Scarlette Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I am very embarrassed to admit that I've never heard of this book even though I've known of the story of Dorian Gray for ages. But now that I know of it (and that it was written by Oscar Wilde ) I am putting it on my ever growing to-read list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissi Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Did you know they are making a new film of it? Looking forward to it but that is actually just because gorgeous Ben Barnes (the guy who played Prince Caspian) will play Dorian But I did like the book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlette Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 It occured to me just now that Dorian Gray also featured in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Very good film, I highly recommend it. But, back to the novel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Did you know they are making a new film of it? Looking forward to it but that is actually just because gorgeous Ben Barnes (the guy who played Prince Caspian) will play Dorian But I did like the book :eek2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahsilet Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 I finished this book a month of two ago and I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Dorian's character and I kinda enjoyed going along with his experience as he battled with sin and vanity. I can't believe I am saying this, but I enjoyed Lord Henry's character the most. I have used his quotes in some of my papers for school. Especially the comments he would make on marriage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 He's being played by Colin Firth in the movie, which should be awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawr Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 I haven't read this, is it as brilliant as people make out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 Shup and go read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawr Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 I have a lot to read so i don't know whether it should escalate somewhere near to the summit of my TBR mountain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 You reread the same things over and over!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawr Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 You have a point. But my defense is that they are good. Maybe Dorian Gray will be read again, then you won't complain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 No, but you can't use your TBR as a defence when you're not even working on it anyway. Read Dorian Gray - I think you'll hate it but everybody should be made read it. It's epic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissi Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 He's being played by Colin Firth in the movie, which should be awesome! Yep, I guess he'll be great for that part. But I'm not really happy about the fact that they'll give him a daughter in the film, that's just stupid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadya Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 (edited) I wonder how much of Dorian was Wilde's own beloved Bosie (Lord Alfred Douglas) and how much of himself was in the tortured artist that adored him. Lord Henry seemed to personify Wilde's own ideas about the workings of society, yet the artist, Hallward, seemed to represent his more heartfelt... Oscar met Bosie after he had written and published the book. Perhaps it must have been like Dorian Gray came to life for him, when he was introduced to Bosie. Edited May 3, 2009 by sadya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadya Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 (edited) I will never forget when I had first read this book. It's been one of my favorite books ever since. After reading a funny quote of Oscar Wilde, I became very interested in him and discovered his wonderful plays. Never would I have guessed he could also write something as amazing as 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. There are some very interesting articles about interpretations of the book on this website: http://www.oscholars.com/TO/Appendix/library.htm In one of those articles, I had read this quote of Wilde: 'Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be - in other ages perhaps'. I don't know in which one of those articles this quote was, so I googled and found the exact words of that quote here: http://www.victoriaspast.com/OscarWilde/OscarWilde.htm Edited May 3, 2009 by sadya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 I just read through the second article there. It's quite interesting, and I agree with the representations applied to the characters in the novel. One point I didn't like though... this idea of Constance being a mask, or a collectible in Oscar's life. I haven't read enough about the man to be entirely sure, but I've always gotten the impression he loved and respected her very well, if only platonically. She began to irritate him a bit in his later years I think, but he never lost respect for her as a person - I don't think she could ever have been a mere 'mask'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadya Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 I've read many different views about his relationship with Constance, both negative and positive. Personally, I'm also inclined to think he did love her. Even after he lost romantic interest in her, he never ceased to respect her and love her in his own way. That's the way their relationships comes across to me anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 I've read many different views about his relationship with Constance, both negative and positive. Personally, I'm also inclined to think he did love her. Even after he lost romantic interest in her, he never ceased to respect her and love her in his own way. That's the way their relationships comes across to me anyway. Yup, I agree! I don't think it would have been in Oscar's nature to use someone so accomplished as she was - I don't think he would lose respect for somebody just because of his own sexual preferences, even though he was quite a selfish person by nature. She was also mother to his children, whom he did love. It's very difficult to get biographies written by his friends, they're quite expensive or inaccessible, but I'm trying to not establish too strong an opinion til I've read the opinions of those who knew him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilde Lily Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Yup, It's very difficult to get biographies written by his friends, they're quite expensive or inaccessible, but I'm trying to not establish too strong an opinion til I've read the opinions of those who knew him. Oscar Wilde, His Life & Confessions is an excellent biography written by Wilde's long-time friend and benefactor in the end, Frank Harris. A more recent book, the exhaustively researched The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde by Neil McKenna, reveals who the young man is on whom the character of Dorian Gray is based, namely John Gray. Wilde met John Gray in 1889. Gray was an exquisitely beautiful young man, a minor poet and writer and lover of men as was Wilde. Oscar was to be John's protector and patron for the next three years. He paid John the great tribute of immortalizing him in The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was well-known amongst Oscar's friends and contemporaries that John Gray was the model for Dorian Gray. The single letter in existence to Oscar from John Gray is signed "Dorian" by Gray. And Oscar referred to John Gray as "Dorian" when in the company of their mutual friends. Also of note is that Oscar substituted the name "John" with "Dorian" becasue of its suggestive double-entendre. The Dorians were a tribe of ancient Greece who were famous for their custom in which and older man became the lover and the teacher of a male youth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 I knew about John Gray. Didn't know Oscar called him Dorian. That's pretty neat. I have Frank Harris' one, haven't read it yet. It's only borrowed. I'm more interested in the ones by Lord Douglas, Robert Sherard, the Hollands, etc. But I'll check out that McKenna one, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilde Lily Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 I knew about John Gray. Didn't know Oscar called him Dorian. That's pretty neat. I have Frank Harris' one, haven't read it yet. It's only borrowed. I'm more interested in the ones by Lord Douglas, Robert Sherard, the Hollands, etc. But I'll check out that McKenna one, thank you. I read Bosie: The Man, The Poet, The Lover of Oscar Wilde by Douglas Murray. I was terribly disappointed. Murray down-plays Bosie's homosexuality, in great part blaming Oscar Wilde for having corrupted him. It had become in fashion it seems for hitherto practicing gay men to convert to Roman Catholicism as a way to cleanse them of their "sin" of homosexuality. Murray seems to think that since Bosie subsequently married a woman he was more confused as a youth than homosexual. Of course Oscar Wilde was married.... The book struck me more as a work of apologetics than as an unbiased biography. I also read The Wilde Album by Merlin Holland and The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland, both of which I can highly recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Yeah, I've very much avoided anything not written by an acquaintance of Wilde's, I know his friends will of course have been biased due to friendship, but aren't we all? So their opinions are more valid than anyone who has merely researched the data. Once I've read those works, I'd happily read anything else thrown my way for extras, but with a more critical eye. I would very much like to read Merlin Holland's books, but even more so I'm interested in Son Of Oscar Wilde, by Vyvyan Holland. It's cheap enough on Amazon, so I'll probably read Harris and the Hollands first. Sherard is about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilde Lily Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Yeah, I've very much avoided anything not written by an acquaintance of Wilde's, I know his friends will of course have been biased due to friendship, but aren't we all? So their opinions are more valid than anyone who has merely researched the data. Once I've read those works, I'd happily read anything else thrown my way for extras, but with a more critical eye. I would very much like to read Merlin Holland's books, but even more so I'm interested in Son Of Oscar Wilde, by Vyvyan Holland. It's cheap enough on Amazon, so I'll probably read Harris and the Hollands first. Sherard is about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaBag Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 I love the Picture of Dorian Gray. There are so many undertones to it and some of the philosophical messages that come across make for good debate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 I've seen the movie posters. I'm worried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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