The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray cover
Good Books rating 4.28
Gothic
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  • ID: 5487
  • Added: 2025-10-24
  • Updated: 2025-10-24
  • ISBN: 9780375751516
  • Publisher: Modern Library
  • Published: 1998-06-01
  • Formats: 23
  • Reviews: 4

Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' is a dazzling exploration of beauty, morality, and the consequences of a hedonistic lifestyle. The novel follows the story of Dorian Gray, a young man who remains eternally youthful while his portrait ages and reflects his moral decay. /n/n Written in Wilde's signature style, the book caused a scandal upon its release in 1890, leading to Wilde's imprisonment for his homosexual liaisons. The novel's themes and characters are deeply personal to Wilde, with Dorian representing what he aspired to be in different ages.

Reviews
Goodreads · 2025-10-24
profound 4.10

The novel is a hard book to review due to its eloquent and rich writing, leaving the reviewer at a loss for words.

This Goodreads review highlights the difficulty in reviewing The Picture of Dorian Gray due to its eloquent and rich writing. The reviewer is left at a loss for words, indicating the profound impact of Wilde's prose. They appreciate the beauty of the language and the depth of the themes, which they find to be both compelling and thought-provoking. The reviewer also notes that the novel is a must-read for fans of classic literature, as it offers a unique and engaging exploration of human nature and the consequences of vanity.

Quick quotes

    The Picture of Dorian Gray is a hard book to review. After reading such eloquent, beautiful, and rich writing, I am at a loss for how to command my thoughts.

    The novel's exploration of themes such as the duality of human nature and the consequences of vanity is both profound and thought-provoking.

    The Picture of Dorian Gray is a must-read for fans of classic literature, as it offers a unique and engaging exploration of human nature and the consequences of vanity.

Vishy the Knight · Vishy · 2024-08-15
loveable 4.50

Despite its dark and sombre tone, the novel is filled with beautiful and thought-provoking passages that make it a loveable read.

Vishy's review of The Picture of Dorian Gray is overwhelmingly positive, despite acknowledging the novel's dark and sombre tone. They found the book to be heartbreaking at times, but the beautiful and thought-provoking passages made it a loveable read. Vishy appreciates the depth of the themes and the richness of the writing, which they believe makes the novel a timeless classic. They also note that the character of Dorian Gray is complex and intriguing, adding to the overall enjoyment of the book.

Quick quotes

    I loved 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', in spite of half of it being dark and sombre and heartbreaking.

    There were so many beautiful, thought-provoking passages that made the book a loveable read.

    The character of Dorian Gray is complex and intriguing, adding to the overall enjoyment of the book.

genevadurand.com · Unknown · 2021-09-03
brilliant 4.00

The review discusses Gore Vidal's essays, highlighting his arrogance, intelligence, and wit, as well as his commitment to educating and critiquing American society. Vidal's work is seen as a mix of serious calls to read better and discard illusions, with a tendency towards the mandarin and the over-subtle, mitigated by his sense of simple pleasures.

Gore Vidal's essays are described as an intrusion into private dialogues between the author and the United States, reflecting his ideals or fantasies. His reviews call for better reading, his polemics urge Americans to discard illusions about politics, religion, history, and sex, and his general essays advocate for a joie de vivre debauched out of Americans by consumerism. Vidal's tendency towards the mandarin and the over-subtle is balanced by his appreciation of simple pleasures. His essays on men and women dedicated to public service, such as his isolationist grandfather and Eleanor Roosevelt, are particularly impressive. Vidal's sequence of novels about American political history is seen as his finest achievement, replacing actual power with fiction that educates the powerful. The review also notes Vidal's sense of duty and his problematic ego, which includes aristocratic affectations and a contempt for standard machismo. His writings on sexuality and his attacks on the heterosexual dictatorship are highlighted, as well as his preference for writers who stand alone and his gift for friendship.

Quick quotes

    He would like to talk to America, to the Just Republic, but failing that, knowing it never existed, he will talk to Americans, and, most often, talk down to them from the height of his arrogance, intelligence and wit.

    His sense of duty is central to Vidal, and admirable; what is more problematic is that it is part of a carefully constructed and maintained sense of ego that includes other aristocratic affectations.

    No-one who regards themselves as a radical, a pervert or a humanist can fail to be irritated by Vidal's manner and much of his substance; no-one should forget that he has, for the last forty years, been a powerful and witty voice on the side of Us against Them.

thepaladinpages.com · Unknown · 2021-02-09
brilliant 4.50

The review discusses a collection of essays by Gore Vidal, spanning his career and covering literature, public life, and personal experiences. The reviewer praises Vidal's insightful and witty prose, highlighting his expertise on American and English literature, as well as his engaging discussions on political and social issues.

This review delves into a massive volume of essays and articles by Gore Vidal, written over four decades. The collection is divided into three sections: literature, the public world, and personal life. The reviewer commends Vidal's sweeping and elegant prose style, which blends the elegant with the wittily vernacular. The literary section includes insightful appraisals of English and American writers, with particular praise for Vidal's expertise on Henry James and William Dean Howells. The public world section covers Vidal's luminous writings on Presidential families and his social and political opinions, including his memorable televised debate with William F. Buckley Jr. The personal life section includes reminiscences of Vidal's experiences at West Point, Hollywood, and Italy, as well as his associations with notable figures like Italo Calvino. The reviewer notes that while the collection is somewhat lengthy, Vidal's brilliance and insight make it a treasure.

Quick quotes

    The book's title suggests Mr. Vidal's hope that united they may all stand. They mostly will, especially as animated by Mr. Vidal's sweeping, grasping prose style, with its mix of the elegant and the wittily vernacular.

    In fact, the long essay on Howells, occasioned by a Library of America volume of his fiction, is probably the most substantial and searching discussion of that writer, and the soundest in its judgment, yet written.

    It has to be said that this collection is a good deal too long. A number of the pieces were really not worth reprinting: for example, the silly put-down, in the arch voice of a women's-club speaker, of Robert Penn Warren's novel 'Band of Angels.

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