The Picture of Dorian Gray

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde endures with its gems of astute observation and cynical wit. The eerie story follows a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty in the form of a supernatural portrait. Life's mysterious paradoxes are laced throughout Lord Henry's brilliant aphorisms. Gray is urged by Henry to "love the wonderful life that is in you." The novel's classic qualities are mired in decadence, "art for art's sake," the new hedonism of the Victorian-era upper class, and societal moral corruption. Simon Prebble perfectly achieves Lord Henry's "low, languid voice" and sparkling conversation, while avidly expressing the other characters' more torrid emotions. Prebble brings the fable's gothic horror to life, but the more youthful characters lack believable intonation. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine


Oscar Wilde's witty prose, so often shaped into lovely aphorisms, cries out to be read aloud. As a result, this fine adaptation has a lot to work with, and the members of the cast deliver it well, bringing out both the glittering surface and underlying emotional resonance of this macabre tale of forbidden passion and hidden sin. As fits the prose, the actors often seem to be declaiming, and each line can stand alone. This makes the work all the more apt for audio production. The only weakness is an excess of sound effects. They aren't bad, but they aren't needed. Wilde's wit is enough in itself. G.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine