The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – Free Ebook
There is an old film version of this story called “The Portrait of Dorian Grey” which was possibly made in the late 1930’s to early 1940’s. The actor who played the main character, Dorian Gray, was most exquisite of form and played the character most effectively. Actor George Sands was the Lord who corrupted the young Dorian, and I believe it was for the sheer pleasure of corruption of youth that he undertook that task. This story is more about choices, personal volition, and responsibility. We can look at Dorian and question his making that choice, but the person who set him upon that path bears the greater responsibility for corruption of an innocent person. In the end, Dorian is done-in by his own desire to destroy what he had himself created of his life, and what he had destroyed of the person of his own making. Chilling and undeniably timely as the society we make for ourselves today seeks to destroy itself by corrupting the youth that we deem iconic. –Submitted by Anonymous
What would you do if you had a record of every bad deed you did? Would you hide it away where no one would see it? What would you do to hide your secret if someone discovered it? Read this book and ponder these age old questions.–Submitted by Sandra Branum
The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1945)
The original interpretation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, 1945’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray was critically praised on its release, even if its dark and provocative tone was too much for many. Making a star of the newcomer Hurd Hatfield as the eponymous protagonist, the film hurt his career even as it helped it. “The film didn’t make me popular in Hollywood,” he commented later. “It was too odd, too avant-garde, too ahead of its time. The decadence, the hints of bisexuality and so on, made me a leper! Nobody knew I had a sense of humour, and people wouldn’t even have lunch with me.” Primarily a black and white film, colour frames occasionally flash onto the screen whenever the portrait is in view (three times in total) making the genuinely horrific portrait all the more terrifying by the end
http://www.empireonline.com/features/oscar-wilde-on-film/5.asp