The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray (2024)

This version of Dorian Gray said, “no censorship, we shall lust after our homies like MEN.”

SO I HAVE THIS ON DISPLAY IN THE CLASSICS SECTION AND JUST OVERHEARD A TEENAGE BOY TELL HIS FRIEND “This is the uncensored version but I’ve heard it’s pretty tame, like no smut or anything :/“ AND HE SOUNDED GENUINELY DISAPPOINTED 😭

When you reread a book after many years, it can seem like a different book. Time transforms it. Strokes of brilliance you were unable to spot the first time for lack of reading experience can emerge second time around, but for the same reason, flaws you were blind to back then become visible to your jaded eyes. I remember being very impressed by Lord Henry Wotton's ability to speak in epigrams the first time I read this book—witty speeches were one of the things I loved in Wilde's plays back then, and Lord Henry offers one epigram after another, almost without pause:
"I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else."

"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."

"The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid."

But as I was reading the book this time, Lord Henry's string of well-honed phrases became too much for me. Say something unrehearsed, I kept urging him, but he never did—and as if he'd heard me ask, he said instead: "Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."

Still, I did notice that Oscar Wilde gave Lord Henry some awareness of his annoying tendency to aphorise—though it doesn't seem to bother him much: "Those who are faithful know only the pleasures of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies." And Lord Henry struck a light on a dainty silver case, and began to smoke a cigarette with a self-conscious and self-satisfied air, as if he had summed up life in a phrase.
His creator put a lot of himself into Lord Henry, I reckon.

But perhaps what made the biggest difference to my reading of Dorian Gray this time was the connections I saw with books I'd read in the intervening years.
I figured, for example, that the unnamed yellow book that Lord Henry offers Dorian Gray, and which artist Basil Hallward blames for causing Dorian to sink into a life of decadence, could only be JK Huysmans' Against Nature.
And when Dorian starts to lead two very different lives, I was reminded of Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Then when Dorian drives a young actress called Sibyl Vane to suicide, I remembered the story of Lermontov's Hero, Pechorin, who did something similar.
When Dorian later gets involved with a farmer's daughter called Hetty, I was back in the world of Eliot's Adam Bede.
I wondered if Wilde had read all those books too.

However, the story that had the most connections with Dorian Gray is one Wilde couldn't have read. Vladimir Nabokov's The Vane Sisters was written long after Wilde's time and could almost be said to be haunted by Wilde's novel. Nabokov names a character after Sibyl Vane (though he spells her name Sybil), and he makes Oscar Wilde appear at a seance and accuse Nabokov (or his narrator) of plagiarism!
Nabokov's story is a real puzzle in fact, and when I reviewed it recently, I was left with a sense of something unfinished. It was as if Nabokov were haunting me, whispering in my ear: go find the original of Sybil. That's why I went back to this book.
Truth to tell, I had little recollection of Sibyl Vane's role in Wilde's novel, and it doesn't seem at first as if she has much of role. She is an actress who falls in love with Dorian near the beginning of the book, he treats her badly and she commits suicide. End of Sibyl.
In Nabokov's story, Sybil Vane is not an actress though she is a bit of a drama queen. She too falls in love with someone whose name is only given as D.
D dumps Sybil just as Dorian did, and she commits suicide. That happens in the first few pages of Nabokov's story, and you'd expect that she would then disappear from the narrative. But Nabokov decided otherwise. He invented a plot around the possibility that a dead person can haunt the people they've known in life and direct their fate. He then sets up opportunities for Sybil to influence other people's lives, in particular her sister Cynthia's. Cynthia dies in turn and starts directing things in another character's life, bringing about the denouement of the story.

All of that was to the forefront of my mind as I reread Dorian Gray and so I interpreted Wilde's story in a new way. I began to see Dorian's dead lover Sibyl as responsible for the mysterious disintegration that happens to the portrait he keeps in his attic. Wilde implies that the portrait gets transformed because Dorian has done something despicable, and that it transforms further with every evil deed, but the only explanation for the phenomenon given in the story is the wish Dorian made when he first saw the portrait: that he might always look as beautiful as he did when Basil Hallward painted him, and that the painting might age instead of him.

Nabokov convinced me that it was the dead girl who was behind the changes in the portrait, or most of them. After all, it is directly after she dies that Dorian sees the first transformation. I imagined that Sibyl, who was used to acting the part of famous heroines in very dramatic scenes and in front of a range of painted backdrops, was now giving her best and most vengeful performance ever.
And when Basil Hallward, the artist who painted the portrait that Sibyl has been altering, dies in turn, I interpreted the denouement of the story as him vengefully intervening to make it happen—and restore the painting he loved to its former beauty.
So thanks for helping me to see Wilde's text in a new way, Vlad. It's almost as if you intervened and transformed the text.

One star for every time this asshole threw himself dramatically across a sofa

This original version is SO MUCH BETTER than the version that has been read by everyone for the past 120 years. I had thought that Wilde's original uncensored typescript was different only by a few "bad" words unacceptable to the Victorians. Well, I was completely wrong!

His first editors, and then Wilde himself, removed and altered substantial content, nearly all hom*oerotic, in response to severe and unrelenting criticism before and after its first magazine publication in 1890. In addition to this criticism, Wilde was deeply fearful he would be prosecuted under the new anti-hom*osexual behavior law which came into effect in England five years earlier in 1885, but which he hadn't taken seriously until then.

For the first book edition in 1891 (reprinted countless times down to the present) Wilde even added seven more chapters with

You probably don't believe me, but just forget that you already read Dorian Gray, and read Wilde's uncensored original: it's much more edgy and honest, offers a less conclusive moral—thus giving more credit to his readers—and it doesn't sacrifice Dorian's essential hom*osexuality, and that of Wilde himself.

If you need an excuse to re-read this amazing book, this is it. Trust me.

All the characters in this book assume wrongly some kind of positive correlation between a person's looks and his characters - as if we are born pure and beautiful; each immoral act committed by a person leaves imprinted a Cain's mark on his or her face. I don't know whether writer suffered from this kind of lookism - for Dorin's painting actually got uglier and uglier with each wicked act done by him, or maybe Wilde was criticising prejudice - for Dorin did remain to look handsome despite all wrongs he did.

Now things like principles, conscience, soul, morality etc great interest me - for I have none of my own. I often wonder what people mean conscience - remember reading somewhere it is the feeling that someone is watching or it is just 'sentimentalization of herd morality. as Eurus Holmes would have put it. Wilde seems to suggest it is the sight of one's own soul (used to mean 'a sort of map showing imprints of one's moral and immoral actions'; for lack of better word) - the portrait is supposed to be picture of Dorin Grey's soul; Grey is uncomfortable by the mere sight or idea of it and thus calls it his (oh! so very bad) conscience. It is thus people with bad conscience live - too conscious of their evil. Unlike most literary tragic characters who end miserably after choosing the path of folly and whose worlds break down to punish them; Grey was repeatedly saved from his punishment - he just couldn't live any longer with conscious of his own inner ugliness. He did try making amends- only it was too late - "Had it been merely vanity that had made him do his one good deed? Or the desire for a new sensation, as Lord Henry had hinted, with his mocking laugh? Or that passion to act a part that sometimes makes us do things finer than we are ourselves? Or, perhaps, all these?"

I made a long-ass review last night and Goodreads just decided not to post it. Now I'm here, enraged, rewriting it... I took a really long time reading this book and usually this would be a bad sign, but not here darling. This art piece is absolutely MARVELLOUS, STUNNING, AND ELEGANT, AND MAGNIFICENT. Ugh, I love it so much. The writing is the best thing ever, so poetic, so thoughtfulness, and filled with paradoxes, and beautifully written descriptions. Oscar, thank you for blessing us with this.

Seriously, look at that: "he repeated her name over and over again. The birds that were singing in the dew-drenched garden seemed to be telling the flowers about her." I can't even start saying how beautiful this entire quote is. So f*cking lovely. And this too: "I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain." this is what I expect to hear from my partner on my wedding day (said partner does not exist yet). And this simple: "You are more to me than all art can ever be" so short and yet so exquisite. Yeah, I'm sure I'm in love with this book. I can keep on quoting it until the day of my death...

About the characters. There is a maximum of 3 sane people in this book, basil being one of them. Basil is the only one with a sense of self-preservation and he is very sensible. I loved him and he deserved better. Henry is just a very bad influence, but his ideas are so ludicrous that half the time all you can do is laugh at it because it's unbelievable what he's saying. Take a look at one: "The people who have adored me-- there have not been very many, but there have been some-- have always insisted on living on, long after I had ceased to care for them, or they to care for me." sometimes i have no words...

Dorian Gray could be good, but he followed Henry like a sheep. So, basically, he is horrible and yet he seems so real. The contradiction of his thoughts, the regrets, the sadness, the rage, the doubt, reading the things that go through his mind is fascinating. He tries to justify everything he does and it's just fun and interesting to read.

This book subtly criticizes a lot of things from that century and from life in general. You can analyze Dorian from a good range of perspectives. He and Henry represent a lot of things at the same time. I think the main topic here is how we are obsessed with beauty and good image. Dorian talks about killing himself as soon as he turns old and ugly. And this was in his century, now it's only worse. We all have this idea in our heads that our purpose in life is to be beautiful... like, seriously? If there's something I agree with Henry is that we should be seeking for new sensations in life (not opio and screwing people every day, please). It can give us so many things and yet we are so worried about something as superficial as the beauty we're portraying to the world...

"I have talked enough for today. All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to."

I'll just keep rambling about how good this is. I couldn't give it less than 5 stars, and I'm sure I'll never forget this experience. Everyone should give a chance and read something by Oscar Wilde.

"The world has changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history"

3.5 stars

Welp! I thought what they meant with that title is that I will find some smut. Unfortunately this was not the case.

Anyhoo the writing is amazing kept me going.

Uno de los últimos referentes del terror gótico del siglo XIX, este libro sigue sorprendiendo en la actualidad por la originalidad de su planteamiento (cuanto menos sepas de ella, infinitamente mejor), por los claroscuros de sus personajes principales y por las reflexiones que pone sobre la mesa sobre el arte, el hedonismo y la doble moral victoriana. Un libro ingenioso, a la altura de su creador, que tuvo que enfrentarse a la censura de la época por el evidente carácter hom*oerótico de algunas de sus escenas. No os lo podéis perder (y si es en la versión sin censura, mucho mejor).

RESEÑA COMPLETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX2kr...

Oscar Wilde’s editor: but what do we do about the gays.. I mean how do we get rid of them

”I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely devoted to him and I ought not speak to him.”

the power of Oscar Wilde will never cease to amaze me.

rtc<3

the uncensored version isn't actually that much gayer... the three (3) forewords were lying to me

either way, i have always thought The Picture of Dorian Gray to just be okay - if that makes me a bad gay so be it

read as part of 202-Queer 🌈✨

Παντοτινή ομορφιά.
Ματαιοδοξία.
Ηδονισμός.
Εσωτερικός διχασμός.
Αμαρτία.
Θεία Δίκη.

Δεν έχω πολλά λόγια να πω γι’ αυτό το λογοτεχνικό αριστούργημα.
Το διάβασα στην αγγλική γλώσσα και θαύμασα το ταλέντο του συγγραφέα.
Το έργο αυτό αποτελεί τροφή για σκέψη και τα θέματά του είναι πιο επίκαιρα από ποτέ.
Όπως εύστοχα διάβασα κάπου είναι ένα «βιβλίο που δεν γερνά».

(edición sin censura)

El libro casi arranca con la escena de Basil diciéndole a Lord Henry que el cuadro pintado no puede exponerlo por que "He puesto demasiado de mí mismo en él". Pero realmente, Wilde, nos está diciendo que ha puesto mucho de él mismo y más en esta edición original sin censura. Por si teníamos alguna duda, está esa frase recogida en una carta, donde Wilde dice: "Basil Hallward es lo que creo ser; Lord Henry Wotton, lo que el mundo cree que soy; Dorian Gray, lo que quizás me habría gustado ser en otro tiempo."

Los sentimientos de Basil hacia Dorian recogen los sentimientos de Wilde hacia Lord Albert Douglas en la vida real. Hay cierto parecido físico entre Dorian y Douglas. También nos dice Basil: " todo retrato pintado con emoción es un retrato del artista, no del modelo"... "Temo haber mostrado en él el secreto de mi propia alma".

A Dorian nos lo presentan a través de su retrato: "una criatura hermosa sin cerebro", un joven de 17 años. Cuando Henry conoce a Dorian, Basil le dice "posee una naturaleza sencilla y hermosa" y le advierte "No lo estropees por mí. No intentes influenciarlo". Pero Henry siembra la semilla en él, ¿¡qué fácil es manipular a Dorian!?.
Henry empieza por reconocer que "Toda influencia es inmoral .. Influenciar a una persona es entregarle nuestra propia alma. Esta deja de pensar con sus pensamientos naturales... No son reales sus virtudes. Sus pecados...son prestados... El propósito de la vida...es descubrir la propia naturaleza.... El cuerpo peca una vez y acaba con el pecado, pues la acción es un modo de purificación.... La única forma de librarnos de una tentación es rendirnos a ella. Resistid, y vuestra alma enfermará...
Henry continúa "la juventud es la única cosa en el mundo que merece la pena poseer" - en estos momentos Dorian aún sigue siendo "puro" una "rosa blanca" : ¿Qué importa?"..." No lo siento así". (cuando Henry le dice que se ponga a la sombra en el jardín para no marchitar su belleza)
Y Henry sigue sembrando... La perentoriedad de la juventud y la belleza." Sea consciente de su juventud mientras la posea.... Vaya siempre en busca de nuevas sensaciones. No le tenga miedo a nada."

Todo esto es lo que lleva a Dorian a decir ante su retrato:"¡Qué triste es! Me haré viejo, y desagradable y repulsivo. Pero este retrato seguirá siendo joven. Nunca seré más viejo que en este día de junio. ¡Ojalá fuera al revés! ¡Qué yo pudiera ser siempre joven y el cuadro el que fuera envejeciendo! ¡Así es, no hay nada que no diera a cambio! Uno de los momentos cumbre del libro.

Dorian: "Tengo celos de todas las cosas cuya belleza no muere. Tengo celos del retrato..". Aquí ya ha cambiado nuestro inocente muchacho. Incluso Basil lo detecta: "Hallward miraba estupefacto. Era tan impropio de Dorian hablar así", ante el comentario de su retrato.

"¡Un nuevo hedonismo! Eso es lo que nuestro siglo necesita. Usted podría ser su símbolo visible." El hedonismo identifica la felicidad con el placer. Y dentro de las distintas opciones, Wilde se queda con el arte. La belleza, la superficialidad de Dorian de rodearse y acumular cosas "bellas" como el caro juego de plata.
Pero más adelante, ya alcanzada la mayoría de edad y habiendo descubierto los efectos sobre el cuadro, se reafirma: iba a ser como "Henry había profetizado, un nuevo hedonismo que recrearía la vida y la salvaría de ese severo y carente de atractivo puritanismo". Experimentar directamente sin límites, seguir con su "desarrollo intelectual", la religión, estudiar los perfumes, los instrumentos musicales, las joyas, los tejidos y bordados... Manifestaciones de la belleza y el arte.

Lord Henry es el personaje corruptor, juega con Dorian desde el principio. Incluso en la relación con Sybil Vane: Dorian, al día siguiente, estaba arrepentido, incluso se planteaba volver y casarse con ella. Pero Henry consigue darle la vuelta y que ese posible duelo y arrepentimiento acabe convertido en una salida a la ópera.

Dorian realmente no estaba enamorado de Sybil. Se sentía atraído por su juventud y belleza. Por eso no supo entender el fallo en la interpretación. Era una actriz que cada día interpreta un papel (representaba "todas las heroínas poéticas"), que incluso en su muerte representó el papel de una tragedia griega. "¡Qué diferente es una actriz! ¿Por qué no me dijiste, Harry, que una actriz es la única criatura digna de ser amada?".
"(Henry:) - ¿Cuándo hace de Sybil Vane?
(Dorian:) - Nunca."
"(Dorian:) ¿Cómo habría interpretado aquella funesta escena? - refiriéndose al suicidio de Sybil-"

Otro de los momentos cumbre es cuando Dorian descubre la mueca en el cuadro y es consciente de que "el retrato soportaría la carga de su verguenza: eso era todo".
¡Qué fácil dejarse llevar por el afán de experimentar y vivir la vida, tal como le había adoctrinado Henry con todas sus enseñanzas!
Solo..... "Un sentimiento de dolor se apoderó de él al pensar en la profanación que aguardaba al hermoso rostro del lienzo." El narcisismo y el hedonismo: besar aquellos labios pintados, quedarse sentado ante el retrato, una mañana tras otra, maravillado ante la belleza de su retrato.
Por un momento pensó en rezar para que el vínculo con el cuadro se rompiese, pero ¿¡Quién podría resistirse a la tentación de permanecer siempre joven!?. Pero luego se lo pensó mejor ;-) "Jamás volvería a tentar con una plegaria a ningún terrible poder. Si el cuadro iba a cambiar, cambiaría." Se convertiría en el espejo de su alma y "él estaría a salvo".
Basil es el personaje "noble" en esta trama. Sus sentimientos hacia Dorian son sinceros, se siente un poco dolido cuando Dorian "empieza a volar" y le abandona; a pesar de lo que siente por él, es capaz de felicitarle cuando Dorian le anuncia su compromiso; se preocupa por su amigo cuando se entera de la muerte de Sybil; aunque ya no tengan casi contacto, se sigue preocupando de él y va a su casa antes de irse de viaje a París para advertirle de los rumores sobre su conducta.

Basil podría haber ejercido un poco de la voz de Pepito grillo, la conciencia de Dorian, pero sus sentimientos le impedían hacerle reproches. Además, si la cara es el reflejo del alma, con esa belleza inmaculada en la cara, era inconcebible una conducta inmoral o perversa en su amigo Dorian.
¡Qué diferente podría haber sido todo para Basil/Wilde en otra época menos intransigente y moralista con este tipo de sentimientos y relaciones!

Y llegamos al asesinato de Basil. En un ataque de soberbia, Dorian decide mostrarle el retrato, el reflejo de su alma corrupta. "Me ha destruído él (retrato) a mí." "Todos llevamos el cielo y el infierno dentro". Dorian sollozando junto a la ventana. Basil, diciéndole a Dorian que rece. Y en un arrebato de odio, asesina a Basil. Le culpa de hacerle sufrir y arruinar su vida más que Henry. - Discrepo, tener el retrato ayuda, pero sin las ideas de Henry, ni siquiera habría formulado aquel deseo. Henry dice que Dorian es su creación y yo también lo veo así. Aunque reconozco que son necesarios los dos. Con ideas y sin retrato, habría sido un pobre desgraciado. Con retrato sin ideas, tal vez habría seguido siendo un inocente muchacho y habría madurado de otra forma.-. De cualquier forma, ya hemos subido otro peldaño, hemos matado con nuestras manos. Fríamente, sin remordimientos, prepara la coartada, busca como deshacerse del cadáver involucrando a otra persona, alguien que también había sido su amigo, Alan Campbell. Sabe que consecuencias puede tener para Alan, pero no le importa chantajearle.

Parece que Dorian intenta una fase de redención, de "buenas acciones", con Hetty, abandonarla antes de deshonrarla. Pero Henry, una vez más, le hace abrir los ojos: será una desgraciada. Y la constatación de su motivación llega cuando mira el retrato, la mancha roja era más grande.
El espejo en que mira su alma es injusto. Solo queda una salida, acabar con la prueba del asesinato, "matar el cuadro" y con él su pasado para así liberarse, sin saber que ambos estaban unidos, cuerpo y alma o el pasado forma parte del presente.

Tengo que decir que me ha resultado un libro tedioso de leer, para lo corto que es me lo he tenido que leer en cuatro días (a ratos, sin mucho tiempo y adormeciendome por la noche), pesado y denso como él solo. Demasiado filosófico, demasiados detalles. Uff no sabéis lo que he agradecido que fuese corto.
Debo ser una lectora muy simple.

He disfrutado más parándome a pesar tranquilamente lo que había leído. Una Semi segunda lectura en diagonal. Es cuando he visto matices en mis notas guardadas.

Valoración: 6/10
Lectura: junio 2020

Es una novela a la que te aproximas teniendo ya una idea más o menos clara de su argumento, pero me he encontrado con algo mucho más profundo.
Me ha parecido una maravilla de novela. No se muy bien como argumentarlo pero me ha impactado profundamente.

La edición que he leído es de Reino de Cordelia, e indican que es una edición “sin censura “, basada en un texto encontrado en 2011 y publicado por Harvard University Press, siendo al parecer más fiel al texto concebido originalmente por Oscar Wilde.
Según indica la contraportada, “Oscar Wilde, temeroso de la reacción moralista de la sociedad victoriana, auto censuró aún más la edición en libro... añadiendo más páginas para matizar aspectos turbios y cortando por la sano los elementos hom*oeroticos”

Sea como sea, me gustado muchísimo.

Dorian Gray:🧖😈

The Picture:👹

Naturally, The Picture of Dorian Gray is probably my favorite novel of all time- of course, when I say this, I am encompassing all versions of the story, censored or uncensored, edited or unedited. I was very excited to find a nice paperback copy of the uncensored Dorian, which I proceeded to buy and almost immediately read, this time self-annotating for comparison. Needless to say, my week was made by finding this gem waiting for me in some book store. Some of the differences from Wilde's original typescript are vastly different concerning plot and subtext, but all in all, it's still the novel I loved the first time I read the 1891 version.

Firstly, many people immediately become curious about increased hom*oeroticism in this version of the novel- I'm here to say that there is a lot more of that, both is Basil Hallward's character and Dorian Gray's lifestyle. Many passages that were made to talk about "creative inspiration" in the edited version originally talked about "tragic romance" in the original. In fact, Basil's character actually seemed completely different to me in this version because the poor man doesn't have to be censored in the original. But then again, I feel like hom*oeroticism is an element to be expected from Wilde. Needless to say, I actually feel like this element, although not seemingly important, changes a dynamic of the story in general- although some may not go for it, I absolutely do. It feels much more like Wilde to me than the other version.

A lot of passages talking about the self-indulgent French Decadence movement were censored for the conventional version of Dorian because audiences in general were disgusted by the idea of narcissism. Now that the passages are added back into the book, I kind of can see why the Victorians would not have liked the movement. Now, as the hom*oeroticism changes Basil's character, Decadence has a similar effect on Lord Henry. Much more of his influence on Dorian can be seen because every slimy word that he utters can be read. It's still delightfully despicable.

Lastly, the plot is actually not quite as long as in the 1891 version. This mainly is due to the fact that Wilde had to edit his novel to be more audience-friendly, so he had to find another way to convey the point of the story without going in a bad direction. Therefore, he added a subplot concerning James Vane and his quest to avenge his sister, Sybil. The original version of Dorian, however, does not have any of that story, instead choosing to focus on the same three characters the whole time. By having the plot delete some of these edited characters, there really is a completely different reason for Dorian's untimely (or timely?) death, which I would consider to be very major in changing the plot around. A smaller cast also provides for a lot more room for development. I felt a little more attached to Dorian's character when I read this because more time was devoted strictly to his bizarre life. Of course, I also could perceive better characterization of Lord Henry and Basil. While I do kind of miss having a more developed character of Sybil, I also definitely enjoy the reduced cast. This simply changes the experience and conflict that can be gleaned as a whole- I appreciate having a second way to look at the story.

What more can I say? It's The Picture of Dorian Gray either way you read it, so it's always going to be a fantastic work. A lot of the other reviews I have read about this version of the book suggest sticking to the 1891 version first instead of jumping right to Wilde's typescript, and I am going to agree with them on this. I don't think that this version should necessarily become the new standard of this novel, but it should be read after the more conventional, less provocative version is read. Reading both provide for an optimal situation. But personally, I think that the uncensored version is the one that I am probably going to turn to more for casual reading. After all, this is the version that Wilde intended for audiences to read! I believe that this 1890 version may be my preferred version of the novel.

Tirajedîya pîratî ew nîye ko meriv pîr buye, ev e ko meriv hîn ciwane...

Ev e yekemîn nakokî hebûnî me ye. Ser xatira wî meriv do Ava Jiyan jî çû ye. Yekane bersiva ko hatîye dîtin, xemgînî û teslîmbûn û qebûlkirina ew rastîtî ye ko nayê guhertin. lebê Ew ne tenê nakokîya jiyana me ye. Heke ev bela û pirsgirêk kesek dîn(Xwezayî) li ser me anî; meriv li ser xwe pirsgirêkek mezintir kirîye.

Hundira her mirovek mîna kehkeşanê ye: Bêdawîtî û Tevlihev. Belê em kehkişanên, lebê tenê perçeke biçûk ji wê em dijîn. Civakên kevneşopî bûne sedama veşartin beşeke mezin li hebûna me.

Oscar Wilde:" Kesayetiyê Dorîan Grey beşek zor li hebûna min nav xwe heye. Basîl Harward keseke ko ez difikirim ew ez im. Lord Henrî keseke ko Dinya difikire ew ez im. û Dorîan jî keseke ko ez hez dikim ew bim - belku di demeke din de bibe."

Dema ku min vê pirtûkê dixwend, ez difikirîm ko di civaka Ewropa ya îro, Basil ji xwezî xwe şerm nake û rûyê Dorian di wêne de kirit nabe. kesek ji ber hestên xwe ne sûcdare û ne xwe û ne kesek dîn li beyn nabe.

Û ew ecêb e ku "Wêne ya Dorîan Grey" di heman çapkirinê yekê de sansor bû. Ber xatira hêviya hom*osexual Kesayetiyê nav pirtûkê. Lebê sansora pirtûkê û darizandina Oscar Wilde Ji bo çalakiyên hom*osexual nekarî bandorê vê pirtûkê li civakê kêm bike. Ji ber ku ne tenê romanek Ji dor hom*osexuality ye, belku basî girtîbûnî mirovên di civaka xwe jî dike; Ku divê bi zorê hewceyên bingehîn xwe veşire... Êş û derd ev e ku di nav gelek civaka me de, heta evîna kurik û keçek qedexekirî ne. Evîndarî azad nîye û Em li evînê dur êxistine...

"Wek wêne xemgîn,
Tenê rû û ne dilek..."
Ji lîstika Hamlet

I am baffled, bumfuzzled, and bewildered. This original version of the novel did not become available to the public until 2011. When Oscar Wilde submitted it for publication in 1890, the editors were supposedly horrified at some of the content they thought would be offensive to readers. My twenty-first century brain cannot get down with that sentiment. They apparently thought there was "graphic hom*osexual content." I assure you, there is no such content in this uncensored version. Early in the story, Basil Hallward says something about how he had passionately loved Dorian, and had never loved a woman. I would call that a hint. It's certainly not graphic.

It has been nearly fourteen years since I read the censored version, and my memory of what I've read is notoriously bad even for more recent reads. So I can't say yet how the story itself differs between the two versions. I had completely forgotten how brutally dark this novel becomes as it nears its conclusion. I had also forgotten how beautifully descriptive the writing is, and how clever the dialogue. It probably deserves four stars, but there are quite a few vague references to events and people known to the characters that are never explained to the reader. That lack of clarity makes the story feel somehow incomplete and not wholly satisfying.

I listened to the audio book for this because it was the only version my library had in online resources. Edoardo Ballerini's performance is superb. I hope to clear up my confusion about the differences in the two versions by reading the annotated and illustrated copy in print from the library.

Una obra maestra.

Het was een sublieme leeservaring om de ongecensureerde versie van Dorian Gray te lezen, niet zozeer om de ongecensureerde tekst, maar om de prachtige uitgave van het boek! De tekst vormt slechts de basis voor een uitgebreide studie van het maatschappelijk leven en de heersende moraal in de laat Victoriaanse tijd. De annotaties bij de tekst beslaan soms meer paginaruimte dan de tekst zelf. Dat leest wat langzaam, maar die annotaties zijn feitelijk nog interessanter dan de tekst zelf. Door middel van die informatie, foto's en illustraties kreeg ik echt voor het eerst een idee hoe het leven eruit zag én voelde in die periode. De meest wonderlijke zaken worden geduid. Ik vond het echt interessant te lezen welke boeken, op hun beurt, Oscar Wilde weer beïnvloed hebben. Het is niet verwonderlijk dat hij dweepte met bepaalde decadente Franse schrijvers. Hij baseerde zich ook voortdurend op de klassieken. De veel vrijere moraal in de klassieken was voor een man met zijn levensstijl uiteraard een veilig referentiekader, waaruit hij rijkelijk uit kon putten zonder zich meteen verdacht te maken. Oscar Wilde was meer decadent dan ik vermoedde, een super dandy, maar ook zeer erudiet en geestig. De tijd was niet rijp voor de overmoed die hij ten toon spreidde. Zijn extravagante optreden in het openbaar en de publicatie van Dorian Gray deden hem uiteindelijk de das om. Ik besef nu pas goed wat een schok dat boek teweeg moet hebben gebracht. Zelfs nu, in onze tijd, zouden we Dorian en Lord Henry behoorlijk immorele en egoïstische figuren vinden. Ik bewonder Oscar Wilde dat hij in de aanval ging tegen de tijdsgeest, maar het getuigde ook van een zelfoverschatting, die uiteindelijk zeer tragische gevolgen voor hem heeft gehad.

"Había pasiones en su interior que encontrarían su terrible salida. Sueños que materializarían la sombra de su maldad."

Here's my interpretation of what this novel is about (spoilers ahead).

Lord Henry is a gossip and all talk. He likes to enchant refined socialites with tales about all the things that they're too proper to try, yet he too would never do anything to compromise his reputation. Dorian follows him blindly, taking Henry at his (untrustworthy) word, because Dorian doesn't like to do the hard work of thinking for himself (which he is ultimately forced to do at the end of the book). Henry is usually interpreted as bisexual because he's fixated with Dorian and more flirty with him than with other people. He wants to impress Dorian more than anyone else, and wants to impress Dorian more than doing anything else. At first, Dorian is vulnerable to Henry's charms because he grew up as an orphan. He wants someone to look up to, and Henry steps up to the plate, to Basil's horror and jealousy.

Basil's painting of Dorian captures Dorian's soul because Basil put his own soul into the painting. Basil thinks he only figuratively put his soul into it. Basil gives himself up to win Dorian's praise and attentions and can't stop painting Dorian after that. He's in love with Dorian (this is clear in the standard version, but even clearer in the uncensored version) and meets the same fate as Sibyl (who Dorian loved the most). Basil was an acclaimed painter, then he gives it up for love, and loses Dorian's interest. Sibyl was a talented actor, then she gives it up for love, and loses Dorian's interest. (This is when Dorian's at his most unlikeable, and even he feels guilty at this point. Not guilty enough to do the hard work of self-evaluation and becoming a better person, though.)

Dorian is (virtually always interpreted as) bisexual but he doesn't care about people beyond the pleasure they can bring him (the pleasures of good art, fun experiences, and the pleasures of the flesh). He thinks being an aficionado of art and the sexual arts makes him more worldly and enlightened than other people. Better than other people. He can show them pleasures that they've never known. He's like a god (the characters compare him to various Greco-Roman gods). But he's not above other people - he's literally a demon. He doesn't give proportionately to what he takes. He's supernatural; not a part of nature.

Dorian gets art and freedom from sex, works of art (perfume, jewels, musical instruments, etc.), and from going to social events; whereas transcendentalists (a popular philosophy during the 1800s) believed in nature as the source of true beauty, spirituality, and freedom. Maybe Dorian is looking for beauty and freedom in all the wrong places. Indeed, he's not terribly free - he's a slave to Henry's yellow book of immoral codes. Dorian thinks he's liberated from society's rules and expectations, but he's blindly following a rule book on how not to live by Victorian rules.

That reminds me of Alice's in Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, because Alice's goal is to find a book that has all the rules. Wonderland's weirdness subverts all the Victorian rules that she was taught and she becomes forced to think for herself and moderate her temper. Dorian and the yellow book similarly subvert the rules to the point where things are chaos and moderation doesn't exist, so Dorian is forced to think for himself and moderate his own behavior. He has to finally look at himself in the mirror (painting) and honestly face what he has become.

"Don't change, Dorian; at any rate, don't change to me."

while i do think my updates post chapters are giving a good impression of how i felt this book and what points i thought needed to be pointed out, i would like to summarize some of my thoughts real quick:

Dorian Gray, to me, is a masterpiece, in both versions. i dont think this part needs much explaining - its doubtlessly been said better than i ever could. the reason i picked the "uncensored" version up in the first place was bc i wanted a closer look at what wilde had first intended for the novel. its his only one, see, and i needed to make sure my interpretation of the 1891 version didnt clash with what was originally intended to be read.

all i have to say, in the grand scheme of things, is that this version - the typescript - feels more intimate. it lives without the james vane subplot entirely, and therefore focuses much more on dorian in those last pages. dorian and his life... his relationships to everything. to art, to music, to women, to men, to himself. the intimacy comes in with the language, tbqh. its difficult to pinpoint, but its many small instances in which things feel... softer. less manipulative, less horrendous, more artful, more... love-ful.

the words basil and henry use for dorian... leave him in the rose-colored light the novel tends to take from him. he seems... ever-young, like a sapling, much more so here than in the novel. it plays really well with the fact that wilde was inspired by a young man he met irl for dorians character... ever more so if you consider the letters signed "dorian" by said young man, almost as if they were living a little in that fantasy world... astonoshing and astonishingly gay.

truth is, the uncensored version just... lives at liberty with its implications. where the novel makes cuts and additions to hide things between lines and in subtext to only be seen by Us(tm), the uncensored version was... free. as free as can be imagined, really, and i think its truly remarkable of wilde to have the nerve to even send this to his editor when the book is basically about a man loved by men.

in fact, dorian has a little of those... ganymede-ian qualities to him. i know i go on and on about him as narcissus (which valid, hes too taken by his own beauty and importance in the world), but its really more his beauty and charm in relation to OTHERS that makes this a trip. the way men just... fall for him. basil and henry at the forefront ofc - angel and devil on his shoulders, but then all those kept unmentioned or briefly discussed... theres a lot here.

i dont want to stick around too long, really, bc in truth i could write a paper on this and not capture all my thoughts, but... im very glad i reread the novel and read this at the same time. the amount of MORE i got out of this book truly astonished me and the themes at play... masterful. i think this one will actually be something ill sink into now and then, whenever i want a little bit of that... art vs morals - beauty vs sin gay sh*t.

delightful, really, to no end. a favorite.

Entiendo el contexto histórico y cómo era la sociedad de la época, pero a estas alturas de la vida, ya pocas cosas resultan tan escandalosas.
A pesar de eso, me encantan las reflexiones sobre la juventud, la moral, el bien y el mal. Hay muchas cosas de eso que ya no recordaba.

Relectura (2024) 4/5.

Mi primer contacto con El retrato de Dorian Gray fue en el instituto de la mano de la edición censurada de la historia. Y aunque hubiese estado sin censurar, probablemente me habría gustado igual de poco. Hay libros que simplemente necesitan leerse en un momento concreto, con una mentalidad concreta. La mía era muy infantil para algunas de las ideas que plantea Wilde en esta novela, y ahora, ya mucho más mayor, las he podido apreciar desde una perspectiva diferente, lo que me ha llevado a gustarme tanto como no me gustó la primera vez.

No tengo nada que añadir a lo que ya tanto se ha hablado de este clásico de la literatura, salvo que su relectura me anima a ponerme con otros que en su día también odié.

2019 Pride month read #18

As much as it's saddening to see the uncensored and censored version side by side, what must be the most heartbreaking thing is to hold the book in your hands, knowing you're reading something that cost him everything he had, including his life. I don't think anyone can escape the sickening feeling upon remembering they're reading a story that was essentially used to convict and kill an innocent man. And you can't not feel overwhelmingly grateful to him for not only writing it, but also being brave and publishing it.

If you can buy this edition and not the popular one, BUY IT NOWWWWWWWWWWWW. This is a more REAL portrait of what oscar wilde really wanted to write and express to the reader!

*3.5

This was an interesting read but I still prefer the censored version. There were no moments of explicit hom*osexuality as claimed in the blurb (at least I as a 21st century reader recognised) and overall the story lost some crucial elements such as Sybil's brother being the only person who knew of her and Dorian's engagement and his subsequent contribution to Dorian's downfall.

While I am glad I read this I was expecting a lot more and found this version to be far inferior to the version we are family with.

Overall,

⭐⭐⭐.5
OR
🪞🪞🪞.5

i hate all the characters in this story but they aren't meant to be likable so...good job? the story is fascinating but maybe it's due to passage of time and the evolution of literature i can't really appreciate overwhelming amounts of monologue and philosophical anecdotes seemingly out of nowhere. yeah i eat that stuff up usually but it really seem over-excessive in this book but who knows, maybe i just don't have good taste.

i've never really seen myself as a classics person and this book has not proven me wrong. i despise chunky paragraphs with over flowery language that not only is hard to understand-but also doesn't seem to serve much purpose to the plot (though it could definitely be argued that they ARE the plot.)

all the men in this book are gay because they hate women-absolutely not because they like men. anyways it definitely wasn't what i was expecting when i read the summary both in a good and in a bad way. i'll probably reread this someday and see if something catches my attention. classics are classics for a reason and they've long withstood the test of time so like the few other classics i've read there's something compelling about it but i also don't quite like it.

the premise is very interesting because it essentially opposes everything everyone says and believes in, beauty for the sake of beauty, beauty without meaning as the highest form of beauty, essentially to put it in the most layman terms, superficial appreciation. art shouldn’t have too much of the artist's feeling for it would ruin the beauty of the work. again, i agree with this to some extent and this book eventually, does condemn it. hopefully no one comes at me for my review on this book...

to end off this very long review, in the words of oscar wilde,
all art is at once surface and symbol. those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

it's the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital. when critics disagree that artist is in accord with himself.

we can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. the only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

all art is quite useless.