Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I wrote this review in 2009 for my sixth-form college newspaper. I no longer hate Wilde as much as I did then; studying The Importance of Being Earnest helped me to appreciate – though still not like – his style and nature. A shamelessly scathing review can still be amusing to read.

“It was first published in instalments in Lipincotts Monthly Magazine in 1890, and then an altered version was then published in 1891. I’m going to be honest, from the very beginning I hated this book. Technically, it is well written, with good structure, moments of climax and tension… the content however? I thought that it was distastefully blunt and without any real meaning or point – which from his preface appears to be the intention. The preface tells us that his book is to be admired, that it is not trying to me moral or immoral just a well written book. I personally, did not admire it at all.

On the back of the copy I read (borrowed from a friend – thankfully I wasted no money on it) it was written that the book was a ‘commentary on the hypocrisies of polite society’ and that it certainly was. It was a commentary but didn’t make any valid comment about it, it didn’t have a message or a moral; it was simply and observation and description of all that was wrong with the Victorian upper class – as a modern day reader I would simply like to scream at the top of my voice ‘YES, I KNOW!’

I never like to hate a book, there are books that I don’t get on with, but I can understand their reason or realize the point the author was trying to make. Dorian Gray however, I hate. I honestly feel there is nothing a reader can take from it – Wilde certainly didn’t want there to be. I find it a simply repulsive book. Wilde merely indulged his writing in instant gratification and self-adoration. I can understand why some may find it an entertaining tale to read, I just found it morbid and highly disturbing.

Imagine my surprise, when I was doing my background research, when I found out that the copy I have read is the 1891 amended version, because the original 1890 version was heavily criticized. The 1891 version was toned down removing many of the erotic overtones and was extended from 13 to 20 chapters in order to include some background to Dorian’s actions in the novel – the novel originally had no explanations of Dorian’s reasoning and the evolution of his thoughts, which were the only tiny redeeming factors of the novel. Oscar Wilde really did intend this book to be a mindless and unexplained adventure in the immoral, the heartless and the grotesque.”




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