The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oberon Modern Plays)

by Oscar Wilde (Author), John Osborne (Editor)

• New

  Paperback
  1999

  $18.21

  The story of a man who preserves his youth while his portrait visibly deteriorates with time.

• Used

  Paperback
  1991

  $13.34

  Part of the Penguin Authentic Texts series of books that examine English language fiction, focusing on literature and language in literature. This book includes notes on language to help clarify text for both native and non-native readers of English. On its publication in 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray was widely condemned for its immorality as, of course, was its author Oscar Wilde. And yet, this novel is an almost moral tale, depicting the spiritual and physical decay of a young man devoted to aestheticism.

• New

  Paperback
  1992

  $6.85

  With an Introduction and Notes by John M.L. Drew, University of Buckingham. Wilde's only novel, first published in 1890, is a brilliantly designed puzzle, intended to tease conventional minds with its exploration of the myriad interrelationships between art, life, and consequence. From its provocative Preface, challenging the reader to believe in 'art for art's sake', to its sensational conclusion, the story self-consciously experiments with the notion of sin as an element of design. Yet Wilde himself underestimated the consequences of his experiment, and its capacity to outrage the Victorian establishment. Its words returned to haunt him in his court appearances in 1895, and he later recalled the 'note of doom' which runs like 'a purple thread' through its carefully crafted prose.

• New

  hardcover
  

  $16.76

  Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The novel was a succes de scandale and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895. It has lost none of its power to fascinate and disturb.