Rating: 
Summary: what can i say
Review: i thought that might get your attenton.
this book takes your breath away. to be honest, i dont want everyone out there to go and read DG because it is too fine a thing for popular consumption and the ensuing dicussion.
if you have a soul, read this book. if not, find one.
Rating: 
Summary: APOLOGIA
Review: This is an APOLOGIA (I suppose) to Oscar Wilde on behalf of all those who rated his wonderful book lowly. It just so happens to be my favorate book, and I looked so see if there was anyone who didn't like it. Quite horrified, and rather losing my faith in Humanity (or HUMANITAD) I thought: I must write an essay myself!
To be honest, I am sure that dear old Oscar would not have been terribly upset some people didn't like his book, for his works are, let's be honest, only truly understood by those who share something of his divine temprement (like me!).
Let me now say why I like it.
I first read the picture when I was at school (vague memories of having written a review for this book before, have I?) - and, quite honestly, it is the most beautiful and cleverset thing in the world (bookwise).
Heaens above, if you can't enjoy a book that is so obviously about pleasure (in a very Epicurean, spiritual way, ye moral detractors, mark you!), what are you doing engaging in the Epicurean pleasure of reading at all? Give up! You do not have a soul to be corrupted!
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece that was written ahead of its time
Review: When Oscar Wilde published his only novel back in 1890 he caused much excitement among the literary critics and the society as a whole. And I'm a little bit puzzled because there is no evidence that the book deserves some negative feedback. It seems to me that someone who criticizes the ideas in the novel and summarizes it as an `immoral' demonstrates high level of hypocrisy. This is art and art is about freedom of imagination and expressing. If we expect from art to represent only moral emotions we experience in our daily life then art wouldn't worth so much.
The story of the book is somehow very simple. A young and innocent man named Dorian Gray fascinates an artist so much that the artist finds inspiration even in his only presence. Basil Hallward confides his secret obsession to a friend of his named Lord Henry Wotton and at that very moment Henry decides to meet Dorian. From their meeting on, their relationship is the main point around which the story evolves. Henry is a cynic person who has very provocative and fascinating way of declaring his position for most of the aspects of life. His attitude is uncommon for 19th century London high society and could be characterized as immoral. Dorian gradually adopts the lifestyle Henry proclaims and indulges in taking maximum from the life no matter the cost and no matter who will have to pay for it. On the other hand a rash desire expressed by Doran that the portrait Basil has painted of him ages and Dorian himself stays forever young becomes true. With always innocent look on his beautiful face Dorian is in a very good position to take maximum of his life and he does it. By breaking norms, recognized by high society he ruins lives of most persons attracted and charmed by his beauty and charisma. Lord Henry stays always beside him as a `spiritual' mentor while Basil goes to the background of Dorian's world. The picture Dorian hides in an abandoned room in his house shows not only marks of aging but also is a mirror of Dorian's soul - everything he does reflects on the picture's face expression which turns to an evil grimace that disgusts Dorian. Finally he comes to a moment that feels sorry for the life he had chosen and decides to make everything possible so that to restore his portrait's humane look as much as possible.
The end of the story proved quite an intriguing to me and I feel somehow confident that such an end seems to be the most logical for the story although being drastic and direct in his representation.
The writing style of Wilde is of a person who knows very well what he has to say and in the same time you don't get feeling that someone is trying to teach you something. On the contrary - this novel looks like a very good related story. On some moments too much attention is paid to the details, something that represents more successfully the atmosphere of the story but the movement suffers a little bit.
I personally am in deep sympathies for Lord Henry's character. His directly stated position on the topic is very often shocking but the interesting part is that you could stay and think a while and take from it what you appreciate. Nothing in this world is completely wrong I think. Just be careful not to fall into blind deviation and become second Dorian Gray.
Rating: 
Summary: Jekyll and Hyde (Mostly Hyde) Without the Potion
Review: Almost from the day that this novel was first published in serial form it has caused controversy and debate. It was immediately condemned as an immoral work that did not follow the custom of showing that evil deeds would in the end bring punishment to the evil doer. Just those evil deeds, which were acted out by Dorian Gray, were enough in themselves to scandalize Victorian society. Then, just as his novel was about to be published in book form Oscar Wilde added fuel to the fire by adding a preface that seemed to indicate that there was absolutely no hidden meaning or moral lesson to be found in this book. Apparently, according to the preface, it was simply art for the sake of art. The fires have raged ever since and I'm sure that the author's spirit has enjoyed every second of it.
The fact is that the reader can read almost anything he wants to into this work and there have been almost as many interpretations as there have been readers. I found myself intrigued by a passage that is spoken very early in the book by the artist who has painted the now famous picture. This painter, Basil Hallward by name, tells a friend that, "every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself." Just what might this book have revealed about Oscar Wilde? Or could this book have been a dark commentary on London's high society of which Wilde does not paint a pretty picture? Maybe this book was indeed as written Wilde wrote in his preface and he had no deep purpose but just wanted to tell a good story. Better minds than mine have pondered this question and have arrived at no conclusive answer to the problem. I have however learned one important thing about this book as I have read it. That being that if one reads this book without worrying about it's implications they will find it a very enjoyable read.
Dorian Gray is first introduced to the reader as a young man who was exquisitely handsome and wealthy but he had had a rough childhood. The thing he remembers most about the Grandfather who raised him in such a harsh manner was that he was old. This may well have played into what became of the young man although he would almost certainly not have sank to such depths of depravity had he not met Lord Henry Wotton. For the life of me I can not fathom what Dorian Gray saw in Lord Henry for he comes across as a loathsome, self-centered, tiresome know it all. Gray however becomes enamored of Wotton however and slowly adopts Wotton's theories of pleasing oneself no matter the consequences to others.
The real change begins in Gray after an act of particular curliness for which he is already feeling sorry when he arrives home. It is not long until he notices a change in his recently finished portrait, a portrait that was in the beginning as handsome as Gray but suddenly was marred by a cruel mouth. Gray couldn't believe his eyes but suddenly it dawns on him that this picture will bear the scars of his sins and of the passing years. He himself will remain forever young and beautiful no matter how he conducts his life. As I mentioned above, some critics bemoaned the lack of punishment for Gray's acts but I found that there were indeed consequences for his actions. By the end of the book, Gray has become almost mad from the knowledge of his sins and actually seems to long for death. The very picture that has given him eternal youth haunts his every thought for he knows that the picture shows the wretched condition of his soul. That is about all that I believe I can say without giving away the ending and I hate people who do that.
Overall I enjoyed this book but Wilde's characters were given to long tedious philosophical pronouncements that only added to my detestation of these pompous blow hards. I can't say that I would rank this book among the all time classics and much of the time the reader will not be able to locate a plot with a team of bloodhounds. Still, if you can get through the dry areas there is often a rich oasis waiting on the other side.
Rating:
Summary: All Hail Oscar Wilde!
Review: The greatest marriage of classic literature and modern philosophy, poetry masquerading as prose, and a psychological epic in art-house clothing ever created! The genius of Oscar Wilde knew no bounds, and this book remains disturbingly chilling and alarmingly familiar over a hundred years after its first controversial publication. Though the plot could never exist anywhere outside of fiction, it is at once starkly shocking and believeable, never once wavering from the quietly accusing mood set early on.
Dorian Gray is a beautiful youth who becomes painter Basil Hallward's artistic obsession, and the masterpiece painting Basil creates of Dorian seems to mock the young man, who grows jealous of the fact that it will never grow old or ugly, as he knows he will. He silently curses the painting and wishes it would age instead of him, and eerily enough, the painting becomes in itself a picture of Dorian's vain, ugly, hedonistic, and murderous soul.
Indelibly true and deliciously quirky, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a treasure trove of genius observations and statements so true and yet so stunning you'll be forced to look over it a second time, just to make sure you didn't miss any of Wilde's poignant words. Well worth your time and energy, this book is reason enough to fake sick from school or work so you'll have the extra time to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Terrifying
Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray is a deliciously creepy novel. Although the novel may often be romanticized, it remains solidly in the horror genre. The reader never knows whether to feel sorry for Dorian -- a handsome young man who is extremely susceptible to corrupting influences -- or to despise him for his own vanity and selfishness. There are certainly very few truly likable characters in this book with the exception of the artist, Basil Hallward. Wilde's writing, as usual, is lush, beautiful, and descriptive. The moral of the story is overt, yet deeply moving. If you've read Frank Norris' novel of realism, McTeague, perhaps you'll understand why these two very different books evoked similar feelings within me. After reading Dorian Gray, I felt melancholy -- even slightly depressed -- but I still could not put the novel down. The downward spiral of life (as in this novel and McTeague) evoked terror, yet, perhaps more importantly, it kept me strangely fascinated. Read Dorian Gray and learn something about life -- the ending is perfect and one of the most memorable scenes in literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Hopelessly Ambiguous or Unambiguously Hopeful?
Review: Who knows? But right-wing orthodox Catholic monarchist readers will be required to steel themselves through the first two chapters which consist of a drawn-out slap fight between Elton John, Graham Norton and Ian McKellan. Now I like a cat-fight as much as the next guy, but a tussle among effete Brit cats with man parts is just icky. So the narcissistic homo-erotic banter opening the book was significantly under-appreciated by this reader. But after you get through those chapters the book gets much, much better. It is difficult to maintain that the book represents a defense of amoral Aestheticism, since the embodiment of the aesthetic ideal, Dorian Gray, is shown to be a damned man. That is not to say that Wilde embraces Catholicism in the novel, as the narrator often posits confusing opinions on issues of conscience and sin. At times Wilde seems to suggest that only immoderate (quantitatively speaking) behavior is immoral; and yet, at other times, it appears some actions themselves ought to be avoided. Is Wilde acknowledging that there are exceptionless moral norms? And what is the reader to make of rotten Wotton, whose epigrammatic phrases seem so akin to Wilde's? Hallward points out that Wotton's cynicism is a pose. He never says a moral thing, but he never does a wrong thing. So are we to take his Wilde-isms seriously? Are we to take Wilde seriously? Wilde says art is neither moral nor immoral, yet Gray is poisoned by A Rebors, a book by another decadent author who, oddly enough, also converted to Catholicism. And then there's the picture itself, the fruit of Hallward's homosexual obsession, which is clearly cursed, in spite of its initial apparent beauty. Wilde's protests notwithstanding, it is a book with a moral informing the reader that he cannot escape his conscience, that he cannot reject nature and nature's God, and that the wages of sin are death. But therein lies hope, for if God is to be believed regarding the wages of sin, then why should we doubt Him regarding our Redemption? Unfortunately, this message is made ambiguous by an author who, rather than unintentionally creating a distorted image of an idea that cannot be fully represented, intentionally peppers the novel with paradox for the sake of cuteness. But the Truth is not cute. He's terrifying, and Wilde knows better. Therefore the book is best left to the orthodox or the decadent. The lukewarm will simply be confused.
Rating:
Summary: Overflowing with insights and quotations
Review: Wilde's only novel contains some of the greatest dialogue of any literature written in the english language. There are few books that could be considered more quotable, and even fewer that could be considered more insightful. The novel is enjoyable even upon a cursory reading, but its splendor is revealed only when it is studied. Wilde reveals so much of himself in his art, and through reading of Wilde's biographies, plays, and the literature that inspired him, the reader becomes intimate with Oscar, and is able to understand him more throughly than most authors would allow from a study of their work. This is a piece I have truly enjoyed, and continues to be one of the premier pieces of English literature.
Rating:
Summary: Bonafide classic
Review: Beautiful on the outside, ugly on the inside. That's Dorian Gray and the symbolism couldn't be more relevant today. This is one of the reasons why this has remained and will continue to be a classic. I won't bore you with a summary of the plot. I'll simply ask that you please give this book a read. It's quick, it's short, it's exciting, it's thrilling, it's very well written and it's a good summer read - I promise.
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