The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
21 chapters·9h 30m listening·Also in Romanian
4.13from 1,991,971 ratingson Goodreads
A young man of extraordinary beauty stands for his portrait and says aloud that he would give his soul to stay as the painting has him. He is taken at his word. Dorian Gray does not age and does not mark, and the canvas locked in the attic keeps the account instead, changing with each thing he allows himself.
About the book
Published in book form in 1891 after an earlier magazine version, The Picture of Dorian Gray centres on a beautiful young man whose portrait is painted by the artist Basil Hallward. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, whose dazzling conversation encourages him to treat youth, sensation and self-development as supreme values. Oscar Wilde combines Gothic fantasy with social comedy and arguments about art, influence and morality. Dorian’s unusual relationship with his portrait gives physical form to anxieties about appearance and consequence, while the polished drawing rooms around him show a society highly skilled at separating reputation from private conduct.
Characters
Dorian Gray — Protagonist
A beautiful young man whose fear of ageing grows under Lord Henry’s seductive philosophy of pleasure.
Lord Henry Wotton — Dorian’s friend
A witty aristocrat whose provocative theories about youth and pleasure strongly influence Dorian.
Basil Hallward — Painter
The artist who paints Dorian’s portrait and regards the young man as an exceptional artistic inspiration.
Sibyl Vane — Actress
A gifted young actress in a small London theatre whose performances captivate Dorian.
James Vane — Sibyl’s brother
Sibyl’s protective brother, suspicious of the wealthy young admirer she knows only by a romantic name.
Mrs Vane — Sibyl’s mother
Sibyl and James’s theatrical mother, attentive to both romance and the family’s financial circumstances.
About the author
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet and critic, and the most quoted wit of his century. His comedies made fun of the respectable London society that filled their theatres, and his one novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was attacked as immoral on publication and then used against him in court. In 1895, at the height of his success with The Importance of Being Earnest, he was convicted of "gross indecency" and sentenced to two years' hard labour; the imprisonment produced De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol and ruined his health. He died in Paris three years after his release, aged forty-six.