Customer Reviews

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Norton Critical Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" seems particularly suited to comic book adaptation. The gothic tone of the piece combined with the sublime imagery of the ever-aging, ever-corrupting portrait is ready-made for some illustrator in the Edward Gorey or Tim Burton vein. Black and white is the way to go, as a color adaptation would make Gray's world seem too garish, too vulgar. A delicate touch is required here.

Illustrator I.N.J. Culbard brings that delicate touch, with an art style that is cartoony and gothic at the same time. Culbard does not go for the obvious, which would be an imitation of Gorey or Burton's style. The eternal beauty of Dorian as well as the brashness of Lord Henry who urges Dorian on and the horrible visage of the portrait that reflects Dorian's soul are all portrayed with a deft hand that brings the story to life the way only the best adaptations do.

Praise must also go to story-adapter Ian Edginton who has to cut down the novel to comic book length, keeping only those passages which contain the core of the morality play. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is one of Oscar Wilde's most famous works, and although not a particularly long novel it is complex with undercurrents and allusions enough to keep a college literature course busy for quite awhile.

Edington does have the advantage of a full graphic novel format to work with. I have read illustrated adaptations of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" before, most recently in the Graphic Classics: Oscar Wilde, but they have always been shorted versions of the story packed into an anthology. With this Sterling Press publication, you get even more of the famous lines and Wilde's unique style.

I greatly enjoyed this adaptation, and I look forward to further work by Culbard and Edginton, specifically their Sherlock Holmes adaptation The Hound of the Baskervilles. They make for a formidable team.

I used this to write a paper about Oscar Wilde. It has two versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray plus essays about Wilde and the novel. A great resource.

Wilde sees the world more clearly than any writer of fiction in the last century. It is for that reason that his work is so filled with countless paradoxes and contradictions that challenge the mind and titillate the senses. Wilde lived in an infinitely ironic age, when society had grown so influential as to crowd out the individuals that made it up. Today, we have taken for granted this incongruity and so our writers cannot express the kind of irony that Wilde mastered, despite the fact that we all know that something is amiss.

`The Picture of Dorian Gray' is filled with this irony. The plot shows us the ultimate irony of a man giving up his soul for the beauty of youth--the condition that is exalted in the modern age above all else, intellect, truth, justice, life itself. Interspersed are dialogues and epigrams that persist one hundred years later as some of the finest word handling ever recorded. Even a few samples should compel the potential reader:

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

"A man cannot be too careful in his choice for his enemies."

"The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little bit longer."

"Men marry because they are tired, women marry because they are curious. Both are disappointed."

"I love acting, it is so much more real than life."

- "I am on the side of the Trojans, they fought for a woman."
- "They were defeated."

The mastery of wit that Wilde displays must be seen in its context. He was a decadent as much as the characters he portrays are. Ultimately, the disillusion that the decadent faces comes through in the story and the reader is left with a very uneasy feeling upon completing `Dorian Gray.' Is life as absurd as it seems? Is there a solution? Or are we stuck with a life of paradox? Perhaps our current period of decadence will show us an alternative. Until it does, we can enjoy the astounding word play offered here.

This was a textbook for one of my High School daughter's classes. She said it was great, and I'm looking forward to borrowing it when the course is finished.

I bought the Marvel graphic novel of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I had to buy it on amazon because the nearest Barns and Nobel has a very small and somewhat lacking graphic novel section. The Marvel graphic noel is very nice.

I also bought a graphic novel version from Sterling press. I wasn't sure which one I'd prefer.

Well, after looking at them there's no contest. The Marvel one is definitely a far superior version. The illustrations are gorgeous. It's a word for word adaptation of the novel. Everyone looks the way I imagine them from the original book, save for Basil. I think the graphic novel version of Basil is far more attractive than my mind gave him credit for. Strangely, I'd say he even looks a bit like Ben Barnes' version of Dorian. Lord Henry always looks the same in almost every adaptation so his appearance was no surprise to me.

I'm very disappointed in the Sterling edition though. The Sterling Picture of Dorian Gray graphic novel is done in this art deco 1920s type of style where everything's flat, straight lined, sharp edged, and Dorian is drawn vaguely like the nineteen thirties film version, and not at all like the literary version. It's also a far rougher adaptation. Lots of heavy edits and lacking in scene detail in the art work.

Out of the two graphic novel versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray I strongly prefer the Marvel version. I highly recommend it to any Oscar Wilde fan. The Sterling version... not so much.

The story itself is fantastic.

I LOVE the work of Oscar Wilde. Allow me to stress that. I absolutely love the work of Oscar Wilde. My two favourite works of his are The Canterville Ghost and The Picture of Dorian Gray.


The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. While he remains flawless, a portrait of himself grows uglier every time he sins. He cannot die unless you destroy the painting.
Thanks to temptation and vice Dorian falls into hedonism and debauchery. As he externally remains pure and untainted his soul bears the burdens of his actions as reflected in the painting. Dorian learns the hard way that it's not physical beauty that matters but the inner beauty of one's own soul in qualities of kindness, mercy and compassion, things that he had lost along the way for selfishness, hedonism and greed.

Dorian's fall from grace is a road lined with wit and humour. The story is riddled with clever epigrams (witty, short sayings) mostly said by the morally questionable character, Lord Henry.
Lord Henry is a surprisingly naive character who plants bad ideas and temptations into Dorian's head while he, himself, doesn't seem to actually commit any sin he talks about. He even has the naive notion that people of their status don't do things like murder, as if such crimes are vices only of the lower classes.

The picture of Dorian Gray is a very good and interesting read that talks about social conformity, morality, hedonism, and good and evil. The messages are not heavy handed and it's an intelligently written story.

People of Oscar Wilde's era who called it an immoral book were made uncomfortable by Dorian's descent and lack of redemption but ultimately he was punished for his sins. Others noticed the subtle hints of homosexuality and bisexuality in the story but these things were kept subtle as this was a Gothic Victorian novel.
Many people over-estimate how much homosexual content there is in this book or they don't see it at all but in fact it was actually very subtle and you only notice it if you are looking for it.
However lines such as 'The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curve of your lips rewrite history.' - which was engraved in a cigarette case given to Dorian by Lord Henry make the relationships obvious to the astute reader.

The sexuality of the characters isn't even an issue. Poor Oscar Wilde was far ahead of his time in this regard.

It's Dorian's decadence, hedonism and selfishness that cause his downfall and prove the moral lesson of the story; the value of the soul and inner beauty over external eternal flawlessness.
Dorian might have had eternal youth and beauty but it was at the price of the eternal beauty and youth that comes from a good natured and kind soul. And Dorian, being an aesthete could only see this transformation when his soul was physically manifested in a portrait that changed with the changing of his nature.
The 1940s movie adaptation of the story (the first film adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray) held the hope of redemption in showing that in acts of compassion the portrait could change for the better. This was something the novel lacked though it is still a fine novel.
Oscar Wilde was right when he said there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. There's only well written or poorly written books and The Picture of Dorian Gray is very well written.

This isn't an action packed thriller (though there are some intense moments). This isn't a romance about an immortal with a teenage lover (though something of that does happen). This is NOT Twilight. This story actually has substance.
This is more of an exploration of a character's nature and all of human nature in the process, the flaws of modern superficiality, selfishness and hedonism and the power the spiritual can still have over human consciousness. It's sad that for all of Dorian's shallowness he had to physically see it to feel the weight of his conscience instead of just knowing what he was doing was wrong but this is the flaw of the character and the reason behind his downfall. Dorian was a true aesthete to a dangerous extreme. Oscar Wilde was making a statement about society that many even today either don't get or don't want to get.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is written in a nice flowing prose. It's written in a third person perspective novel, not first person perspective, not alternating, and certainly not epistolary (which was a very popular style of fiction writing in Oscar Wilde's time).

I strongly recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is a true classic.

The best graphic novel version though is Marvel's version where I really don't care for how they edited and drew the Sterling graphic novel version of The Picture of Dorian Gray graphic novel.

If I didn't love the novel so much I would have given this even less stars for the poor illustrations and bad editing. Skip this one if you are seeking a graphic novel of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Marvel version is MUCH better.

On the strength of the first edition, I ordered the second edition for a course. The second edition is missing five pages from Chapter III of the 1890 version of the novel.

I have tried contacting Norton. Their feedback page did not work.

As a student in college, having the edition requested by the professor is important to success in that class. Needless to say, after waiting for forever to have the book delivered, I was severely disappointed to find that they sent me the wrong edition of the book when the receipt that came with it made it clear that I had asked for a different edition. I made over 12 orders for textbooks at the same time, and this was the only order that 1) came a week later than everything else and 2) sent me the completely wrong edition.

So I ordered this text because while I already own Dorian Gray, my professor was specific in that he wanted me to purchase the Norton Critical Edition, which I thought that I did. The seller sent me some other edition. I know it sounds petty, but the Norton has essays in it, as well as both published versions of Dorian Gray -- I was actually looking forward to both the additions. When I told the seller, he quickly refunded my order, but I wish he had properly advertised his product in the first place. I was unable to have the book in time for class because of the mishap.

So, if you are like me and need the specific edition for whatever reason, contact the seller first just to make sure! :)