The Picture of Dorian Gray (Illustrated Classics): A Graphic Novel [Paperback]

Wilde sees the world more clearly than any writer of fiction in the last century. It is for that reason that his work is so filled with countless paradoxes and contradictions that challenge the mind and titillate the senses. Wilde lived in an infinitely ironic age, when society had grown so influential as to crowd out the individuals that made it up. Today, we have taken for granted this incongruity and so our writers cannot express the kind of irony that Wilde mastered, despite the fact that we all know that something is amiss.

`The Picture of Dorian Gray' is filled with this irony. The plot shows us the ultimate irony of a man giving up his soul for the beauty of youth--the condition that is exalted in the modern age above all else, intellect, truth, justice, life itself. Interspersed are dialogues and epigrams that persist one hundred years later as some of the finest word handling ever recorded. Even a few samples should compel the potential reader:

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

"A man cannot be too careful in his choice for his enemies."

"The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little bit longer."

"Men marry because they are tired, women marry because they are curious. Both are disappointed."

"I love acting, it is so much more real than life."

- "I am on the side of the Trojans, they fought for a woman."
- "They were defeated."

The mastery of wit that Wilde displays must be seen in its context. He was a decadent as much as the characters he portrays are. Ultimately, the disillusion that the decadent faces comes through in the story and the reader is left with a very uneasy feeling upon completing `Dorian Gray.' Is life as absurd as it seems? Is there a solution? Or are we stuck with a life of paradox? Perhaps our current period of decadence will show us an alternative. Until it does, we can enjoy the astounding word play offered here.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" seems particularly suited to comic book adaptation. The gothic tone of the piece combined with the sublime imagery of the ever-aging, ever-corrupting portrait is ready-made for some illustrator in the Edward Gorey or Tim Burton vein. Black and white is the way to go, as a color adaptation would make Gray's world seem too garish, too vulgar. A delicate touch is required here.

Illustrator I.N.J. Culbard brings that delicate touch, with an art style that is cartoony and gothic at the same time. Culbard does not go for the obvious, which would be an imitation of Gorey or Burton's style. The eternal beauty of Dorian as well as the brashness of Lord Henry who urges Dorian on and the horrible visage of the portrait that reflects Dorian's soul are all portrayed with a deft hand that brings the story to life the way only the best adaptations do.

Praise must also go to story-adapter Ian Edginton who has to cut down the novel to comic book length, keeping only those passages which contain the core of the morality play. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is one of Oscar Wilde's most famous works, and although not a particularly long novel it is complex with undercurrents and allusions enough to keep a college literature course busy for quite awhile.

Edington does have the advantage of a full graphic novel format to work with. I have read illustrated adaptations of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" before, most recently in the Graphic Classics: Oscar Wilde, but they have always been shorted versions of the story packed into an anthology. With this Sterling Press publication, you get even more of the famous lines and Wilde's unique style.

I greatly enjoyed this adaptation, and I look forward to further work by Culbard and Edginton, specifically their Sherlock Holmes adaptation The Hound of the Baskervilles. They make for a formidable team.

I used this to write a paper about Oscar Wilde. It has two versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray plus essays about Wilde and the novel. A great resource.