The Picture of Dorian Gray

The famous story of the magic portrait that ages while its knavish subject stays young. With its witty dialogue and extravagant theatricality, Wilde's classic moral horror story reads beautifully aloud. If you've enjoyed the delightfully cynical cad, Lord Henry, impersonated by such actors as George Sanders, the youthful Sheen may disappoint you. He hasn't quite the technique to toss off the bons mots but makes up for it in passion and strong characterizations. His major achievement is his unique treatment of the narrative partly as melodrama and partly as fairy tale, a tone that matches, if not what the author aspired towards, what the author actually accomplished. The bridges of Bo‘llmann, Chabrier and Schumann piano music are perfectly apt. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, 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