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The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

Start date: April 1, 2024

Finish date: May 1, 2024

Discussion: Current Group Reads

Discussion leader: Bob

Why we're reading this: Revisit the Shelf Group Read, April 2024
Previous Group Reads:
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read Oct 2021
- Rev…more
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Revisit the Shelf Group Read, April 2024
Previous Group Reads:
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read Oct 2021
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read Nov 2016
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read, July 2014
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read, October 2013
- Book of the Month, October 2011

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Group Discussions About This Book

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Current Group Reads

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What Members Thought

Nov 30, 2016 Katy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I've tried to read this book several times before and never got more than half-way. The first half does drag for me, even with the beautiful writing and the ingenious plot. The last half of the book really put it together for me. Highly recommended. ...more

27 likes · Like · see review

Jun 06, 2012 Franky rated it liked it

Normally, I would love a Gothic novel, even if it flaunts conventions and is highlighted by long-winded descriptions of proper gentility. However, The Picture of Dorian Gray gets bogged down with trifles too often, which is distracting. There is an air of stuffiness and superficiality that becomes a little tiresome.

Also, there are few redeeming characters in the novel, as the principal ones are nauseating. Take Lord Henry, for instance. His long-winded philosophies and monologues dominate a good ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 08, 2013 Leanne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fantasy

I've always wanted to read The Picture of Dorian Gray since my son Daniel read the children's version when he was young and loved it. Recently my daughter read the original version and loved it, so I decided it was time. And hooray, I love it too!

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a Gothic novel which I expected to be very creepy and depressing.....and sometimes it was. But in many ways it was like reading "The Importance of Being Ernest" or any other of Oscar Wilde's plays--his constant epigrams ke ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2016 Glynn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, history-book-club-readathon-2017, history-book-club-ireland-challenge

In the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde writes “Books are well written or badly written. That is all.” This book is very well written. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The book requires lots of concentration. There are tons of references to people, places, and things that had meaning in the 1800s but that today we need to work at to derive their meaning. The book is ostensibly about a painting and the subject of that painting but there is a lot more going on. There is deep phil ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2017 Kendall rated it it was ok

I chose this book because it is number 9 on the Guardian's list of the 100 best novels.

It's not. There I said it. I'm not sure I would put it in the top 100, let alone at number 9.

To be sure, Wilde has style. He has an ear for dialogue and can turn a phrase, but to what purpose? Most of the time, the purpose is, "look how witty and educated, I (Oscar Wilde) am."

It reads very much like the only novel of a very clever, but thoroughly dated playwright. The description of scene is intoxicating an ...more

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