The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar
Wilde by Oscar Wilde
A Cautionary Tale?
A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving
portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil
Hallward paints a beautiful, young mans portrait, his subjects frivolous
wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian
Grays picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh
and innocent. After he kills a young woman, as surely as if I had cut her
little throat with a knife, Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his
vision or surroundings. The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds
sing just as happily in my garden. As Hallward tries to make sense of his
creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian
in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the
delightful When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good
we are not always happy. But despite its many languorous pleasures, The
Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two
(voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new

sensations far less fun than the novels drawing-room discussions. Even
more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wildes
supposed aims, not least no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical
sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending
Dorian Gray, had it both ways: All excess, as well as all renunciation,
brings its own punishment.
Personal Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde by
Oscar Wilde
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 entitled "The Misadventures of
Sister Mary Olga Fortitude," 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"
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