The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Oscar Wilde and Jeffrey Eugenides

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9780679642091

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was a Dublin-born poet and playwright who studied at the Portora Royal School, before attending Trinity College and Magdalen College, Oxford. The son of two writers, Wilde grew up in an intellectual environment. As a young man, his poetry appeared in various periodicals including Dublin University Magazine. In 1881, he published his first book Poems, an expansive collection of his earlier works. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was released in 1890 followed by the acclaimed plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

Reviews for The Picture of Dorian Gray

[kirmuriel-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beauty and youth can become a deadly trap

[lhlogan1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Spectacularly creepy read and creepy movie. Just enough suspense to keep you begging for more.

[benjamin.duffy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Such, such a strange and interesting book. Yet I can't give it more than three stars.

The easiest way to look at The Picture of Dorian Gray, to me, is to break it into three acts.

For the first few chapters, I was completely captivated. The three main characters (Basil, Henry, and Dorian) are laid out quickly, succinctly, and beautifully (and all three are shining literary archetypes), the MacGuffin is introduced (though it doesn't commence Guffination until well into Act II), and the exposition is lush and gorgeous and decadent. In addition, the dialogue is witty, pithy, scathing, and eminently quotable: literally 75% of the conversation in the book is pure epigrams. It eventually gets a little tiresome, but in the first third of the book, you feel as though you're sitting in a room with the coolest kids in the world - especially Henry, whose pronouncements in favor of amoral pursuit of pleasure must have been shocking to Victorian-era readers, at least so bluntly put.

This section of the book is also double triple gay. It's the gayest thing that ever gayed it up in Gaytown. This was the first Oscar Wilde I'd read, and while I was certainly aware that he himself was homosexual, I was surprised nonetheless. I found myself repeatedly muttering out loud, as I read the first third of the book: Wow, this is all really rather gay...HOLY COW these dudes are gay...god dammit, get a room, guys...YES I get that he's beautiful...OMG you dudes are so gay...not that there's anything WRONG with that...REALLY? His lush red lips again? OK fine... Yes, I made quite a scene, reading my Kindle on the commuter train in downtown Salt Lake City and mumbling over my gay little book.

Suffice it to say, amid the handsome men throwing themselves onto couches in louche, careless manner, crushing daisies in their graceful hands, etc., the homoerotic subtext was so overwhelming that I was actually slightly surprised that it never jumped from subtext to just plain text.

Nonetheless, if the book had continued in the vein of Act I, it would have been a fantastic read. The problem, however, was Act II. Near as I can tell, Act II's purpose is to convey, as quickly as possible (and the book is a fairly short one) that Dorian Gray experiences every sensual pleasure that the world has to offer, and becomes more and more debauched and decadent, all the while showing no outward signs of moral decay or physical aging. Honestly, the whole thing feels rushed. There are large stretches in the middle of the book where Wilde rattles off interminable lists of things that Dorian experiences: first he's into beautiful smells; then it's exotic music; then it's precious gemstones; and then luxurious fabrics, and on and on. In each case, the author lists multiple examples, with descriptors, and it all flies by in a blur. It's tedious. What shoulda coulda come off like a montage scene in an 80s movie comes off instead like a particularly dry chapter from the Book of Numbers or perhaps like Bubba reciting the 1001 culinary uses for shrimp in Forrest Gump. At any rate, the middle sections of the book are a drag. You can get what Wilde is going for, but it lacks the poignancy and impact of the first act.

Act III picks up the pace again, and surprisingly (to this reader at least), becomes a pretty standard late-19th-century morality play. For as much as the book is neck deep in Henry's amoral aphorisms and shockingly debauched philosophizing, the actual resolution of the story contradicts pretty much everything he preaches. The titular character suffers for, and regrets, his wanton ways, and he comes to a miserable end. The End.

Worthwhile read, but fails to fulfill the promise of the first two or three chapters.

[bleached_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A terrifying and cautionary tale about succumbing to vanity and someone else's influence. Even as Dorian, the anti hero, watches himself twist and decay into a moral-less, loathsome beast he still refuses to really take responsibility for his own actions and blames the only person who was truly honest and a real friend...of whom he also murdered. Dorian also distracts himself from taking a real look at his friendship with the despicable Lord Henry who is the true instigator of Dorian's demise.Wilde cautions us through his only novel to mind our own morals and virtues and not base them on other's opinions because they can lead us down dark paths until we are unrecognizable to ourselves. He also reminds us that beauty isn't everything, youth isn't always worth clinging to, and other important lessons.

[kinsey_m · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really loved the writing, the conversations, especially in the first part of the book. Also, I was quite surpised that the painter was so very obviously in love with Dorian, considering the period in which the book was written. I'm very interested in narcissism, and I found this to be an excellent book in the subject, showing how deeply insecure and incapable of empathy the narcissist is.

[srboone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Grandiose story of a man who remains young while his portrait ages. Enjoyment depends on you tolerance for Victorian verbosity. I found it tedious in stretches.

[copyedit52 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not just about aging, which I assumed, based upon popular culture, but moral degeneration too; or rather, about moral degeneration and aging, in that order. As a reader, looking to enjoy himself (I give up on a lot of books if the writing itself doesn't appeal to me), the prose at first was annoying--too flowery for me--but I got used to it, and at the same time more appreciative of what the author was accomplishing. In my rating, it loses a star because of a long and eventually tedious recitation of meretricious objects collected by the protagonist, in the interests of Art.

[borhap-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

everything is subtle, subtle sex, subtle drugs...
language difficult

[poetontheone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderfully sensational and unique work. Though obviously Victorian with regards to characters and setting, but the influence of French Symbolism is very easy to see. Huysmans' novel A rebours features as a prominent motif in the book. It is no stretch to claim to claim that Dorian Gray is a Faustian character, whilst the hedonistic Lord Henry represents a model of Huysmans' own Des Esseintes as a sort of Mephistopheles who coaxes Dorian towards his doom. Looking at the premise of the work alone, it could have just as well been a cheap thriller devoid of complexity, but Wilde imbues the work with no small amount of literary references and witty dialogue. There is also no shortage of criticism against the English upper class, and the homoerotic symbolism oozes from every other page. A spectacular and rich novel that excites the mind just as much as any Hitchcock film, and at the same time causes the reader to think deeply about its many themes.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've meant to read this one since I had to analyse the last few pages for the final module of my English Lit A Level. For some reason, I'd never read it entirely before. It wasn't really spoilt by the fact that I already knew the ending intimately, although nothing was exactly a surprise to me, since I'd already thoroughly researched it. It's an interesting idea, and the ending is just perfect. Parts of it were a little boring, given that parts centered around philosophising, and parts centered around long descriptions. It is easy to read, and the descriptions are actually very lovely, but... there's just a bit more of it than I'd like. The actual plot is quite simple, though, really, so I suppose there'd be almost nothing to it without this!

[eidzior_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book and it's crazy plot. I also felt like it was a warning not to live too much about the physical things in life. I think for a lot of people image, clothing, and physical appearance sometimes becomes a part of their identity in a way that's not healthy and not productive. This book definitely has a moral tone as well that while I understood, did not always appreciate. I'm sure that if Wilde had been alive today he would have been able to write about homosexuality in a more visible way. Though, we might not have his wonderful work in the way we do now.

I also really liked the language, of course, Wilde is a master and I appreciated the insanity of the entire situation. Dorian Gray reminded me the reason we read classic literature.

The new film from a couple of years ago was also good though, I think, it's better in novel form than film form.

[jamesmscott-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Audacious book for its era. The melodramatic delivery starts to ruffle.

[ctpress_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.” Not the best advice in the world to a young innocent man. The premise of Oscar Wilde's only novel is well-known. Dorian Grays friend Basil Hallward paints his picture - and Gray thinks it's a shame he will grow older, but the picture will stay the same. He declares that he would sell his soul if the reverse was true. Well, be careful what you wish for……This was a reread - and it's remarkable that I remember so many things from this story - having read it back in the 80's. Down to certain quotes I remember pasting into a scrapbook I once had - the power of stories. I was very fascinated by it back then - I wasn't gripped so much by it this time.The reckless libertine, Lord Henry Wotton admires the young Adonis - and he deliver's much of the wit in the story with his amoral life wisdom spoken out so elegantly. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”“Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.” Things like that.The second part of the story is not so well crafted I think, but it is slowly building up to the "grand finale" - the novel reminded me of Stevenson's [Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde] although that is a more of a gothic horror story than [Dorian Gray]. But I mostly enjoy it for the conversations in the beginning between, Basil, Lord Henry and Dorian Gray. That's sublime.

[dancingwaves · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I don't think it will ever be my favourite book (more than halfway through for it to become even remotely entrancing?), the latte half is intriguing, with some interesting bits.

[karla9brandenburg · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I've always enjoyed the movie and the underlying story, but to actually read ths was a chore. Long-winded, slowly dragging, there was severe "damage" to the painting after only four years. And then, Dorian's crimes were still not enumerated to give the reader sufficient cause to believe his soul could be so scarred. We see a young man living to excess, but that more a crime to himself than to society. Closer to the end, the reader gets a closer look at Dorian's debauchery and darker nature. This book was too much a commentary on idle English society that droned on and less of the interesting concept that spawned movies. Given the choice, I'd recommend the movie over the book.

[miguelnunonave · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love books where the characters go through wide personality evolutions and where much is left to the reader's imagination. A classic tale of beauty and evil. A haunting book, one that leaves an enduring impression.

[alcracka · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cool book. I recently read Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, which makes a nice companion piece to this since they're sortof about the same thing. Dorian Gray was published in 1890, Jekyll & Hyde in 1886; Wilde's apparently on record as admiring Jekyll & Hyde.

I think Wilde's lack of experience writing novels shows sometimes. James Vane is introduced so clumsily that it's instantly clear that Sibyl will come to an unfortunate end and James will take revenge. There's no other reason for his character to exist, right? "If he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him." Not brilliantly subtle.

Jekyll & Hyde, by contrast, is a tidy little package by a master storyteller. But it doesn't reach for the same heights that Dorian Gray does. Wilde's not always successful, but I think he's set his sights higher.

I'm a little afraid that Wilde thinks Lord Henry is as charming as everyone in the book seems to. From quotes I've read, and from Wilde's preface to this book ("All art is quite useless"), Henry's paradoxical style seems to be an exaggerated version of Wilde's own. The problem is that Henry's a total bore. He's just constructing elaborate nonsense based on a formula. You could probably write a software program to deliver Henry-isms. "I'm tired!" "I tire only of sleeping." "That girl's hot!" "There's nothing so ugly as a pretty girl." Oh, shut up.

[anneearney · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I listen to audio books on my commute to work, and this may not have been the best choice. I found it difficult to develop much empathy for Dorian Gray, and although I found the issues the novel tackles interesting (the relationship between art and life, the lure of youth, the power books have over the lives of readers, the influence of mentors and friends, and the impossibility of ever really knowing oneself, let alone another), I ultimately felt detached from the characters and let down by the ending. Interesting, but not compelling. And the endless quips from Sir Henry! I would have probably loved this if I'd read it in high school.

[shirezu · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I've heard about this book for a long time. Everyone knows the basic plot. It's highly rated and one of those books that always comes up on lists of highly recommended. What I hadn't heard before was how boring it is. For such a small book it took me far longer than it should have to get through it. I should have been finished in a day but I'd read two pages and fall asleep.

Now I can appreciate a good vocabulary, a well constructed sentence, a beautiful turn of phrase, even if I can't write like that myself. But there needs to be substance beneath the paint. This book is all style and the meaning of the plot gets lost under it. Dorian Gray is a rich, good-looking socialite who is vain, greedy, uncaring and cruel. He starts that way and he ends that way. There is no growth, no learning. The moral of the book seems to be if you are rich and good-looking you can do anything and get away with it and who cares what anyone else thinks, they're just jealous. There were no characters I could respond to. Any nice character only played a bit part and tended to die and be pushed aside.

And boy could Wilde write some filler, useless crap. Pretty much a whole chapter devoted to the various fads Gray went through and all the stuff he wanted. Jewels and music and tapestries. Pages of it that added not a single thing. The ending was poor. So Gray destroyed the painting and therefore himself. He only did it because it was ugly. He didn't want to change who he had become he just didn't want a visual representation of it.

I had expected much more from this. I cannot see why so many people love it. I won't ever pick it up again. It was a chore from start to finish and I'm glad it's done so I can get back to books I enjoy.

[traveller1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I first read this I believe, where I was in HS. I think that my aunty Cath gave me a copy, possibly this was a censored copy (for my young age), but perhaps not. I re-read it several times since.

The "sweet" writing style used in the novel is a tad off-putting, but it works well in the hands of Wilde. The story also seemed not quiet coherent, in that it seemed to lack continuity—however, it has been maybe a decade since I last read the novel, so my recollection may be off. The ending seemed abrupt, and not entirely reasonable. Having said that, I found the moral of the story just a little weak, however, obviously not so at the time.

[missizicks · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I watched the recent dramatisation on the BBC and decided to read the book. I'd always meant to, and my husband said it was a good read. I was a bit disappointed, if I'm honest. The only other work by Wilde that I've read is The Importance of Being Ernest, which I love, and I was expecting something in the same vein, albeit with a shade darker humour. I really enjoyed the baseline story but found myself becoming irritated by Wilde's predisposition for extemporising on his various theories of gender difference, the nature of art, the effects of beauty, etc., etc. both through the medium of Sir Henry Wotton and through some quite dull prose. His detailed descriptions on furnishings were also a little tedious. If he had just stuck to the story (which is a good premise for a book) and maybe developed some of the characters a little more, it would have been a great book. As it was, it was only okay for me.

[boundtogetherforgood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It would be easy to dismiss this book. The writer and his characters, I think, lack the moral compass. That said, Oscar Wilde had something to say about what sin does to a person and how it can even affect one's countenance. There is no cure for a hard heart or a life lived only to watch out for one's self. Only tragedy follows such a path, as the lead character in this book learns. Dorian Grey once yelled out a heartfelt plea to remain for the rest of his life as beautiful as he was at that moment. His wish was granted and he never aged from that point. The painting that he had just sat for, however, did change...with each and every selfish act he committed. Dorian's actions were not always even meant to cause the amount of pain that they did, but they did nonetheless. His gilted, innocent lover even killed herself over her remorse at having lost his attention and respect over something so temporal and silly. From that moment, for Dorian, each hard and selfish act only lead to more of the same. Disaster continued to follow. Eventually he decided to change and live a life that was pure. After one selfless act of love he expected the portrait to have changed back to one of beauty and when it did not he chose to end his life. Originally I would have rated this book as 1 *. It took me about 80 pages, and a big devotion to go that far, in order to sort of get hooked by the book and its tale. Overall I like what the book says about a life lived not only IN sin but a life that even reveres sinfulness. For that I can finally say I am glad I read it and can understand its long-standing as a classic of literature.

[dreamingtereza_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel had a magical effect on me at age 15, though at the time I found Lord Henry Wotton's incessant rambling on aesthetics difficult to follow. Even now Mr. Gray beguiles me thoroughly.

[richardderus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Miss Oscar WildeAn essay by little Richie D. WHAT A HOOT!! This book puts the "blown" in "overblown!" It's deliciously, delightfully over every top it can find (frankly, I think the only top in the whole book is Lord Henry, and just MAYbe the Duchess of Monmouth) and it's got some of the world's great put-downs in it. The whole "Perhaps, after all, America has never been discovered...I myself would say it has merely been detected" that our own Divine Miss M. adores is one of the best (p64 in the Penguin Classics edition; midway through chapter 3, at any rate). But consider the gorgeousness of Wilde's sensory world: his description of violets as bringing back the memories of failed love affairs (citation eludes me) or the passage in chapter 11 (pp162-3 in Penguin Classics) as follows:"Veil after veeil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its anttique pattern. The wan mirrors get back their mimic life. The flameless tapers stand where we had left them, and besides them lies the half-cut book that we had been studying, or the wired flower that we had worn at the ball, or the letter that we had been afraid to read, or that we had read too often." Beautiful layering of sense images with emotional responses that enhance and inform each other. Not unusual in this book, I must say! There are so many examples that I can cite, that choosing only one or two is very difficult. Among the many things that this book left me with after reading it in 1973, this impression is not one; I was reading it with a sense of hurry and rush because there was going to be a TV movie of the book and I wanted (callow youth that I was) to know what the hell they were talking about! (The actor who played Dorian was nothin' special...or not to my lusty teenaged eyes anyway.) Then the local movie station played the 1945 theatrical film, and THAT was more like it! Donna Reed was in it, and so was Peter Lawford, so there was much more eye candy. Also, the thing was in black-and-white, while the portrait was the only thing seen in color. WOW! The book seemed to me more alive after that film. This wonderful piece of writing isn't a great novel, though. It's been through the mills. It was a magazine novella, and it got Victorianized by ye olde Oscar before it came out in book form. It was a scathing attack on British society, and so they had to find a reason to hate it...apparently the magazine text has much more homo content (for its day) than the book version does. It was attacked as glorifiying vice, so Wilde wrote chapters 3, 5, 15,16,17 and 18 to answer the charges. Seems a shame that there has never been a kind of side-by-side or comparative critical edition done, or at least none that a cursory search reveals. I'd enjoy knowing how much he pulled in his horns. Partly because of this, I think there are structural issues with the story-telling like characters vanishing for extended periods of time (eg, Basil Hallward, whose sanctimonious queeenship gets what he deserves rather too late IMHO, or Lady Wotton whose knowingness about Lord Henry leads me to wonder why she ultimately ran away with some unknown stranger at the end of the book, among others). I think the book's infamy is an artifact of its time and its enduring fame a commentary on our times, since we've changed so much and still so little in the interim. The scandal of Dorian's queerness is relatively dated, his explorations of the drug culture risible to a modern audience, and yet his leading of the youth of his time astray resonates down the years in the uniform hostility it engenders among the parents in the piece. On the whole, a very pleasurable read and one I'm glad to have revisited. Thank you, Divine Miss, for reminding me of it. Respectfully tendered (no one would expect ME to say "submitted," would they?), RMD

[elizabeth5michele · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As I've said I love Wilde, and this is such a wonderful story about the evil that lies in all men.

[cjyurkanin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My oh my.

Another standard by which to judge other authors.

At the age of 43, I've finally gotten to Wilde (aside from his delightful children's tales) after many years of the "I'll get to him, I'll get to him, stop bothering me" stage. I wish you all hadn't stopped bothering me. Reading this at 23 might have helped me to understand some dark events and people better.

Not a novel to make one feel good, for sure. As a matter of fact, it left me feeling nauseous at a few points. Wilde is such a master of prose that he's able to describe perfectly the vacuous "new" hedonism he observed in late Victorian society with his characteristic wit yet show no signs of cynicism that might otherwise lead the reader to any dry conclusions. Rather than being an autopsy of the condition of morals, it is simply a body laid bare upon the table, complete with hair and scabs and scars and imperfections, leaving you mildly uncomfortable at the slight grin on its pale face.

[schmerguls · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finished reading this on July 24, 1965, and said of it: Victorian, over-done, decadent--it is deficient as a book. But it seems like what Oscar Wilde would write. The central device is strictly deus ex machina--the picture changes, Gray does not--the picture reverts to original, Gray suddenly, in death, shows the excesses of the evil he has done. The evil is lavishly trundled out, but described hardly at all. Today, the same book would wallow in vivid descriptions of the evils: and they probably would not sound so evil!

[bookwoman247 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Almost everyone is familiar with the basic outline of this story about a vain young man whose debauched, decadent, corrupt lifestyle never ages him, while his portrait ages hideously, bearing all the marks of his increasingly depraved behavior.This book has been added to my list of all-time favorites! The story was so layered and multi-faceted, and the satire so stinging. I am in awe of the innate talent and the craftsmanship of the author. Where has Oscar Wilde been all my life!

[smithsj01_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very challenging to begin with, although I can’t explain whether this was primarily due to Oscar Wilde’s writing style or getting to grip with the gentry from Victorian times. The novel seems to span a period of about 20 years although there were some serious jumps in time as nothing seemed to take that long. It wasn’t until Dorian met a character later in the novel and mentioned an incident from 18 years earlier that I realised the time frame.A clever novel whereby we need to think about what we wish for as the grass is not always greener on the other side and we never think about the consequences of our desires. Dorian in facts dreams of what most people wish for – to remain young. He offers his soul to a beautiful portrait of himself in return for perpetual youth. This is fine to begin with and whilst his beauty does remain, the portrait takes on the images of wildness and slow dilapidation of his soul. He is involved in crime and death in pursuit of his passion, resulting in his eventual surrender.A clever novel focusing on every narcissistic thoughts of the human race have. A good reflection on the ‘dandy’ of the Victorian era and a lovely portrayal in general of life in London at this time. The blurb states that this novel caused outrage when first published, which I was aware of and can understand why. However, it also states that this novel marked the onset of his own fatal reputation (as a homosexual I would presume) and his eventual downfall – which I don’t understand why. From a difficult beginning this book had me hooked from a quarter of the way in. I look forward to seeing this interpreted on stage when I see it in September.

[shamille_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

WOAH! I finally read this book (for brit lit)By le famousse Oscar Wilde, the most famous gay dude in literature, comes The Picture of Dorian Gray. And I must say I think there is a lot of homosexual (misogynistic) tendencies in this book.I tried to read it before and thought it was so boring I couldn't get to the 3rd page. This is really a good book though. Good story, good emotions, really good characters. The writing style just got on my NERVES though. Ok. for now: Dorian Gray is a young man who is obsessed with being youthful and beautiful. One day his friend paints his portrait, and Dorian wishes he could stay as beautiful as his portrait is, and his wish comes true. Dorian grows old and does bad things and hurts others's lives, but the effects of his age and of his sin only appear in the portrait. His portrait reflects his soul.Anyway the book is basically good, but about his writing style! The charaters are great that they have their own histories and personalities and whatever. but ok. get over it. We know Lord Henry and anyone he chooses to converse with must be exhaustingly quick and clever but come ON do we have to hear their little wit fights/banter? It's really annoying. And also. there's this part that is basically a filler while Dorian is passing his years and not getting older. It goes into all this crap detail about his hobbies. Listing all these mythological, historical, literature-...al names... BORING BORING BORING and not to mention pointless. Then there's this part describing a book and how it was written and I swear that Wilde was writing about himself. Gosh. That is cocky and annoying.But anyway, it got on my nerves but others may like it... it's a really good book anyway. :D do read.