ludicrous that half the time all you can do is laugh at it because it's unbelievable what he's saying. Take a look at one: "The people who have adored me-- there have not been very many, but there have been some-- have always insisted on living on, long after I had ceased to care for them, or they to care for me." sometimes i have no words...
Dorian Gray could be good, but he followed Henry like a sheep. So, basically, he is horrible and yet he seems so real. The contradiction of his thoughts, the regrets, the sadness, the rage, the doubt, reading the things that go through his mind is fascinating. He tries to justify everything he does and it's just fun and interesting to read.
This book subtly criticizes a lot of things from that century and from life in general. You can analyze Dorian from a good range of perspectives. He and Henry represent a lot of things at the same time. I think the main topic here is how we are obsessed with beauty and good image. Dorian talks about killing himself as soon as he turns old and ugly. And this was in his century, now it's only worse. We all have this idea in our heads that our purpose in life is to be beautiful... like, seriously? If there's something I agree with Henry is that we should be seeking for new sensations in life (not opio and screwing people every day, please). It can give us so many things and yet we are so worried about something as superficial as the beauty we're portraying to the world...
"I have talked enough for today. All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to."
I'll just keep rambling about how good this is. I couldn't give it less than 5 stars, and I'm sure I'll never forget this experience. Everyone should give a chance and read something by Oscar Wilde.
"The world has changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history"
Seriously, look at that: "he repeated her name over and over again. The birds that were singing in the dew-drenched garden seemed to be telling the flowers about her." I can't even start saying how beautiful this entire quote is. So fucking lovely. And this too: "I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain." this is what I expect to hear from my partner on my wedding day (said partner does not exist yet). And this simple: "You are more to me than all art can ever be" so short and yet so exquisite. Yeah, I'm sure I'm in love with this book. I can keep on quoting it until the day of my death...
About the characters. There is a maximum of 3 sane people in this book, basil being one of them. Basil is the only one with a sense of self-preservation and he is very sensible. I loved him and he deserved better. Henry is just a very bad influence, but his ideas are so ludicrous that half the time all you can do is laugh at it because it's unbelievable what he's saying. Take a look at one: "The people who have adored me-- there have not been very many, but there have been some-- have always insisted on living on, long after I had ceased to care for them, or they to care for me." sometimes i have no words...
Dorian Gray could be good, but he followed Henry like a sheep. So, basically, he is horrible and yet he seems so real. The contradiction of his thoughts, the regrets, the sadness, the rage, the doubt, reading the things that go through his mind is fascinating. He tries to justify everything he does and it's just fun and interesting to read.
This book subtly criticizes a lot of things from that century and from life in general. You can analyze Dorian from a good range of perspectives. He and Henry represent a lot of things at the same time. I think the main topic here is how we are obsessed with beauty and good image. Dorian talks about killing himself as soon as he turns old and ugly. And this was in his century, now it's only worse. We all have this idea in our heads that our purpose in life is to be beautiful... like, seriously? If there's something I agree with Henry is that we should be seeking for new sensations in life (not opio and screwing people every day, please). It can give us so many things and yet we are so worried about something as superficial as the beauty we're portraying to the world...
"I have talked enough for today. All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to."
I'll just keep rambling about how good this is. I couldn't give it less than 5 stars, and I'm sure I'll never forget this experience. Everyone should give a chance and read something by Oscar Wilde.
"The world has changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history"
May 9, 2023
3.5 stars
Welp! I thought what they meant with that title is that I will find some smut. Unfortunately this was not the case.
Anyhoo the writing is amazing kept me going.
Welp! I thought what they meant with that title is that I will find some smut. Unfortunately this was not the case.
Anyhoo the writing is amazing kept me going.
June 9, 2025
”I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely devoted to him and I ought not speak to him.”
the power of Oscar Wilde will never cease to amaze me.
June 17, 2020
Uno de los últimos referentes del terror gótico del siglo XIX, este libro sigue sorprendiendo en la actualidad por la originalidad de su planteamiento (cuanto menos sepas de ella, infinitamente mejor), por los claroscuros de sus personajes principales y por las reflexiones que pone sobre la mesa sobre el arte, el hedonismo y la doble moral victoriana. Un libro ingenioso, a la altura de su creador, que tuvo que enfrentarse a la censura de la época por el evidente carácter homoerótico de algunas de sus escenas. No os lo podéis perder (y si es en la versión sin censura, mucho mejor).
RESEÑA COMPLETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX2kr...
RESEÑA COMPLETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX2kr...
March 29, 2023
the uncensored version isn't actually that much gayer... the three (3) forewords were lying to me
either way, i have always thought The Picture of Dorian Gray to just be okay - if that makes me a bad gay so be it
read as part of 202-Queer 🌈✨
either way, i have always thought The Picture of Dorian Gray to just be okay - if that makes me a bad gay so be it
read as part of 202-Queer 🌈✨
April 8, 2021
Dorian Gray:🧖😈
The Picture:👹
The Picture:👹
February 19, 2018
Παντοτινή ομορφιά.
Ματαιοδοξία.
Ηδονισμός.
Εσωτερικός διχασμός.
Αμαρτία.
Θεία Δίκη.
Δεν έχω πολλά λόγια να πω γι’ αυτό το λογοτεχνικό αριστούργημα.
Το διάβασα στην αγγλική γλώσσα και θαύμασα το ταλέντο του συγγραφέα.
Το έργο αυτό αποτελεί τροφή για σκέψη και τα θέματά του είναι πιο επίκαιρα από ποτέ.
Όπως εύστοχα διάβασα κάπου είναι ένα «βιβλίο που δεν γερνά».
Ματαιοδοξία.
Ηδονισμός.
Εσωτερικός διχασμός.
Αμαρτία.
Θεία Δίκη.
Δεν έχω πολλά λόγια να πω γι’ αυτό το λογοτεχνικό αριστούργημα.
Το διάβασα στην αγγλική γλώσσα και θαύμασα το ταλέντο του συγγραφέα.
Το έργο αυτό αποτελεί τροφή για σκέψη και τα θέματά του είναι πιο επίκαιρα από ποτέ.
Όπως εύστοχα διάβασα κάπου είναι ένα «βιβλίο που δεν γερνά».
June 7, 2020
(edición sin censura)
El libro casi arranca con la escena de Basil diciéndole a Lord Henry que el cuadro pintado no puede exponerlo por que "He puesto demasiado de mí mismo en él". Pero realmente, Wilde, nos está diciendo que ha puesto mucho de él mismo y más en esta edición original sin censura. Por si teníamos alguna duda, está esa frase recogida en una carta, donde Wilde dice: "Basil Hallward es lo que creo ser; Lord Henry Wotton, lo que el mundo cree que soy; Dorian Gray, lo que quizás me habría gustado ser en otro tiempo."
Los sentimientos de Basil hacia Dorian recogen los sentimientos de Wilde hacia Lord Albert Douglas en la vida real. Hay cierto parecido físico entre Dorian y Douglas. También nos dice Basil: " todo retrato pintado con emoción es un retrato del artista, no del modelo"... "Temo haber mostrado en él el secreto de mi propia alma".
A Dorian nos lo presentan a través de su retrato: "una criatura hermosa sin cerebro", un joven de 17 años. Cuando Henry conoce a Dorian, Basil le dice "posee una naturaleza sencilla y hermosa" y le advierte "No lo estropees por mí. No intentes influenciarlo". Pero Henry siembra la semilla en él, ¿¡qué fácil es manipular a Dorian!?.
Henry empieza por reconocer que "Toda influencia es inmoral .. Influenciar a una persona es entregarle nuestra propia alma. Esta deja de pensar con sus pensamientos naturales... No son reales sus virtudes. Sus pecados...son prestados... El propósito de la vida...es descubrir la propia naturaleza.... El cuerpo peca una vez y acaba con el pecado, pues la acción es un modo de purificación.... La única forma de librarnos de una tentación es rendirnos a ella. Resistid, y vuestra alma enfermará...
Henry continúa "la juventud es la única cosa en el mundo que merece la pena poseer" - en estos momentos Dorian aún sigue siendo "puro" una "rosa blanca" : ¿Qué importa?"..." No lo siento así". (cuando Henry le dice que se ponga a la sombra en el jardín para no marchitar su belleza)
Y Henry sigue sembrando... La perentoriedad de la juventud y la belleza." Sea consciente de su juventud mientras la posea.... Vaya siempre en busca de nuevas sensaciones. No le tenga miedo a nada."
Todo esto es lo que lleva a Dorian a decir ante su retrato:"¡Qué triste es! Me haré viejo, y desagradable y repulsivo. Pero este retrato seguirá siendo joven. Nunca seré más viejo que en este día de junio. ¡Ojalá fuera al revés! ¡Qué yo pudiera ser siempre joven y el cuadro el que fuera envejeciendo! ¡Así es, no hay nada que no diera a cambio! Uno de los momentos cumbre del libro.
Dorian: "Tengo celos de todas las cosas cuya belleza no muere. Tengo celos del retrato..". Aquí ya ha cambiado nuestro inocente muchacho. Incluso Basil lo detecta: "Hallward miraba estupefacto. Era tan impropio de Dorian hablar así", ante el comentario de su retrato.
"¡Un nuevo hedonismo! Eso es lo que nuestro siglo necesita. Usted podría ser su símbolo visible." El hedonismo identifica la felicidad con el placer. Y dentro de las distintas opciones, Wilde se queda con el arte. La belleza, la superficialidad de Dorian de rodearse y acumular cosas "bellas" como el caro juego de plata.
Pero más adelante, ya alcanzada la mayoría de edad y habiendo descubierto los efectos sobre el cuadro, se reafirma: iba a ser como "Henry había profetizado, un nuevo hedonismo que recrearía la vida y la salvaría de ese severo y carente de atractivo puritanismo". Experimentar directamente sin límites, seguir con su "desarrollo intelectual", la religión, estudiar los perfumes, los instrumentos musicales, las joyas, los tejidos y bordados... Manifestaciones de la belleza y el arte.
Lord Henry es el personaje corruptor, juega con Dorian desde el principio. Incluso en la relación con Sybil Vane: Dorian, al día siguiente, estaba arrepentido, incluso se planteaba volver y casarse con ella. Pero Henry consigue darle la vuelta y que ese posible duelo y arrepentimiento acabe convertido en una salida a la ópera.
Dorian realmente no estaba enamorado de Sybil. Se sentía atraído por su juventud y belleza. Por eso no supo entender el fallo en la interpretación. Era una actriz que cada día interpreta un papel (representaba "todas las heroínas poéticas"), que incluso en su muerte representó el papel de una tragedia griega. "¡Qué diferente es una actriz! ¿Por qué no me dijiste, Harry, que una actriz es la única criatura digna de ser amada?".
"(Henry:) - ¿Cuándo hace de Sybil Vane?
(Dorian:) - Nunca."
"(Dorian:) ¿Cómo habría interpretado aquella funesta escena? - refiriéndose al suicidio de Sybil-"
Otro de los momentos cumbre es cuando Dorian descubre la mueca en el cuadro y es consciente de que "el retrato soportaría la carga de su verguenza: eso era todo".
¡Qué fácil dejarse llevar por el afán de experimentar y vivir la vida, tal como le había adoctrinado Henry con todas sus enseñanzas!
Solo..... "Un sentimiento de dolor se apoderó de él al pensar en la profanación que aguardaba al hermoso rostro del lienzo." El narcisismo y el hedonismo: besar aquellos labios pintados, quedarse sentado ante el retrato, una mañana tras otra, maravillado ante la belleza de su retrato.
Por un momento pensó en rezar para que el vínculo con el cuadro se rompiese, pero ¿¡Quién podría resistirse a la tentación de permanecer siempre joven!?. Pero luego se lo pensó mejor ;-) "Jamás volvería a tentar con una plegaria a ningún terrible poder. Si el cuadro iba a cambiar, cambiaría." Se convertiría en el espejo de su alma y "él estaría a salvo".
Basil es el personaje "noble" en esta trama. Sus sentimientos hacia Dorian son sinceros, se siente un poco dolido cuando Dorian "empieza a volar" y le abandona; a pesar de lo que siente por él, es capaz de felicitarle cuando Dorian le anuncia su compromiso; se preocupa por su amigo cuando se entera de la muerte de Sybil; aunque ya no tengan casi contacto, se sigue preocupando de él y va a su casa antes de irse de viaje a París para advertirle de los rumores sobre su conducta.
Basil podría haber ejercido un poco de la voz de Pepito grillo, la conciencia de Dorian, pero sus sentimientos le impedían hacerle reproches. Además, si la cara es el reflejo del alma, con esa belleza inmaculada en la cara, era inconcebible una conducta inmoral o perversa en su amigo Dorian.
¡Qué diferente podría haber sido todo para Basil/Wilde en otra época menos intransigente y moralista con este tipo de sentimientos y relaciones!
Y llegamos al asesinato de Basil. En un ataque de soberbia, Dorian decide mostrarle el retrato, el reflejo de su alma corrupta. "Me ha destruído él (retrato) a mí." "Todos llevamos el cielo y el infierno dentro". Dorian sollozando junto a la ventana. Basil, diciéndole a Dorian que rece. Y en un arrebato de odio, asesina a Basil. Le culpa de hacerle sufrir y arruinar su vida más que Henry. - Discrepo, tener el retrato ayuda, pero sin las ideas de Henry, ni siquiera habría formulado aquel deseo. Henry dice que Dorian es su creación y yo también lo veo así. Aunque reconozco que son necesarios los dos. Con ideas y sin retrato, habría sido un pobre desgraciado. Con retrato sin ideas, tal vez habría seguido siendo un inocente muchacho y habría madurado de otra forma.-. De cualquier forma, ya hemos subido otro peldaño, hemos matado con nuestras manos. Fríamente, sin remordimientos, prepara la coartada, busca como deshacerse del cadáver involucrando a otra persona, alguien que también había sido su amigo, Alan Campbell. Sabe que consecuencias puede tener para Alan, pero no le importa chantajearle.
Parece que Dorian intenta una fase de redención, de "buenas acciones", con Hetty, abandonarla antes de deshonrarla. Pero Henry, una vez más, le hace abrir los ojos: será una desgraciada. Y la constatación de su motivación llega cuando mira el retrato, la mancha roja era más grande.
El espejo en que mira su alma es injusto. Solo queda una salida, acabar con la prueba del asesinato, "matar el cuadro" y con él su pasado para así liberarse, sin saber que ambos estaban unidos, cuerpo y alma o el pasado forma parte del presente.
Tengo que decir que me ha resultado un libro tedioso de leer, para lo corto que es me lo he tenido que leer en cuatro días (a ratos, sin mucho tiempo y adormeciendome por la noche), pesado y denso como él solo. Demasiado filosófico, demasiados detalles. Uff no sabéis lo que he agradecido que fuese corto.
Debo ser una lectora muy simple.
He disfrutado más parándome a pesar tranquilamente lo que había leído. Una Semi segunda lectura en diagonal. Es cuando he visto matices en mis notas guardadas.
Valoración: 6/10
Lectura: junio 2020
El libro casi arranca con la escena de Basil diciéndole a Lord Henry que el cuadro pintado no puede exponerlo por que "He puesto demasiado de mí mismo en él". Pero realmente, Wilde, nos está diciendo que ha puesto mucho de él mismo y más en esta edición original sin censura. Por si teníamos alguna duda, está esa frase recogida en una carta, donde Wilde dice: "Basil Hallward es lo que creo ser; Lord Henry Wotton, lo que el mundo cree que soy; Dorian Gray, lo que quizás me habría gustado ser en otro tiempo."
Los sentimientos de Basil hacia Dorian recogen los sentimientos de Wilde hacia Lord Albert Douglas en la vida real. Hay cierto parecido físico entre Dorian y Douglas. También nos dice Basil: " todo retrato pintado con emoción es un retrato del artista, no del modelo"... "Temo haber mostrado en él el secreto de mi propia alma".
A Dorian nos lo presentan a través de su retrato: "una criatura hermosa sin cerebro", un joven de 17 años. Cuando Henry conoce a Dorian, Basil le dice "posee una naturaleza sencilla y hermosa" y le advierte "No lo estropees por mí. No intentes influenciarlo". Pero Henry siembra la semilla en él, ¿¡qué fácil es manipular a Dorian!?.
Henry empieza por reconocer que "Toda influencia es inmoral .. Influenciar a una persona es entregarle nuestra propia alma. Esta deja de pensar con sus pensamientos naturales... No son reales sus virtudes. Sus pecados...son prestados... El propósito de la vida...es descubrir la propia naturaleza.... El cuerpo peca una vez y acaba con el pecado, pues la acción es un modo de purificación.... La única forma de librarnos de una tentación es rendirnos a ella. Resistid, y vuestra alma enfermará...
Henry continúa "la juventud es la única cosa en el mundo que merece la pena poseer" - en estos momentos Dorian aún sigue siendo "puro" una "rosa blanca" : ¿Qué importa?"..." No lo siento así". (cuando Henry le dice que se ponga a la sombra en el jardín para no marchitar su belleza)
Y Henry sigue sembrando... La perentoriedad de la juventud y la belleza." Sea consciente de su juventud mientras la posea.... Vaya siempre en busca de nuevas sensaciones. No le tenga miedo a nada."
Todo esto es lo que lleva a Dorian a decir ante su retrato:"¡Qué triste es! Me haré viejo, y desagradable y repulsivo. Pero este retrato seguirá siendo joven. Nunca seré más viejo que en este día de junio. ¡Ojalá fuera al revés! ¡Qué yo pudiera ser siempre joven y el cuadro el que fuera envejeciendo! ¡Así es, no hay nada que no diera a cambio! Uno de los momentos cumbre del libro.
Dorian: "Tengo celos de todas las cosas cuya belleza no muere. Tengo celos del retrato..". Aquí ya ha cambiado nuestro inocente muchacho. Incluso Basil lo detecta: "Hallward miraba estupefacto. Era tan impropio de Dorian hablar así", ante el comentario de su retrato.
"¡Un nuevo hedonismo! Eso es lo que nuestro siglo necesita. Usted podría ser su símbolo visible." El hedonismo identifica la felicidad con el placer. Y dentro de las distintas opciones, Wilde se queda con el arte. La belleza, la superficialidad de Dorian de rodearse y acumular cosas "bellas" como el caro juego de plata.
Pero más adelante, ya alcanzada la mayoría de edad y habiendo descubierto los efectos sobre el cuadro, se reafirma: iba a ser como "Henry había profetizado, un nuevo hedonismo que recrearía la vida y la salvaría de ese severo y carente de atractivo puritanismo". Experimentar directamente sin límites, seguir con su "desarrollo intelectual", la religión, estudiar los perfumes, los instrumentos musicales, las joyas, los tejidos y bordados... Manifestaciones de la belleza y el arte.
Lord Henry es el personaje corruptor, juega con Dorian desde el principio. Incluso en la relación con Sybil Vane: Dorian, al día siguiente, estaba arrepentido, incluso se planteaba volver y casarse con ella. Pero Henry consigue darle la vuelta y que ese posible duelo y arrepentimiento acabe convertido en una salida a la ópera.
Dorian realmente no estaba enamorado de Sybil. Se sentía atraído por su juventud y belleza. Por eso no supo entender el fallo en la interpretación. Era una actriz que cada día interpreta un papel (representaba "todas las heroínas poéticas"), que incluso en su muerte representó el papel de una tragedia griega. "¡Qué diferente es una actriz! ¿Por qué no me dijiste, Harry, que una actriz es la única criatura digna de ser amada?".
"(Henry:) - ¿Cuándo hace de Sybil Vane?
(Dorian:) - Nunca."
"(Dorian:) ¿Cómo habría interpretado aquella funesta escena? - refiriéndose al suicidio de Sybil-"
Otro de los momentos cumbre es cuando Dorian descubre la mueca en el cuadro y es consciente de que "el retrato soportaría la carga de su verguenza: eso era todo".
¡Qué fácil dejarse llevar por el afán de experimentar y vivir la vida, tal como le había adoctrinado Henry con todas sus enseñanzas!
Solo..... "Un sentimiento de dolor se apoderó de él al pensar en la profanación que aguardaba al hermoso rostro del lienzo." El narcisismo y el hedonismo: besar aquellos labios pintados, quedarse sentado ante el retrato, una mañana tras otra, maravillado ante la belleza de su retrato.
Por un momento pensó en rezar para que el vínculo con el cuadro se rompiese, pero ¿¡Quién podría resistirse a la tentación de permanecer siempre joven!?. Pero luego se lo pensó mejor ;-) "Jamás volvería a tentar con una plegaria a ningún terrible poder. Si el cuadro iba a cambiar, cambiaría." Se convertiría en el espejo de su alma y "él estaría a salvo".
Basil es el personaje "noble" en esta trama. Sus sentimientos hacia Dorian son sinceros, se siente un poco dolido cuando Dorian "empieza a volar" y le abandona; a pesar de lo que siente por él, es capaz de felicitarle cuando Dorian le anuncia su compromiso; se preocupa por su amigo cuando se entera de la muerte de Sybil; aunque ya no tengan casi contacto, se sigue preocupando de él y va a su casa antes de irse de viaje a París para advertirle de los rumores sobre su conducta.
Basil podría haber ejercido un poco de la voz de Pepito grillo, la conciencia de Dorian, pero sus sentimientos le impedían hacerle reproches. Además, si la cara es el reflejo del alma, con esa belleza inmaculada en la cara, era inconcebible una conducta inmoral o perversa en su amigo Dorian.
¡Qué diferente podría haber sido todo para Basil/Wilde en otra época menos intransigente y moralista con este tipo de sentimientos y relaciones!
Y llegamos al asesinato de Basil. En un ataque de soberbia, Dorian decide mostrarle el retrato, el reflejo de su alma corrupta. "Me ha destruído él (retrato) a mí." "Todos llevamos el cielo y el infierno dentro". Dorian sollozando junto a la ventana. Basil, diciéndole a Dorian que rece. Y en un arrebato de odio, asesina a Basil. Le culpa de hacerle sufrir y arruinar su vida más que Henry. - Discrepo, tener el retrato ayuda, pero sin las ideas de Henry, ni siquiera habría formulado aquel deseo. Henry dice que Dorian es su creación y yo también lo veo así. Aunque reconozco que son necesarios los dos. Con ideas y sin retrato, habría sido un pobre desgraciado. Con retrato sin ideas, tal vez habría seguido siendo un inocente muchacho y habría madurado de otra forma.-. De cualquier forma, ya hemos subido otro peldaño, hemos matado con nuestras manos. Fríamente, sin remordimientos, prepara la coartada, busca como deshacerse del cadáver involucrando a otra persona, alguien que también había sido su amigo, Alan Campbell. Sabe que consecuencias puede tener para Alan, pero no le importa chantajearle.
Parece que Dorian intenta una fase de redención, de "buenas acciones", con Hetty, abandonarla antes de deshonrarla. Pero Henry, una vez más, le hace abrir los ojos: será una desgraciada. Y la constatación de su motivación llega cuando mira el retrato, la mancha roja era más grande.
El espejo en que mira su alma es injusto. Solo queda una salida, acabar con la prueba del asesinato, "matar el cuadro" y con él su pasado para así liberarse, sin saber que ambos estaban unidos, cuerpo y alma o el pasado forma parte del presente.
Tengo que decir que me ha resultado un libro tedioso de leer, para lo corto que es me lo he tenido que leer en cuatro días (a ratos, sin mucho tiempo y adormeciendome por la noche), pesado y denso como él solo. Demasiado filosófico, demasiados detalles. Uff no sabéis lo que he agradecido que fuese corto.
Debo ser una lectora muy simple.
He disfrutado más parándome a pesar tranquilamente lo que había leído. Una Semi segunda lectura en diagonal. Es cuando he visto matices en mis notas guardadas.
Valoración: 6/10
Lectura: junio 2020
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2021
Es una novela a la que te aproximas teniendo ya una idea más o menos clara de su argumento, pero me he encontrado con algo mucho más profundo.
Me ha parecido una maravilla de novela. No se muy bien como argumentarlo pero me ha impactado profundamente.
La edición que he leído es de Reino de Cordelia, e indican que es una edición “sin censura “, basada en un texto encontrado en 2011 y publicado por Harvard University Press, siendo al parecer más fiel al texto concebido originalmente por Oscar Wilde.
Según indica la contraportada, “Oscar Wilde, temeroso de la reacción moralista de la sociedad victoriana, auto censuró aún más la edición en libro... añadiendo más páginas para matizar aspectos turbios y cortando por la sano los elementos homoeroticos”
Sea como sea, me gustado muchísimo.
Me ha parecido una maravilla de novela. No se muy bien como argumentarlo pero me ha impactado profundamente.
La edición que he leído es de Reino de Cordelia, e indican que es una edición “sin censura “, basada en un texto encontrado en 2011 y publicado por Harvard University Press, siendo al parecer más fiel al texto concebido originalmente por Oscar Wilde.
Según indica la contraportada, “Oscar Wilde, temeroso de la reacción moralista de la sociedad victoriana, auto censuró aún más la edición en libro... añadiendo más páginas para matizar aspectos turbios y cortando por la sano los elementos homoeroticos”
Sea como sea, me gustado muchísimo.
January 23, 2015
Naturally, The Picture of Dorian Gray is probably my favorite novel of all time- of course, when I say this, I am encompassing all versions of the story, censored or uncensored, edited or unedited. I was very excited to find a nice paperback copy of the uncensored Dorian, which I proceeded to buy and almost immediately read, this time self-annotating for comparison. Needless to say, my week was made by finding this gem waiting for me in some book store. Some of the differences from Wilde's original typescript are vastly different concerning plot and subtext, but all in all, it's still the novel I loved the first time I read the 1891 version.
Firstly, many people immediately become curious about increased homoeroticism in this version of the novel- I'm here to say that there is a lot more of that, both is Basil Hallward's character and Dorian Gray's lifestyle. Many passages that were made to talk about "creative inspiration" in the edited version originally talked about "tragic romance" in the original. In fact, Basil's character actually seemed completely different to me in this version because the poor man doesn't have to be censored in the original. But then again, I feel like homoeroticism is an element to be expected from Wilde. Needless to say, I actually feel like this element, although not seemingly important, changes a dynamic of the story in general- although some may not go for it, I absolutely do. It feels much more like Wilde to me than the other version.
A lot of passages talking about the self-indulgent French Decadence movement were censored for the conventional version of Dorian because audiences in general were disgusted by the idea of narcissism. Now that the passages are added back into the book, I kind of can see why the Victorians would not have liked the movement. Now, as the homoeroticism changes Basil's character, Decadence has a similar effect on Lord Henry. Much more of his influence on Dorian can be seen because every slimy word that he utters can be read. It's still delightfully despicable.
Lastly, the plot is actually not quite as long as in the 1891 version. This mainly is due to the fact that Wilde had to edit his novel to be more audience-friendly, so he had to find another way to convey the point of the story without going in a bad direction. Therefore, he added a subplot concerning James Vane and his quest to avenge his sister, Sybil. The original version of Dorian, however, does not have any of that story, instead choosing to focus on the same three characters the whole time. By having the plot delete some of these edited characters, there really is a completely different reason for Dorian's untimely (or timely?) death, which I would consider to be very major in changing the plot around. A smaller cast also provides for a lot more room for development. I felt a little more attached to Dorian's character when I read this because more time was devoted strictly to his bizarre life. Of course, I also could perceive better characterization of Lord Henry and Basil. While I do kind of miss having a more developed character of Sybil, I also definitely enjoy the reduced cast. This simply changes the experience and conflict that can be gleaned as a whole- I appreciate having a second way to look at the story.
What more can I say? It's The Picture of Dorian Gray either way you read it, so it's always going to be a fantastic work. A lot of the other reviews I have read about this version of the book suggest sticking to the 1891 version first instead of jumping right to Wilde's typescript, and I am going to agree with them on this. I don't think that this version should necessarily become the new standard of this novel, but it should be read after the more conventional, less provocative version is read. Reading both provide for an optimal situation. But personally, I think that the uncensored version is the one that I am probably going to turn to more for casual reading. After all, this is the version that Wilde intended for audiences to read! I believe that this 1890 version may be my preferred version of the novel.
Firstly, many people immediately become curious about increased homoeroticism in this version of the novel- I'm here to say that there is a lot more of that, both is Basil Hallward's character and Dorian Gray's lifestyle. Many passages that were made to talk about "creative inspiration" in the edited version originally talked about "tragic romance" in the original. In fact, Basil's character actually seemed completely different to me in this version because the poor man doesn't have to be censored in the original. But then again, I feel like homoeroticism is an element to be expected from Wilde. Needless to say, I actually feel like this element, although not seemingly important, changes a dynamic of the story in general- although some may not go for it, I absolutely do. It feels much more like Wilde to me than the other version.
A lot of passages talking about the self-indulgent French Decadence movement were censored for the conventional version of Dorian because audiences in general were disgusted by the idea of narcissism. Now that the passages are added back into the book, I kind of can see why the Victorians would not have liked the movement. Now, as the homoeroticism changes Basil's character, Decadence has a similar effect on Lord Henry. Much more of his influence on Dorian can be seen because every slimy word that he utters can be read. It's still delightfully despicable.
Lastly, the plot is actually not quite as long as in the 1891 version. This mainly is due to the fact that Wilde had to edit his novel to be more audience-friendly, so he had to find another way to convey the point of the story without going in a bad direction. Therefore, he added a subplot concerning James Vane and his quest to avenge his sister, Sybil. The original version of Dorian, however, does not have any of that story, instead choosing to focus on the same three characters the whole time. By having the plot delete some of these edited characters, there really is a completely different reason for Dorian's untimely (or timely?) death, which I would consider to be very major in changing the plot around. A smaller cast also provides for a lot more room for development. I felt a little more attached to Dorian's character when I read this because more time was devoted strictly to his bizarre life. Of course, I also could perceive better characterization of Lord Henry and Basil. While I do kind of miss having a more developed character of Sybil, I also definitely enjoy the reduced cast. This simply changes the experience and conflict that can be gleaned as a whole- I appreciate having a second way to look at the story.
What more can I say? It's The Picture of Dorian Gray either way you read it, so it's always going to be a fantastic work. A lot of the other reviews I have read about this version of the book suggest sticking to the 1891 version first instead of jumping right to Wilde's typescript, and I am going to agree with them on this. I don't think that this version should necessarily become the new standard of this novel, but it should be read after the more conventional, less provocative version is read. Reading both provide for an optimal situation. But personally, I think that the uncensored version is the one that I am probably going to turn to more for casual reading. After all, this is the version that Wilde intended for audiences to read! I believe that this 1890 version may be my preferred version of the novel.
May 14, 2019
Here's my interpretation of what this novel is about (spoilers ahead).
Lord Henry is a gossip and all talk. He likes to enchant refined socialites with tales about all the things that they're too proper to try, yet he too would never do anything to compromise his reputation. Dorian follows him blindly, taking Henry at his (untrustworthy) word, because Dorian doesn't like to do the hard work of thinking for himself (which he is ultimately forced to do at the end of the book). Henry is usually interpreted as bisexual because he's fixated with Dorian and more flirty with him than with other people. He wants to impress Dorian more than anyone else, and wants to impress Dorian more than doing anything else. At first, Dorian is vulnerable to Henry's charms because he grew up as an orphan. He wants someone to look up to, and Henry steps up to the plate, to Basil's horror and jealousy.
Basil's painting of Dorian captures Dorian's soul because Basil put his own soul into the painting. Basil thinks he only figuratively put his soul into it. Basil gives himself up to win Dorian's praise and attentions and can't stop painting Dorian after that. He's in love with Dorian (this is clear in the standard version, but even clearer in the uncensored version) and meets the same fate as Sibyl (who Dorian loved the most). Basil was an acclaimed painter, then he gives it up for love, and loses Dorian's interest. Sibyl was a talented actor, then she gives it up for love, and loses Dorian's interest. (This is when Dorian's at his most unlikeable, and even he feels guilty at this point. Not guilty enough to do the hard work of self-evaluation and becoming a better person, though.)
Dorian is (virtually always interpreted as) bisexual but he doesn't care about people beyond the pleasure they can bring him (the pleasures of good art, fun experiences, and the pleasures of the flesh). He thinks being an aficionado of art and the sexual arts makes him more worldly and enlightened than other people. Better than other people. He can show them pleasures that they've never known. He's like a god (the characters compare him to various Greco-Roman gods). But he's not above other people - he's literally a demon. He doesn't give proportionately to what he takes. He's supernatural; not a part of nature.
Dorian gets art and freedom from sex, works of art (perfume, jewels, musical instruments, etc.), and from going to social events; whereas transcendentalists (a popular philosophy during the 1800s) believed in nature as the source of true beauty, spirituality, and freedom. Maybe Dorian is looking for beauty and freedom in all the wrong places. Indeed, he's not terribly free - he's a slave to Henry's yellow book of immoral codes. Dorian thinks he's liberated from society's rules and expectations, but he's blindly following a rule book on how not to live by Victorian rules.
That reminds me of Alice's in Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, because Alice's goal is to find a book that has all the rules. Wonderland's weirdness subverts all the Victorian rules that she was taught and she becomes forced to think for herself and moderate her temper. Dorian and the yellow book similarly subvert the rules to the point where things are chaos and moderation doesn't exist, so Dorian is forced to think for himself and moderate his own behavior. He has to finally look at himself in the mirror (painting) and honestly face what he has become.
Lord Henry is a gossip and all talk. He likes to enchant refined socialites with tales about all the things that they're too proper to try, yet he too would never do anything to compromise his reputation. Dorian follows him blindly, taking Henry at his (untrustworthy) word, because Dorian doesn't like to do the hard work of thinking for himself (which he is ultimately forced to do at the end of the book). Henry is usually interpreted as bisexual because he's fixated with Dorian and more flirty with him than with other people. He wants to impress Dorian more than anyone else, and wants to impress Dorian more than doing anything else. At first, Dorian is vulnerable to Henry's charms because he grew up as an orphan. He wants someone to look up to, and Henry steps up to the plate, to Basil's horror and jealousy.
Basil's painting of Dorian captures Dorian's soul because Basil put his own soul into the painting. Basil thinks he only figuratively put his soul into it. Basil gives himself up to win Dorian's praise and attentions and can't stop painting Dorian after that. He's in love with Dorian (this is clear in the standard version, but even clearer in the uncensored version) and meets the same fate as Sibyl (who Dorian loved the most). Basil was an acclaimed painter, then he gives it up for love, and loses Dorian's interest. Sibyl was a talented actor, then she gives it up for love, and loses Dorian's interest. (This is when Dorian's at his most unlikeable, and even he feels guilty at this point. Not guilty enough to do the hard work of self-evaluation and becoming a better person, though.)
Dorian is (virtually always interpreted as) bisexual but he doesn't care about people beyond the pleasure they can bring him (the pleasures of good art, fun experiences, and the pleasures of the flesh). He thinks being an aficionado of art and the sexual arts makes him more worldly and enlightened than other people. Better than other people. He can show them pleasures that they've never known. He's like a god (the characters compare him to various Greco-Roman gods). But he's not above other people - he's literally a demon. He doesn't give proportionately to what he takes. He's supernatural; not a part of nature.
Dorian gets art and freedom from sex, works of art (perfume, jewels, musical instruments, etc.), and from going to social events; whereas transcendentalists (a popular philosophy during the 1800s) believed in nature as the source of true beauty, spirituality, and freedom. Maybe Dorian is looking for beauty and freedom in all the wrong places. Indeed, he's not terribly free - he's a slave to Henry's yellow book of immoral codes. Dorian thinks he's liberated from society's rules and expectations, but he's blindly following a rule book on how not to live by Victorian rules.
That reminds me of Alice's in Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, because Alice's goal is to find a book that has all the rules. Wonderland's weirdness subverts all the Victorian rules that she was taught and she becomes forced to think for herself and moderate her temper. Dorian and the yellow book similarly subvert the rules to the point where things are chaos and moderation doesn't exist, so Dorian is forced to think for himself and moderate his own behavior. He has to finally look at himself in the mirror (painting) and honestly face what he has become.
December 7, 2023
rip dorian gray you would have loved tiktok thirst traps
April 15, 2025
4.5/5
I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.
I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.
October 7, 2025
Short summary of my review
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a great read for anyone who believes to like stories about the soul and body and how easily it can get influenced or 'stained'. The character development for me in this book took me by surprise as I didn't expect it to turn out in the way it did. A few chapters before the ending was a tense moment, which felt like a great plot twist as I didn't expect the things that happened there. Despite Dorian Gray appearing to be smart and proofing it multiple times, he did some fatal mistakes that could have ended very badly for him. So, it left me confused as to why he was rewarded with luck, for his not well-thought-out plan.
Disclaimer
I read the original edition, which is the uncensored version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Note
The following review is spoiler free, which misses a few aspects. If you want to see the spoiler review with every aspect, read my StoryGraph review.
The Review
This book gave me a rollercoaster. I heard from other reviews that this book apparently is about the love of painting, which it surely wasn't. So, while I read the book I expected to see what so many said, but I was left confused, when it never appeared. The book isn't about the love of painting, it's about the soul and the body.
The painter in the story, Basil Hallward, seemed to be the protagonist at the start, but it changed quickly or was not even ever the case, as the book is about Dorian Gray, his painting and the way his soul changes.
I also liked Dorian Gray more at first as he appeared to be the most innocent and kind-hearted character in the whole story. He was, but not for long. So I changed my opinion at some point, liking Basil Hallward more than Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray had such a strong character development, but to the worse, that I changed my whole opinion about him. I usually don't do this in books, it rarely happens to me actually, so when I saw how I changed my opinion I was like: Wait a minute, did this author, the one I didn't like (I read some other work of him) actually manage to influence me that much? I read 'Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast' and I only gave it 2 stars as there were some stuff I agreed on, but not a lot and out of nowhere the same author manages to take me by surprise. It surely was a big surprise, specially as I thought initially before reading this book that I probably won't like it. But here I am, liking it. It's amazing how fast one can change their opinion about an author when they read more works of named author.
The way how Dorian Gray's soul changed over a long period of time instead of a short period of time or even just immediately, was a realistic way how long it actually takes, especially if you aren't under the age of 6 anymore. Even though he had a great influence on his soul and mindset, it took him long for it to change him to a completely new person. The whole journey from it was very interesting to read about and made me realise better than any other book probably could tell me, how strong an influence really can be. Influences are something that shouldn't be taken lightly and I know this now.
Dorian Gray doesn't live on spiritual sensory, but through pleasurable experience, which is Hedonism.
In case you don't know what Hedonism is, this whole paragraph will be reserved for this. If you know already what it is, skip to the next paragraph.
Explanation from the book:
Explanation by myself:
Hedonism is a life style which is characterised by joy and happiness. People who follow this life style strive for happiness and avoid pain, sorrow, et cetera at all cost.
He didn't live this life style from the start of the book, but one can see how it changed him completely at some point.
While I read this change, I was just like Basil Hallward sad about it. I wasn't sure what to do, I liked Dorian Gray at first, but it changed all out of the sudden.
Regardless of that there were other interesting parts in this book. Basil Hallward himself. Even though he wasn't the protagonist as I first thought, he was my favourite at the end. He never cared for any fame or great reputation. His friendship with Dorian Gray was more important to him. This shows how much he actually liked him and how kind he can be.
Every time Basil Hallward talked to Dorian Gray, tried to maintain his friendship with Dorian Gray, despite the things that happened, I felt so sad for him. I didn't pity Basil, but I felt like he deserved better. All I wanted was to help him, but I was just a reader of this story.
He never gave up on Dorian Gray. That passion he had over their friendship was so admirable. Basil felt like a true friend. Someone you know who has your back, no matter what.
Their whole relationship was interesting to get to know. Basil also tells how he first encountered Dorian Gray. I can't blame him for trying to keep him for himself, Dorian Gray was like a secret diamond no one discovered yet.
A few chapters before the ending was a tense moment, which felt like a great plot twist as I didn't expect the things that happened there. Since it wasn't a thriller book I didn't automatically looked out for hints that could lead to a plot twist, but I think there actually wasn't really one as the twist was about something that happened many years before this event. Also the way I thought I knew what will happen as soon as it was hinted on and then the end of this whole thing was again something I didn't expect!
Despite Dorian Gray appearing to be smart and proofing it multiple times, he did some fatal mistakes that could have ended very badly for him. So, it left me confused as to why he was rewarded with luck, for his not well-thought-out plan. Though I like the ending of this book, which wouldn't have happened if he wouldn't have been lucky. The ending is just like the rest of the book a reflective way to show how important it is to have a good soul and body.
———————————————————————————
Blog review
Read: 31. October 2024
Reviewed: 1. November 2024
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a great read for anyone who believes to like stories about the soul and body and how easily it can get influenced or 'stained'. The character development for me in this book took me by surprise as I didn't expect it to turn out in the way it did. A few chapters before the ending was a tense moment, which felt like a great plot twist as I didn't expect the things that happened there. Despite Dorian Gray appearing to be smart and proofing it multiple times, he did some fatal mistakes that could have ended very badly for him. So, it left me confused as to why he was rewarded with luck, for his not well-thought-out plan.
Disclaimer
I read the original edition, which is the uncensored version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Note
The following review is spoiler free, which misses a few aspects. If you want to see the spoiler review with every aspect, read my StoryGraph review.
The Review
This book gave me a rollercoaster. I heard from other reviews that this book apparently is about the love of painting, which it surely wasn't. So, while I read the book I expected to see what so many said, but I was left confused, when it never appeared. The book isn't about the love of painting, it's about the soul and the body.
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
The painter in the story, Basil Hallward, seemed to be the protagonist at the start, but it changed quickly or was not even ever the case, as the book is about Dorian Gray, his painting and the way his soul changes.
I also liked Dorian Gray more at first as he appeared to be the most innocent and kind-hearted character in the whole story. He was, but not for long. So I changed my opinion at some point, liking Basil Hallward more than Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray had such a strong character development, but to the worse, that I changed my whole opinion about him. I usually don't do this in books, it rarely happens to me actually, so when I saw how I changed my opinion I was like: Wait a minute, did this author, the one I didn't like (I read some other work of him) actually manage to influence me that much? I read 'Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast' and I only gave it 2 stars as there were some stuff I agreed on, but not a lot and out of nowhere the same author manages to take me by surprise. It surely was a big surprise, specially as I thought initially before reading this book that I probably won't like it. But here I am, liking it. It's amazing how fast one can change their opinion about an author when they read more works of named author.
The way how Dorian Gray's soul changed over a long period of time instead of a short period of time or even just immediately, was a realistic way how long it actually takes, especially if you aren't under the age of 6 anymore. Even though he had a great influence on his soul and mindset, it took him long for it to change him to a completely new person. The whole journey from it was very interesting to read about and made me realise better than any other book probably could tell me, how strong an influence really can be. Influences are something that shouldn't be taken lightly and I know this now.
Dorian Gray doesn't live on spiritual sensory, but through pleasurable experience, which is Hedonism.
In case you don't know what Hedonism is, this whole paragraph will be reserved for this. If you know already what it is, skip to the next paragraph.
Explanation from the book:
[...]a new Hedonism that was to recreate life, and to save it from that harsh, uncomely puritanism that is having, in our own day, its curious revival. It was to have its service of the intellect, certainly; yet, it was never to accept any theory or system that would involve the sacrifice of any mode of passionate experience. Its aim, indeed, was to be experience itself, and not the fruits of experience, sweet or bitter as they might be.
Explanation by myself:
Hedonism is a life style which is characterised by joy and happiness. People who follow this life style strive for happiness and avoid pain, sorrow, et cetera at all cost.
He didn't live this life style from the start of the book, but one can see how it changed him completely at some point.
‘Dorian, this is horrible! Something has changed you completely. You look exactly the same wonderful boy who, day after day, used to come down to my studio to sit for his picture. But you were simple, natural, and affectionate then. You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now I don’t know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you.[...]’
While I read this change, I was just like Basil Hallward sad about it. I wasn't sure what to do, I liked Dorian Gray at first, but it changed all out of the sudden.
Regardless of that there were other interesting parts in this book. Basil Hallward himself. Even though he wasn't the protagonist as I first thought, he was my favourite at the end. He never cared for any fame or great reputation. His friendship with Dorian Gray was more important to him. This shows how much he actually liked him and how kind he can be.
‘[...]Your friendship is dearer to me than any fame or reputation.’
Every time Basil Hallward talked to Dorian Gray, tried to maintain his friendship with Dorian Gray, despite the things that happened, I felt so sad for him. I didn't pity Basil, but I felt like he deserved better. All I wanted was to help him, but I was just a reader of this story.
He never gave up on Dorian Gray. That passion he had over their friendship was so admirable. Basil felt like a true friend. Someone you know who has your back, no matter what.
‘It is too late, Basil,’ he faltered.
‘It is never too late, Dorian.[...]’
Their whole relationship was interesting to get to know. Basil also tells how he first encountered Dorian Gray. I can't blame him for trying to keep him for himself, Dorian Gray was like a secret diamond no one discovered yet.
A few chapters before the ending was a tense moment, which felt like a great plot twist as I didn't expect the things that happened there. Since it wasn't a thriller book I didn't automatically looked out for hints that could lead to a plot twist, but I think there actually wasn't really one as the twist was about something that happened many years before this event. Also the way I thought I knew what will happen as soon as it was hinted on and then the end of this whole thing was again something I didn't expect!
Despite Dorian Gray appearing to be smart and proofing it multiple times, he did some fatal mistakes that could have ended very badly for him. So, it left me confused as to why he was rewarded with luck, for his not well-thought-out plan. Though I like the ending of this book, which wouldn't have happened if he wouldn't have been lucky. The ending is just like the rest of the book a reflective way to show how important it is to have a good soul and body.
———————————————————————————
Blog review
Read: 31. October 2024
Reviewed: 1. November 2024
January 10, 2018
Tirajedîya pîratî ew nîye ko meriv pîr buye, ev e ko meriv hîn ciwane...
Ev e yekemîn nakokî hebûnî me ye. Ser xatira wî meriv do Ava Jiyan jî çû ye. Yekane bersiva ko hatîye dîtin, xemgînî û teslîmbûn û qebûlkirina ew rastîtî ye ko nayê guhertin. lebê Ew ne tenê nakokîya jiyana me ye. Heke ev bela û pirsgirêk kesek dîn(Xwezayî) li ser me anî; meriv li ser xwe pirsgirêkek mezintir kirîye.
Hundira her mirovek mîna kehkeşanê ye: Bêdawîtî û Tevlihev. Belê em kehkişanên, lebê tenê perçeke biçûk ji wê em dijîn. Civakên kevneşopî bûne sedama veşartin beşeke mezin li hebûna me.
Oscar Wilde:" Kesayetiyê Dorîan Grey beşek zor li hebûna min nav xwe heye. Basîl Harward keseke ko ez difikirim ew ez im. Lord Henrî keseke ko Dinya difikire ew ez im. û Dorîan jî keseke ko ez hez dikim ew bim - belku di demeke din de bibe. "
Dema ku min vê pirtûkê dixwend, ez difikirîm ko di civaka Ewropa ya îro, Basil ji xwezî xwe şerm nake û rûyê Dorian di wêne de kirit nabe. kesek ji ber hestên xwe ne sûcdare û ne xwe û ne kesek dîn li beyn nabe.
Û ew ecêb e ku "Wêne ya Dorîan Grey" di heman çapkirinê yekê de sansor bû. Ber xatira hêviya homosexual Kesayetiyê nav pirtûkê. Lebê sansora pirtûkê û darizandina Oscar Wilde Ji bo çalakiyên homosexual nekarî bandorê vê pirtûkê li civakê kêm bike. Ji ber ku ne tenê romanek Ji dor homosexuality ye, belku basî girtîbûnî mirovên di civaka xwe jî dike; Ku divê bi zorê hewceyên bingehîn xwe veşire... Êş û derd ev e ku di nav gelek civaka me de, heta evîna kurik û keçek qedexekirî ne. Evîndarî azad nîye û Em li evînê dur êxistine...
"Wek wêne xemgîn,
Tenê rû û ne dilek..."
Ji lîstika Hamlet
Ev e yekemîn nakokî hebûnî me ye. Ser xatira wî meriv do Ava Jiyan jî çû ye. Yekane bersiva ko hatîye dîtin, xemgînî û teslîmbûn û qebûlkirina ew rastîtî ye ko nayê guhertin. lebê Ew ne tenê nakokîya jiyana me ye. Heke ev bela û pirsgirêk kesek dîn(Xwezayî) li ser me anî; meriv li ser xwe pirsgirêkek mezintir kirîye.
Hundira her mirovek mîna kehkeşanê ye: Bêdawîtî û Tevlihev. Belê em kehkişanên, lebê tenê perçeke biçûk ji wê em dijîn. Civakên kevneşopî bûne sedama veşartin beşeke mezin li hebûna me.
Oscar Wilde:" Kesayetiyê Dorîan Grey beşek zor li hebûna min nav xwe heye. Basîl Harward keseke ko ez difikirim ew ez im. Lord Henrî keseke ko Dinya difikire ew ez im. û Dorîan jî keseke ko ez hez dikim ew bim - belku di demeke din de bibe. "
Dema ku min vê pirtûkê dixwend, ez difikirîm ko di civaka Ewropa ya îro, Basil ji xwezî xwe şerm nake û rûyê Dorian di wêne de kirit nabe. kesek ji ber hestên xwe ne sûcdare û ne xwe û ne kesek dîn li beyn nabe.
Û ew ecêb e ku "Wêne ya Dorîan Grey" di heman çapkirinê yekê de sansor bû. Ber xatira hêviya homosexual Kesayetiyê nav pirtûkê. Lebê sansora pirtûkê û darizandina Oscar Wilde Ji bo çalakiyên homosexual nekarî bandorê vê pirtûkê li civakê kêm bike. Ji ber ku ne tenê romanek Ji dor homosexuality ye, belku basî girtîbûnî mirovên di civaka xwe jî dike; Ku divê bi zorê hewceyên bingehîn xwe veşire... Êş û derd ev e ku di nav gelek civaka me de, heta evîna kurik û keçek qedexekirî ne. Evîndarî azad nîye û Em li evînê dur êxistine...
"Wek wêne xemgîn,
Tenê rû û ne dilek..."
Ji lîstika Hamlet
December 24, 2024
RATING BREAKDOWN
Characters: 4⭐️
Setting: 5⭐️
Plot: 4⭐️
Themes: 5⭐️
Emotional Impact: 4⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 5⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 4.5⭐️
I love the ambiguity of this story in terms of the purity of art. Does art corrupt us? Is art itself corrupted by the artist's intent? Does the viewer impose his will on the art? Is art pure, and are humans corrupt? As the cautionary tale plays out, damning vanity, hedonism, and pursuit of outer over inner beauty, the reader is forced to consider that an obsession with aesthetic perfection, with the finest of art, can ultimately be ruinous. In addition, the influence of flawed mentors can wreak havoc on the weak-minded youth. Cynicism, self-righteousness, vanity, and narcissism are perhaps the wicked characters most obsessed with purity of form on the outside. This was fascinating, riveting, and beautifully written. It leaves the reader with much to ponder.
Characters: 4⭐️
Setting: 5⭐️
Plot: 4⭐️
Themes: 5⭐️
Emotional Impact: 4⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 5⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 4.5⭐️
I love the ambiguity of this story in terms of the purity of art. Does art corrupt us? Is art itself corrupted by the artist's intent? Does the viewer impose his will on the art? Is art pure, and are humans corrupt? As the cautionary tale plays out, damning vanity, hedonism, and pursuit of outer over inner beauty, the reader is forced to consider that an obsession with aesthetic perfection, with the finest of art, can ultimately be ruinous. In addition, the influence of flawed mentors can wreak havoc on the weak-minded youth. Cynicism, self-righteousness, vanity, and narcissism are perhaps the wicked characters most obsessed with purity of form on the outside. This was fascinating, riveting, and beautifully written. It leaves the reader with much to ponder.
February 24, 2022
Una obra maestra.
May 16, 2019
Het was een sublieme leeservaring om de ongecensureerde versie van Dorian Gray te lezen, niet zozeer om de ongecensureerde tekst, maar om de prachtige uitgave van het boek! De tekst vormt slechts de basis voor een uitgebreide studie van het maatschappelijk leven en de heersende moraal in de laat Victoriaanse tijd. De annotaties bij de tekst beslaan soms meer paginaruimte dan de tekst zelf. Dat leest wat langzaam, maar die annotaties zijn feitelijk nog interessanter dan de tekst zelf. Door middel van die informatie, foto's en illustraties kreeg ik echt voor het eerst een idee hoe het leven eruit zag én voelde in die periode. De meest wonderlijke zaken worden geduid. Ik vond het echt interessant te lezen welke boeken, op hun beurt, Oscar Wilde weer beïnvloed hebben. Het is niet verwonderlijk dat hij dweepte met bepaalde decadente Franse schrijvers. Hij baseerde zich ook voortdurend op de klassieken. De veel vrijere moraal in de klassieken was voor een man met zijn levensstijl uiteraard een veilig referentiekader, waaruit hij rijkelijk uit kon putten zonder zich meteen verdacht te maken. Oscar Wilde was meer decadent dan ik vermoedde, een super dandy, maar ook zeer erudiet en geestig. De tijd was niet rijp voor de overmoed die hij ten toon spreidde. Zijn extravagante optreden in het openbaar en de publicatie van Dorian Gray deden hem uiteindelijk de das om. Ik besef nu pas goed wat een schok dat boek teweeg moet hebben gebracht. Zelfs nu, in onze tijd, zouden we Dorian en Lord Henry behoorlijk immorele en egoïstische figuren vinden. Ik bewonder Oscar Wilde dat hij in de aanval ging tegen de tijdsgeest, maar het getuigde ook van een zelfoverschatting, die uiteindelijk zeer tragische gevolgen voor hem heeft gehad.
December 10, 2021
I am baffled, bumfuzzled, and bewildered. This original version of the novel did not become available to the public until 2011. When Oscar Wilde submitted it for publication in 1890, the editors were supposedly horrified at some of the content they thought would be offensive to readers. My twenty-first century brain cannot get down with that sentiment. They apparently thought there was "graphic homosexual content." I assure you, there is no such content in this uncensored version. Early in the story, Basil Hallward says something about how he had passionately loved Dorian, and had never loved a woman. I would call that a hint. It's certainly not graphic.
It has been nearly fourteen years since I read the censored version, and my memory of what I've read is notoriously bad even for more recent reads. So I can't say yet how the story itself differs between the two versions. I had completely forgotten how brutally dark this novel becomes as it nears its conclusion. I had also forgotten how beautifully descriptive the writing is, and how clever the dialogue. It probably deserves four stars, but there are quite a few vague references to events and people known to the characters that are never explained to the reader. That lack of clarity makes the story feel somehow incomplete and not wholly satisfying.
I listened to the audio book for this because it was the only version my library had in online resources. Edoardo Ballerini's performance is superb. I hope to clear up my confusion about the differences in the two versions by reading the annotated and illustrated copy in print from the library.
It has been nearly fourteen years since I read the censored version, and my memory of what I've read is notoriously bad even for more recent reads. So I can't say yet how the story itself differs between the two versions. I had completely forgotten how brutally dark this novel becomes as it nears its conclusion. I had also forgotten how beautifully descriptive the writing is, and how clever the dialogue. It probably deserves four stars, but there are quite a few vague references to events and people known to the characters that are never explained to the reader. That lack of clarity makes the story feel somehow incomplete and not wholly satisfying.
I listened to the audio book for this because it was the only version my library had in online resources. Edoardo Ballerini's performance is superb. I hope to clear up my confusion about the differences in the two versions by reading the annotated and illustrated copy in print from the library.
July 27, 2020
"Don't change, Dorian; at any rate, don't change to me."
while i do think my updates post chapters are giving a good impression of how i felt this book and what points i thought needed to be pointed out, i would like to summarize some of my thoughts real quick:
Dorian Gray, to me, is a masterpiece, in both versions. i dont think this part needs much explaining - its doubtlessly been said better than i ever could. the reason i picked the "uncensored" version up in the first place was bc i wanted a closer look at what wilde had first intended for the novel. its his only one, see, and i needed to make sure my interpretation of the 1891 version didnt clash with what was originally intended to be read.
all i have to say, in the grand scheme of things, is that this version - the typescript - feels more intimate. it lives without the james vane subplot entirely, and therefore focuses much more on dorian in those last pages. dorian and his life... his relationships to everything. to art, to music, to women, to men, to himself. the intimacy comes in with the language, tbqh. its difficult to pinpoint, but its many small instances in which things feel... softer. less manipulative, less horrendous, more artful, more... love-ful.
the words basil and henry use for dorian... leave him in the rose-colored light the novel tends to take from him. he seems... ever-young, like a sapling, much more so here than in the novel. it plays really well with the fact that wilde was inspired by a young man he met irl for dorians character... ever more so if you consider the letters signed "dorian" by said young man, almost as if they were living a little in that fantasy world... astonoshing and astonishingly gay.
truth is, the uncensored version just... lives at liberty with its implications. where the novel makes cuts and additions to hide things between lines and in subtext to only be seen by Us(tm), the uncensored version was... free. as free as can be imagined, really, and i think its truly remarkable of wilde to have the nerve to even send this to his editor when the book is basically about a man loved by men.
in fact, dorian has a little of those... ganymede-ian qualities to him. i know i go on and on about him as narcissus (which valid, hes too taken by his own beauty and importance in the world), but its really more his beauty and charm in relation to OTHERS that makes this a trip. the way men just... fall for him. basil and henry at the forefront ofc - angel and devil on his shoulders, but then all those kept unmentioned or briefly discussed... theres a lot here.
i dont want to stick around too long, really, bc in truth i could write a paper on this and not capture all my thoughts, but... im very glad i reread the novel and read this at the same time. the amount of MORE i got out of this book truly astonished me and the themes at play... masterful. i think this one will actually be something ill sink into now and then, whenever i want a little bit of that... art vs morals - beauty vs sin gay shit.
delightful, really, to no end. a favorite.
while i do think my updates post chapters are giving a good impression of how i felt this book and what points i thought needed to be pointed out, i would like to summarize some of my thoughts real quick:
Dorian Gray, to me, is a masterpiece, in both versions. i dont think this part needs much explaining - its doubtlessly been said better than i ever could. the reason i picked the "uncensored" version up in the first place was bc i wanted a closer look at what wilde had first intended for the novel. its his only one, see, and i needed to make sure my interpretation of the 1891 version didnt clash with what was originally intended to be read.
all i have to say, in the grand scheme of things, is that this version - the typescript - feels more intimate. it lives without the james vane subplot entirely, and therefore focuses much more on dorian in those last pages. dorian and his life... his relationships to everything. to art, to music, to women, to men, to himself. the intimacy comes in with the language, tbqh. its difficult to pinpoint, but its many small instances in which things feel... softer. less manipulative, less horrendous, more artful, more... love-ful.
the words basil and henry use for dorian... leave him in the rose-colored light the novel tends to take from him. he seems... ever-young, like a sapling, much more so here than in the novel. it plays really well with the fact that wilde was inspired by a young man he met irl for dorians character... ever more so if you consider the letters signed "dorian" by said young man, almost as if they were living a little in that fantasy world... astonoshing and astonishingly gay.
truth is, the uncensored version just... lives at liberty with its implications. where the novel makes cuts and additions to hide things between lines and in subtext to only be seen by Us(tm), the uncensored version was... free. as free as can be imagined, really, and i think its truly remarkable of wilde to have the nerve to even send this to his editor when the book is basically about a man loved by men.
in fact, dorian has a little of those... ganymede-ian qualities to him. i know i go on and on about him as narcissus (which valid, hes too taken by his own beauty and importance in the world), but its really more his beauty and charm in relation to OTHERS that makes this a trip. the way men just... fall for him. basil and henry at the forefront ofc - angel and devil on his shoulders, but then all those kept unmentioned or briefly discussed... theres a lot here.
i dont want to stick around too long, really, bc in truth i could write a paper on this and not capture all my thoughts, but... im very glad i reread the novel and read this at the same time. the amount of MORE i got out of this book truly astonished me and the themes at play... masterful. i think this one will actually be something ill sink into now and then, whenever i want a little bit of that... art vs morals - beauty vs sin gay shit.
delightful, really, to no end. a favorite.
November 16, 2021
"Había pasiones en su interior que encontrarían su terrible salida. Sueños que materializarían la sombra de su maldad."
August 27, 2025
thinking about how my teacher recommended me this book, and after her 10 page long presentation abt it, not a single mention of the obviously queer Basil and the obvious "more-than-a-love-confession" confession, so here i am writing whatever gay shit or quotes i liked and highlighted;
"There was something so tragic in a friendship so coloured by romance, something infinitely tragic in a romance that was at once so passionate and sterile."
"I quite admit that i adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly. I was 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 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."
"There was love in every line, and in every touch there was passion. I grew afraid that the world would know of my idolatry. I felt, Dorian, that i had told too much."
"Yes, this is one of the great secrets of life-to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul. You are a wonderful creature. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know."
......yes i did completely forget to log this review so what
"There was something so tragic in a friendship so coloured by romance, something infinitely tragic in a romance that was at once so passionate and sterile."
"I quite admit that i adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly. I was 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 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."
"There was love in every line, and in every touch there was passion. I grew afraid that the world would know of my idolatry. I felt, Dorian, that i had told too much."
"Yes, this is one of the great secrets of life-to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul. You are a wonderful creature. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know."
......yes i did completely forget to log this review so what
March 21, 2023
Entiendo el contexto histórico y cómo era la sociedad de la época, pero a estas alturas de la vida, ya pocas cosas resultan tan escandalosas.
A pesar de eso, me encantan las reflexiones sobre la juventud, la moral, el bien y el mal. Hay muchas cosas de eso que ya no recordaba.
A pesar de eso, me encantan las reflexiones sobre la juventud, la moral, el bien y el mal. Hay muchas cosas de eso que ya no recordaba.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,380 reviews