Ebook The Picture of Dorian Gray Iboo World Classics Oscar Wilde Books

Product details Series Iboo World Classics (Book 63) Hardcover 212 pages Publisher Iboo Press House (February 3, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1641812494

The Picture of Dorian Gray Iboo World Classics Oscar Wilde Books Reviews

• This was easily one of the best books I have ever read. This book was written over a century ago and still remains popular and insightful. Oscar Wilde’s perception of humanity is, in my opinion, spot on. Every word of this book has depth and meaning.
  I absolutely despise Dorian Gray, but I am sure that was Wilde’s intention. How could you like a man that is so selfish, narcissistic, and obsessed with his own youth and beauty at the cost of all others around him? Dorian truly represents the ugliest that humanity has to offer, and I am happy that he pays for his sins in a fairly poetic nature.
  To lighten the serious tones of this book is Lord Henry, easily my favorite character. Nearly every line he speaks is a life-quote and his character gives insight to Wilde’s own thoughts regarding the world and the people in the world. A few of my favorites
  “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
  “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it & your soul grows sick with longing for things it has forbidden itself.”
  “Some things are more precious because they don’t last long.”
  
  I liked this book so much that I want to re-read it immediately ).
• I am getting very tired of ordering what I think are professionally prepared books and finding that they are print-on-demand works probably put together by one person that do not adhere to certain standards of the book industry.
  
  In this case, the title refers to "other writings" but it does not seem to contain any other writings. In any case, it is hard to tell because there is no table of contents. Chapters do not begin on a new page but (to save money) a new chapter will begin anywhere on the page.
  
  Sometimes there are smart quotes. Sometimes there are unformatted quotation marks.
  
  Margins are very close to the edges of the pages, again to save money.
  
  Most troubling, the original Bantam edition was about 450 pages; this edition is 190 pages.
  
  So, I would recommend you go with a name brand publisher instead of ordering this version.
  
  Why did I not give it one or two stars? Because I did not notice typos and the entire text of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" appears to be contained here, plus the front and back covers, which contain old portraits of the author, are attractive.
• he Picture Of Dorian Gray starts out with the artist who is painting the title character, Dorian Gray. The artist is enthralled with Dorian’s beauty and a sense of innocence. The artist, Basil, introduces Dorian to a friend, Lord Henry, as he sits for the portrait. Some could say that Lord Henry introduces Dorian to a life of no morals and selfishness. As the lord is the first to mention that the painting will always be a picture of Dorian forever young and the real Dorian will grow old. In a way, this stimulates Dorian to announce his wish to give his soul for the reverse.
  
  This was my second time trying to read TPODG. The first time I just could not get into it. This time, I can not figure out what made me not want to read it. The story is beautiful. Oscar Wilde’s words paint a portrait of its own. It is written in this mesh of Victorian and Contemporary. So for me that makes it easier to relate to. The words are not like reading Shakespeare.
  
  I am not good at critiquing books and getting into every metaphor, or meaning behind it all. When I try that with a book I can’t enjoy it. So I just read, and from the beginning, I could tell this was going to be a new favorite author. This coming from a reader who is not a fan of many classics...but I keep trying and here I found one I loved.
  
  I bought the book of the complete works of Oscar Wilde and will be next reading The Canterville Ghost. I can not gush enough how much I loved this book. I am curious now to watch one of the movie version of Dorian Gray because I never have.
• This is a ‘dark’ novel in the Gothic style, cleverly told with all the wit of Oscar Wilde. Artist Basil Hallward paints a full-size likeness of a new and admired young friend of his, a Mr. Dorian Gray. Amidst a flurry of clever, witty, philosophical repartee ongoing between Gray and (visitor to Hallward’s studio) Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian wistfully wishes to stay young and let his portrait age “…it were I who was to be always young and the picture that was to grow old! For that for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” This becomes his ‘curse’.
  
  The novel is full of the hedonist thoughts of Lord Henry which corrupt Gray to a life of debauchery. Wilde is quoted as saying, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.”
  
  And, so this read will give, more than most novels, a glimpse at its author. This is a short and easily readable novel that acts as a platform to carry some serious philosophical opinions and observations of Lord Henry (Wilde?) - some of which are surely out of date in the 21st century. Here is an interesting musing from Lord Henry…
  
  “Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality.” This read will illustrate that misogyny and anti-Semitism were a large part of the ‘standard’ of one’s age’ in ~1890 - so be willing to accept (hold your nose at) some of the author's observations and opinions, expressed through Lord Henry. But, even with its “warts”, it is a literary masterpiece and well worth a read!