The Picture of Dorian Gray

Twayne's Masterwork Studies #145

by Michael Patrick Gillespie

Written in an easy-to-read, accessible style by teachers with years of classroom experience, Masterwork Studies are guides to the literary works most frequently studied in high school. Presenting ideas that spark imaginations, these books help students to gain background knowledge on great literature useful for papers and exams. The goal of each study is to encourage creative thinking by presenting engaging information about each work and its author. This approach allows students to arrive at sound analyses of their own, based on in-depth studies of popular literature.

Each volume:

-- Illuminates themes and concepts of a classic text

-- Uses clear, conversational language

-- Is an accessible, manageable length from 140 to 170 pages

-- Includes a chronology of the author's life and era

-- Provides an overview of the historical context

-- Offers a summary of its critical reception

-- Lists primary and secondary sources and index

152 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1995

About the author

Michael Patrick Gillespie is Professor of English at Florida International University. He is the author of Oscar Wilde and the Poetics of Ambiguity, Branding Oscar Wilde, The Aesthetics of Chaos: Nonlinear Thinking and Contemporary Literary Criticism, Inverted Volumes Improperly Arranged: James Joyce and His Trieste Library, Reading the Book Himself: Narrative Strategies in the Works of James Joyce, The Aesthetics of Chaos, The Myth of an Irish Cinema, James Joyce and the Exilic Imagination, Reading William Kennedy, and Film Appreciation through Genres. His other edited works include the Norton Critical Edition of The Importance of Being Earnest, James Joyce and the Fabrication of an Irish Identity, and Joyce through the Ages: A Non-Linear View.

Reviews

[Davis Aujourd'hui · Rating 5 out of 5]

So you want to remain eternally young? This book will tell you an engrossing moralistic tale that paints the picture of where the deadly sin of vanity can take you. It will take you into a descent into a hell full of shadows where the light will never touch you.

This is a classic dark tale of intrigue. It is filled with the depths to which the human condition can sink. It is a page turner, but it may leave you feeling empty at the end. That is what it did for me. Nevertheless, it is a haunting book that is well worth reading. Oscar Wilde will speak from his grave throughout the centuries through this book.

As the author of a spiritually-themed book, I appreciated this book for the most unusual reasons. I am a former addict who knows what it is like to experience hell within life. The hopeful note within this book is that it will wake the reader up to taking responsibility for his or her own life. That is what I have had to do with my own. Thank God for books that can wake us up to that reality so that we do not have to sink into the abyss of nothingness.

Davis Aujourd'hui, author of "The Misadventures of Sister Mary Olga Fortitude"

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book again (first read it many years ago) because I'm going to see it as a play tonight. It's a really quick read (165 pages), but so much is packed into it. Murder and suicide and supernatural happenings and redemption. Is it better to be beautiful than good? Is it possible to stay beautiful on the outside while your soul is ugly on the inside? Will all your bad acts catch up with you at the end? It should make for a great play!

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it in high school. Might mean a lot more now that I am OLD!