Le portrait de Dorian Gray, d'Oscar Wilde

After reading such bad reviews on The Picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde, nobody would be tempted to read it! However, it would be a missed chance to learn more about life and its superficiality and about the power of manipulation and its negative influences. It may be possible that this book was too modern for its time, and that subjects such as homosexuality, immorality, cult of beauty...have offended people. The style of the novel is also distressing, a clever blend of satire, humour and supernatural, which gives to this comedy of manners, all its specificity. All these elements could explain the scandal, which has followed the first publication of the book, in the Lippincott's Monthly Magazine on June 20, 1890. Panned by critics and presented as an "immoral story", The Picture of dorian gray, was revised by its author in an expanded second version (six new chapters added), published in 1891.

The Picture of dorian gray is based from the first chapter to the end, on a debate around beauty and morality chaired by three different gentlemen, who are linked by a common perpetual research of the beautiful and the pleasurable. This triangular relationship takes place in the strange and attractive atmosphere of the Victorian London, which merge romanticism and realism. The particular tone of the book is also linked with several references used by the author. Indeed, the novel of oscar wilde is full of sources from literature, myths, legends and art. oscar wilde used several themes and symbols such as Aestheticism or dandyism, which were beloved by him and which can be found in all his works, as for instance in the play: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).