"The Picture of Dorian Gray" First Impressions “No Spoilers”

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Come talk about your initial, general impressions!

Please save all discussion of particulars, details from the story, character choices, plot questions, etc. for the full spoilers thread.

Content warnings for those who want them: (view spoiler)[Murder, Death, Suicide (hide spoiler)]

User-submitted content warnings on Storygraph:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/9...

(More about CWs here.)

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

The book is a warning about we’d call performative art a bit, as well as a biting commentary on shallow and subjective social mores. Genius.

[Mai]

I want to gag Lord Henry.

[Becky]

Mai wrote: "I want to gag Lord Henry."

Same.

[Melanie, the neutral party]

That's kind of the point.

[Alistair]

Surely not silence him!
Lord Henry all but dominates the first half of the book, and his aphorisms and paradoxes serve to expose the upper classes of the time.

This bit of insight from Wilde about his inspiration might be relevant (not a spoiler):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pic...

[Becky]

This is why I struggle with satire of this kind. I enjoyed the story AS A STORY, not for it being social commentary. I can understand that is what it was, but it doesn’t make it more enjoyable for me to read Henry’s “insights” and insufferable proclamations. It may be satire, but it’s not far enough from reality of real attitudes (some that still persist today) to make them amusing to me.

Still, I rated it 4 stars, so I didn’t hate it.

[Melanie, the neutral party]

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Don't forget to use the spoiler thread for specific conversations and overall ratings: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Chris]

For anyone potentially interested in the audiobook, The Blackstone Audio version is performed by Simon Vance, one of my favorite narrators: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[DivaDiane]

Thanks, Chris!

[Becky]

Chris wrote: "For anyone potentially interested in the audiobook, The Blackstone Audio version is performed by Simon Vance, one of my favorite narrators: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...-..."

Simon Vance is phenomenal. Literally the man can read the phone book and I'll happily listen. (Though I don't know if even he could save the Pretty Things chapter.) I don't remember which audiobook version I listened to, since I never shelve the right editions anyway (the first time I read this, I mean. This time, I read the Uncensored edition, read Edoardo Ballerini, also a lovely reader), but I will second the recommendation to listen to the Simon Vance read version, because I'm sure it's amazing.

[Bonnie]

Alistair wrote: "Surely not silence him!
Lord Henry all but dominates the first half of the book, and his aphorisms and paradoxes serve to expose the upper classes of the time. "

His jawing about Truth and Beauty and the Senses etc. does not make a lick of sense unless you have enough funds to pay for things. Which most people there do not, certainly not the servant ordered to go fetch iced strawberries or whatever. That servant probably earns one pound a month on top of room and board.

[Bonnie]

I do appreciate some of what Henry says about youth, though:

"In a month there will be purple stars on the clematis, and year after year the green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But we never get back our youth.
The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.
Youth! Youth!"

[Bonnie]

How do we know if we are reading the "Original" or "Uncensored" version, or some other midway version?

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

My copy says uncensored on the cover.

[Bonnie]

What I found about three different versions:

1. 1890
Original story published in Lipincott. 13 chapters. Editor removed or changed some passages that seemed too explicit / sexual / dangerous at the time.

2. 1891
The version most people read. Wilde himself expanded the story to 20 chapters, and toned down some language.

3. 2011
Scholar Nicholas Frankel? went through notes, manuscripts, magazine archives... tried to restore the words that were cut by editors. Changes the emotional texture.