The Picture of Dorian Gray

Cover of the Lippincott Magazine containing first edition book

This novel was originally written in 1890 by Oscar Wilde. It was Wilde's only novel, published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (July edition 1890). Wilde later revised his novel in 1891, creating many differences between the two editions. He mainly re-edited The Picture of Dorian Gray to cause less trouble with the Victorian society in which he lived. The book is often mistitled 'The Portrait of Dorian Gray'.
This story is about a young man named Dorian Gray, the friend of painter Basil Hallward. Dorian frequently poses for Basil, who becomes infatuated to point of hinted romance with Dorian because of his youth and obvious beauty. A young man with such grace and beauty can only be good and holy, is what everyone thinks of Dorian, who becomes popular with the higher class. One day, while posing for a portrait, he meets another of Basil's friends, Lord Henry 'Harry' Wotton. Dorian is enthralled by Harry's views of the world, and through Harry's hedonistic and aesthetic guidance, he realises his beauty will eventually fade, and he must take whatever pleasure he can get now, before it is too late. He wishes that the painting Basil did of him would age instead of himself, and soon he realises that his wish came true. Dorian then uses his eternal youth and beauty to live a double life, one in which he takes pleasure in the sins of sodomy, murder, drugs, all the while maintaining high class parties and keeping his public and social life active and remarkable. He realises that his painting is actually a door to view his soul, and the thing gets uglier and uglier with every sin he commits.

I didn't really enjoy this novel of such. I did finish it just for the sake of being able to say 'I read that'. It was very vague in it's descriptions, which I think was done on purpose by Wilde to avoid even more scandals and trouble with society. One chapter, Chapter 12, was so long and boring that I did seriously consider putting the book down. The chapter talked about Dorian's new way of life, but used metaphors, and descriptions of flowers and summer to talk about his corruption. Perhaps I didn't like this chapter simply because I did not like it, but either way, it was very long and very boring. Although, the story plot is great, it is not completely original to Oscar Wilde. This type of story with a man selling his soul in exchange for something which leads to sin was a common plot line before Wildes's only novel. It appears in the opera 'Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg)', and in the legend of the character Faust.

Wilde did change his novel significantly because of his trial and the general public outcry concerning the sodomy and homoerotic themes of his book. In the first edition, it was more of a short story than a novel. It contained thirteen chapters, whereas the second edition contains twenty. Wilde added little subplots which he thought would help the book blend in with the other usual stories of the Victorian Era. Wilde moderated the homoerotic references, and also added and deleted many different passages. During his trial, The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as proof against him as it resembled a sort of autobiography of Wilde's life because of the significant similarities between him and Dorian. In a letter, Oscar had written: "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks me: Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps".

1945 Movie

2009 Movie

There are many allusions to Wilde's Dorian Gray, many of which are lyrics in songs. There were also allusions in television series such as in the Star Trek: Next Generation series, episode 'Man of the People' featured a Dorian Gray-esque type character. In 1945, a film adaptation was made of the book, and in 2009, another adaptation of the book was made into a movie.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

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