The Picture of Dorian Gray Paperback – Deckle Edge, 6 November 2003

TEMPTATION!From the moment the unfortunate Eve bit into the forbidden apple, to these current days, when we lesser-mortals are lured by the overpriced electronic 'Apples', Temptation has been shadowing us humans. A baneful prelude to our vices, very few amongst us can claim to have overcome temptation. While we are protected by various constraints that help us overcome our temptations - social stigma, fear of gods, fear of law and so on - once in a while even the most saintly amongst us 'blinks' and lets temptation cause mayhem.The corrupt lot never lets any constraints stop them, while the Holiest few never let temptations taint them. It is the ordinary beings in the middle that suffer the most at the hands of Temptation. Pulled by the pleasures on one side, barred from it by principles and penal codes on the other, this middle lot bears the onslaught of temptation grudgingly. How often have we craved to indulge in the vices to which we are lead – sometimes by becoming invisible, some other times by transforming ourselves into someone or something else! We have all wanted to relish the baser pleasures of life, without letting their effects stain our souls. This book then is the expression of such a desire on the part of Oscar Wilde.Yes. This is a book on temptation, manipulation and eventual corruption. Except that here the protagonist - or, is it the antagonist?! - is never tainted by his sins. The corruption of his soul is borne by his portrait instead of its carnal sheath.Dorian Gray is a charming young boy knocking on the doors of adulthood. Lord Henry is a wealthy, hedonistic idler whose only purpose in life is to seek pleasure and pleasurable sensations. Basil Hallward is a simple, righteous persona and a talented painter that 'adores' Dorian. A chance meeting of all these three - on the fateful day Basil puts his heart and soul into painting Dorian – designs the rest of the tale. Lord Henry 'teaches' innocent Dorian to take pride in his own physical beauty, which is temporary and urges him to indulge in the pleasures suited to his age. Manipulated by Henry thus, Dorian becomes aware of the flush of youth in his veins, as truthfully depicted by Basil in the portrait, but is also dejected at the prospect of growing old and haggard someday. In one god-forsaken moment, he loudly wishes that he would even exchange his soul to stay as beautiful as he is and let that wonderful portrait feel the passage of Time.Starting with the simple pleasures of life, Dorian once commits a serious injustice to the girl he falls in love with. Back at home, Dorian finds his portrait slightly changed to show signs of cruelty amidst all that boyish charm. Dorian realizes that his ‘wish’ has come true and all the sins of his soul will leave their stains on the portrait instead of his face or his youth. But just as he repents and tries to make amends for his grave error, Lord Henry, a mentor as vile as there could ever be, sets him again on the wicked ways. Tempted also by a book lent by Henry, and untouched by the effects of his ‘sins’, Dorian falls deep into the pits of life, all the while watching the portrait turn from ugly to ghastly with each ‘sin’ that he commits. Was Dorian able to mend his ways? Did he ever get to redeem his soul? This book is a tale that answers those questions.Oscar Wilde wrote this novel – his only one – while English society was reeling at the height of Victorian morality. Being a homosexual himself, Wilde was condemned, ostracized and left to die in penurious exile. It is quite an irony then that a book which brought its author all the infamy must be one of the best-selling books of our ‘modern’ times.Going through the book, I couldn’t help wondering whether Dorian Gray and Lord Henry were Wilde’s alter-egos. Remember, we writers have a knack of lending a part of our soul to the characters that we lovingly create. The sense of importance lent to the statements of Henry, the weakness with which the other characters contradict him and finally end up agreeing with him, the hold that this hedonistic idler wields on the whole tale are all evidence enough that Henry, more than even Gray, is the alter-ego of Oscar Wilde. Basil, the moral person that he is, sounds feebly like the other part of Wilde that regrets his ‘mistakes’.Not just for the author, but for us the readers too, this book holds a mirror. While stating the moral decadence that Dorian falls into, Wilde does not elaborate on the kind of sins Dorian takes pleasure committing. In that sense this feels akin to Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde’. There also, the protagonist leads a double life, being a noble gentleman as Dr.Jekyll while lurking in the darkness as Mr.Hyde sating his gore hungers. But what kind of immoral activities that Mr.Hyde indulges in is never articulated, leaving it to our guess. Here also, Dorian’s one sin is to indulge in narcotics, but the rest of the decadences are left unsaid, like a blank canvas on which we can paint the nature of those sins. Both these books are similar in letting us decide on the level of moral corruption, thus bringing out the inner demons that we have all been hiding inside us too.The literary fluency of Wilde, his ability to portray in words the England of the late 19th century - from flora to the banal - do all make it a pleasure to read this book. But, I couldn’t help noticing his egoistic English self, like most of the British of his days, which made him think of India as the land of snake-charmers – at least in the fleeting reference.A psychological thriller that stemmed from the unreliable ‘art’ of physiognomy, this book is a forbidden apple that we must all bite into!

Thank you. .very good packaging and pagesPersonally my favourite story .. Soo interesting and I love it dorian gray. ..💙😙

The media could not be loaded. Most things fine. A little disappointed with the cover.

I want to do something new. I want to count my influences rather than my blessings. I want to hit the road when I hear the indie music play. I want to gulp down an entire bottle of whiskey when I hear the authors talk about their drinking habits. I want to travel to Europe when I see the filtered photos of the travel bloggers. But these are meagre influences. They hit us with excitement and then take a u-turn. But how much influence is enough for us to take a step into the unknown? Or how much influence could act as a catalyst to lose our identity? Or are we really losing our identity and not just letting it crack the shell? ⠀⠀This exquisite piece of literature. Wilde builds this classic on the themes of beauty captured in a piece of art and on principles of aestheticism i.e. art serves no other purpose rather than to offer beauty. After reading the last line, I impatiently searched for my annotated copy of the poem An Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats after it hit me that I had read something along these lines in my teenage years and found this underlined sentence 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty- that is all'. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Wilde's prose is like running your hands on a velvet cloth or dipping your fingers into the jar of honey and licking them or sniffing your favourite perfume disguising layers and layers of social commentary. Dorian, whose soul gets tainted way too early leaves us wondering whether he was just under a bad influence of Lord Henry and the Yellow book or has Dorian always fancied the darker side of life.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀As I try to catch hold of all my fleeting thoughts because yes this book will keep your mind on your toes, I want to point out that if you're reading a classic this year, let this be it. This gothic classic will surely send you into a state of gasmic philosophical musings. With brilliant character development this book is my new favourite classic. ⠀

This Penguin Classic edition is really fantastic. The book contains not only the unabridged text but also an introduction and useful notes to help you understand the novel.

I am sending some pictures of the book as I got it. Definitely expected it in a better condition. There are scratches everywhere, pages are not that great. Font is small but I bought this edition because it has a lot of extra information like notes and introduction. Otherwise I would have opted for better. The product almost looks like secondhand.

A must read classics. Wilde’s writing is beautiful.

delivered in time and packed well. affordable and has extra content.