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    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Picture of Dorian Gray

    Written by Oscar Wilde

    Narrated by Greg Wise

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    About this audiobook

    Oscar Wilde’s enduring masterpiece, this fable of innocence and corruption, purity and decay has become a true classic. The beautiful, narcissistic Dorian Gray, torn between the influence of cynical hedonist Lord Henry Wotton and tortured artist Basil Hallward, sells the beauty of his soul in exchange for external perfection. Ultimately, he cannot escape the disfigurement of sin. Wilde’s remarkable wit and memorable, epigrammatic lines dazzle in audiobook form!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateSep 1, 2009
    ISBN9789629548896
    Author

    Oscar Wilde

    Born in Ireland in 1856, Oscar Wilde was a noted essayist, playwright, fairy tale writer and poet, as well as an early leader of the Aesthetic Movement. His plays include: An Ideal Husband, Salome, A Woman of No Importance, and Lady Windermere's Fan. Among his best known stories are The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost.

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    Reviews for The Picture of Dorian Gray

    4/5

    760 ratings213 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 3/5
      I have read this book 3 times. Every time I swear that I didn't read it - I just remember the synopsis - and then I get halfway through and realize I'm rereading it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This is a great book. I did not find it tedious or boring at all. It's a great read!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Exceptional!
      I thought I knew this story from a couple of the movies but they can't touch this masterpiece.
    • 4/5
      Loved loved loved! Prose was exquisite, felt like I was reading poetry in the form of prose. Oscar Wilde is a terrific writer, each line gave way to some intellectual musing, the acerbic wit of several characters gave prominence to sharpening our senses as readers. I absolutely adore this book, and i struggle to get through classics so that’s saying something. The picture of Dorian gray was published in the 19th century but I am only just now reading it in 2023, I wish everyone who reads this book for the first time the same sense of wonder and pleasure I got, it’s a fantastic novel and one I think everyone should read at least once ?
    • 4/5
      The book's creepy and amazing I liked it very much
    • 4/5
      I would have given it five, because I loved the premise and the moral, but it took like half the book to get interesting. Great payoff though!
    • 5/5
      A familiar tale, but I had never read (or heard) it in its entirety before, and I had truly missed a treat! The prose is beautiful, the commentary is insightful, and it's all so clever, if a bit camp by today's standards. I think this is a book that should be read by young people especially. It's a wonderfully generous commentary on being both young and of aging. Of relationships, love, vanity, and friendship. As an older person revisiting it, I recognize it as the lover letter it is to youth, love, and life itself as well as art and beauty.
      The narrator was absolutely perfect. It was as if Oscar himself was reading me his precious work.
    • 4/5
      The Picture of Dorian Gray is a remarkable novel filled with tipsy-turvy modes of thought that baffle the reader nearly as much as Dorian Gray's picture baffled him. A tragedy marked with the buddings beginning a pathway to... something. Complex, versatile, unique, paradoxical; entirely worthwhile. However, one not fond and inexperienced of reading should not embark on this journey quite yet. The ability to separate and seclude inorganic and foreign thoughts is necessary for comprehension. Passion vs. obsession is necessary for sanity. Go on Dorian, build the audience you once longed for...
    • 4/5
      Loved it. Consistently interesting, though a few of the speeches dragged on as did a few of Wilde's "detailing paragraphs." Though I may not have agreed with everything that was said, overall it was very good, and Wilde is a beautiful writer.
    • 5/5
      A handsome young man wishes that he could remain as he is in his portrait, and that the portrait could age instead. He gets his wish, and the results are horrific.This classic is full of wit and philosophy. Though I had trouble getting into it, once I did I was entirely absorbed in the story. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it.
    • 5/5
      Oscar Wilde turns his hand to the gothic horror tale and it's brilliant.
    • 5/5
      Since the first time I read The Picture Of Dorian Gray, it has been one of my favorite books. Greg Wise's narration is easy to listen to and very well-suited to the story.
    • 2/5
      Unpopular opinion. I just really couldn't get into this book. It was very slow paced and just didn't spark my interest.
    • 5/5
      Excellent illustration of the human psyche and the effects of status, money and arrogance.
    • 4/5
      "How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray, with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

      And so it begins, the descent of Dorian Gray. A gothic horror that deals in manipulation, class, the adoration of youth and the price of sin. To name but a few of the themes that prevail in this book. For me the book really takes off in the second half and is worth persevering because the first half, although not dull may be considered slow by some. The description of Dorians trip to the opium den is a particularly vivid metaphor for his downward spiral into sin.
    • 5/5
      Holy shit omg wtf and every shock relate word ever
    • 4/5
      READ IN ENGLISH

      A friend of mine told me about The Picture of Dorian Gray and she is quite a fan of it. I wanted to read it as well, to see if it really was as good as she said. I enjoyed reading it. For me, it wasn't the best book I've ever read and there wasn't much surprise for me in it (my friend told me the story) but it was still interesting to read in my opinion. It took me quite some time to finish the book, but that hadn't to do with the story. It was also the first book I read online (instead of on paper) so I had to get used to that as well.
    • 4/5
      I absolutely loved this book. I have to say this is one of my favorites, and recommend it to anyone.
    • 4/5
      This is the first Oscar Wilde I have read.  Initially I thought it was the most boring and irritating thing I had ever picked up.  The topic of oh my I am aging and I won't be pretty anymore bores me to death.  If you haven't grown out of that attitude by 30 at the latest, you are not someone I want to read about probably.  And 30 is rather late.  And no doubt you would not want to hang out with me either, but then I'm not writing a book.  I kept reading because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.  I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and I don't think I can say why because I'm not sure.  (Maybe I need to grow out of my uncertainty.)  The writing was captivating, as I should have known it would be, but that doesn't always make up for a bad story.  However, the description of a sunrise alone was worth reading the whole book.  Not the beautiful peaches, pink and oranges usually talked about, but the earlier black and white of dawn.  I could see it and be there for it.  I very much enjoyed the other topics in the book, specifically about projection, i.e. the painting of an artist can only be the artist's projection, as can the viewed painting only be the viewer's projection.  Three and a half stars, but I will read more.
    • 5/5
      I know this book was a little controversial but I still thought it was a great read. didnt get the whole controversy about it though.
    • 4/5
      I was kind of underwhelmed by this one. Some interesting ideas were brought up, but the story itself wasn't as riveting as I thought it would be.
    • 4/5
      I love Oscar Wilde!
    • 3/5
      I couldn't connect with it but I felt it was well written.
    • 5/5
      An amazing introspective book which allows us to get into the dark mind of the charming main character, which who it is impossible not to fall in love.
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating book. No wonder it's a classic!
    • 4/5
      Oscar Wilde wrote a great book, but, y'know, I think he might've been full of himself.
    • 3/5
      Art is not moral. What was he thinking? Truly his thoughts were as tangled as his character's sins. So much pain when we seek only to placate and amplify ourselves. Fascinating!
    • 4/5
      I knew I would love this book, and love it I did.

      You probably know the story, or you know bits of it. But actually reading it is a different experience. It's everything you expect of Wilde: witty. dry. philosophical. hilarious.

      The humour meets the dark undertones of sin well, and it makes the story feel full and complete. It's always interesting, although the pages when it goes on with philosophy can be tough to read at times (although usually ultimately humourous, as the characters are all idiots).

      All in all, it's a great read. I have nothing bad to say here.
    • 5/5
      ~~~


      No review, just a comment and some quotes:

      Not simply about undying youth and beauty, but more accurately about sin and temptation and the opportunity to explore those temptations thoroughly. To the point of ruin.

      ”There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral…” - Lord Henry

      ”And Beauty is a form of Genius,--is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation.” - Lord Henry

      ”I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose?” - Dorian Gray

      Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul? - Dorian Gray

      ”It is quite true I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend. Somehow I have never loved a woman.” – Basil Hallward

      “You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.” - Lord Henry


    • 5/5
      "I have nothing to declare but my genius."
      ? Oscar Wilde

      And indeed, he was genius! I actually read Wilde's masterpiece, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as a child in the early 1980s, but then again, for a second time, in 2012. And even after all those years, it still gave me the creeps. For it is a story most petrifying.

      The Picture of Dorian Gray was way ahead of its time?still reverberating volumes today. It is a cult classic in literature, and I reckon that it will continue to remain so for generations to come.