Dorian Gray - no. 40

Solar Nocturnal 2000

Price: £9.95, although I used a book token so I logged it under gifts.

History: No really special news about this one at all. Except I had a bit of a joyful breakdown on the bus, coming across one of my favourite passages which I'd forgotten, and explaining animatedly to my companion why it's still the most powerful and beautiful thing I've ever read. And the woman standing opposite, who couldn't help but overhear, me gave me a massive grin. So that was a nice moment.

Look: Can't argue with Aubrey Beardsley, whose art I adore, and is linked to Oscar Wilde because he did the art for Salome. This is a deliberately decadant edition - it's the original text, and that combined with the black cover and the art you can tell they're seeking the thrill-seeker audience. In truth, there isn't anything too too shocking about this book any more, though it hasn't lost its talent to disturb. In fact, it's very similar indeed to No 28. I was actually expecting them to be different prints by the same publisher.

Introductions/appendices: An original text version, although there are no annotations and a very unhelpful (not to mention, fittingly alarmist) introduction by Jeremy Reed. And the preface and extra chapter, stuck on the back. Don;t get me wrong, I like this copy - but I wouldn't recommend it.

But hell - let's celebrate. I just reached 40 copies! Maybe now's a good time to work out the, ahem, material cost of the collection...

And some observations tacked on today:

Friend 4 and I have argued about this a long, long time - the line says "on the eve of his 38th birthday", so does that mean the day before as in Christmas Eve, or eve as in evening? The issue has just been complicated - I've never noticed before, but the Lippincots version places the chapter on the eve of his 32nd birthday, 7th November, while the more familiar copy has his 38th birthday, on the 8th.

As every time I end up sending away all my copies bar one, they soon multiply. I'm currently living in a uni room, and over Christmas I moved the five I'd aquired home, taking me back to my one beloved copy again. This brings me to three again.

http://web.uvic.ca/~gifford/eng433/dorian.htm - I'm watching this site with some interest. The pdf link won't work, but I'm looking forward to the point at which they upload their promised facimile edition.

The Penguin website tells me there is going to be a tie-in edition of the novel to go with the new movie. I haven't explained my feelings towards it on this site yet, mostly because this is meant to be a family-friendly blog. And I'm not sure I could stay within my language remit. The question is, do I buy one of the damn things or not? I'm also considering whether or not to buy the new Classic Book Collection for the DS. It includes Dorian Gray, and would certainly be an interesting one. At the same time, it's £18 and I have no intention of ever buying a Nintendo DS with which to read it. Is it worth it...? Or is it just intensely wasteful for me to keep it in its box?