tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67047256806895763532024-02-08T03:21:30.658-08:00The Weblog of Dorian GrayMy collection of different editions of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and other Oscar Wilde books.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-5373327836433357882010-08-19T13:37:00.000-07:002010-08-19T13:58:51.986-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 46<u><div style="text-align: center;">A Bantam Classic (1982)<br /></div></u><br /><u>Price:</u> a gift from Friend 2; inside pencil suggests it was sold for $3.<br /><br /><u>History: </u> Friend 2 returned from America with three rather lovely presents for me.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> This copy is distractingly unremarkable - just a photo of it's author on the cover, with the tell-tale words "and Other Writings", it just reeks of "cheap edition". And then...<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices: </u><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><span>its introduction is written by Richard Ellerman, who wrote the definitive biographical tome on Oscar Wilde. This alone gives it extra spangly value - and again, I have no time to review this introduction now, but I read and enjoyed it.<br /></span><span><br />This</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span>edition also contains the <span style="font-style: italic;">Ballad, Lady Windamere, Ideal Husband, Earnest</span> and a new translation of <span style="font-style: italic;">Salome</span>. </span><span>An interesting idea, but even this can't save it from almost total awfulness. I adore <span style="font-style: italic;">Salome</span>, but as far as I'm concerned, the original line:<br /><br /><blockquote>One would fancy she were looking for dead things<br /></blockquote>and the new translation:<br /><br /><blockquote>She might be seeking for the dead.<br /></blockquote>are more or less equally bad.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Captured:</span> ?-8-10Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-5758301665406646922010-08-19T13:20:00.000-07:002010-08-19T13:37:41.448-07:00Dorian Gray - no 45.<u><div style="text-align: center;">Penguin Classics 2010<br /></div></u><br /><u>Price:</u> a gift from Friend 2; back indicates it was $6.99, reduced to $4.99<br /><br /><u>History: </u> Friend 2 returned from America with three rather lovely presents for me.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> This is the best of the three covers, a very punchy cartoon-style youth with a cold, savage expression. It's simplicity - three colours, line drawing - is eyecatching and alluring. Dark blue isn't a colour I'd associate with the book, but it works marvellously. A favourite design.<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices:</u><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Short biography and chronology, plus a facimile of the original front page - nothing worth writing about.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Captured:</span> ?-8-10Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-2787548194858445142010-08-19T12:18:00.000-07:002010-08-19T13:20:08.524-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 44<u><div style="text-align: center;">Barnes and Noble Classics (2003)<br /></div></u><br /><u>Price:</u> a gift from Friend 2; back indicates it was $4.95<br /><br /><u>History: </u> Friend 2 returned from America with three rather lovely presents for me. This is my favourite of the three.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> I've ogled this one on the web before, but I've always felt that ordering them over the internet is a very slippery slope. I've always hated collectors to whom completeness is more important than the things themselves, and the chase is part of the fun. A lovely red cover, and a very intriguing painting. I don't technically like young men on the covers of these books, but this is one of my many exceptions. The painting has such a strange expression - I love how wooden he seems.<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices: </u>Lovely! A two page biography, a four page timeline, and a lovely lengthy introduction. No time to discuss it now, but I remember enjoying it.<br /><br />But it's after the endnotes that get interesting. "Inspired by" lists other media inspired by Oscar Wilde's life, Dorian Gray films and operas, and sequels to the book. I enjoyed having my mind tickled by six "Questions" for a book club or school group. I particularly enjoyed "is sin ugly or beautiful?". There are some comments on the novel from Wilde himself, Alfred Douglas and James Joyce. And a tasty further reading section.<br /><br />This copy is notable for providing me with a formidable to-devour list. While not necessarily useful to the idle reader, I'm always glad for new related material!<br /><ul><li>Lowell Liebermann's <a href="http://www.lowellliebermann.com/dorian/index.html">Dorian Gray opera</a>. I hope there is a recording...</li><li>The 1997 <span style="font-style: italic;">Dorian</span> sequel in which our hero becomes a master of the dark arts. I unexpectedly enjoyed Will Self's updated take, so am willing to take a chance at Jeremy Reed's.</li><li>Two possible precursours to Dorian:<br /></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Ashes of the Future (A Study of Mere Human Nature): The Suicide of Sylvester Gray</span>. Fantastically awful title, proving frustratingly obscure to find.</li><li style="font-style: italic;">Vivian Gray</li>Mercifully, is on Project Gutenburg. Looking forward to reading this!<br /></ul><span style="font-style: italic;">Captured:</span> ?-8-10Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-59552385552747877822010-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:002010-01-04T09:10:49.958-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 43<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Naxos audiobooks</u> - Martin Sheen<br /></div><br /><u>Price:</u> a gift from my aunt. As they are tapes, I guess they might have been second hand - no sign of a price tag<br /><br /><u>History: </u>Do you remember me saying that New Zealand is the home of gorgeous books? Some of my best Dorians have originated from there, and it's nice to see that contiue with a surprise New Year gift through the mail.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> The first casette box has one of those oldy worldy images of a young man gracing the cover. I wonder what the sitters for these portraits would have thought of ultimately being associated with such a tarnished figure? It's quite a nice one, though not really Dorianesque. The second box has an image of Oscar Wilde in "the Aesthetic Period".<br /><br />I was actually pretty comfortable listening to the other audiobook I own (read by Martin Shaw). Sure, the voices were strange, and sure they chopped bits out all over the shop (not that anyone but a nutjob obsessive would notice...), but I know it so well that the words lapse into lullaby rhythms in the background. It's rather soothing. So I will be giving this one a shot<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices: </u>not really. There's a biography of reader Michael Sheen<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Captured:</span> 4-1-10Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-38298988645837826062009-11-20T04:23:00.000-08:002010-08-19T12:45:43.537-07:00TelenyI finally got a copy of the movie tie-in Dorian from cute little shop in Bloomsbury. I figured if I had to buy one, I’d rather support an independent bookstore than a chain. While I was there, I settled on acquiring something special for the OW collection: a copy of <span style="font-style: italic;">Teleny</span>. It’s not in any of my collected works, because the novel is an anonymous one attributed to him. I’ve seen it around, and flicked through it at the Uni Library, and thought it’d be fun to have in my library.<br /><br />Let’s get this out of the way quickly: it’s not Oscar. It’s definitely of the same period and style, packed with languorous heroes, heady perfumes and ludicrous metaphors, but I’m not sure any serious academics do think it’s written by him any more. Though I can see where the mistake would be made. Victorian decadent gay fiction by an anonymous author? Who else! And there are similarities – particularly the way Camille meets Teleny, which mimics Basil’s meeting with Dorian. Camille is, like Dorian, Teleny’s artistic inspiration – and Teleny is, like Dorian, gorgeous and cruel in equal measure. But nowadays, surely, it is merely the economic benefit of putting “Oscar Wilde” on the cover that keeps the rumour going.<br /><br />Firstly and most important: my gut reaction says no. I do place some faith in my instinct. There’s a short Oscar Wilde fragment they dug up, two lines long, and published in the back of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Penguin Collected Short Fiction</span>. The moment I glanced at it I just knew, from two lines alone, that it was definitely his. I’m still upset by a recording of <span style="font-style: italic;">Reading Gaol</span>, attributed to him, because I just don’t know based on the voice and I feel I should. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Picture of Dorian Gray </span>is remarkable for giving me intense phantom smells all the way through: <span style="font-style: italic;">Teleny </span>just doesn’t feel or smell the same. Even without that, it reads like an imitation. The phrases just don’t have that perfection, and the dialogue is appalling. Yes, Oscar Wilde could do appalling dialogue too (see <span style="font-style: italic;">Salome </span>or <span style="font-style: italic;">Duchess of Padua</span>), but it was a very particular sort of awful. The scattered epigrams lack wit and seem like pale shades. To my mind, this is the racy rip off published in Dorian’s wake – like the scores of Vampire Romances suddenly filling our shelves. The evidence for Wilde’s authorship, aside from the textual similarities, is based mostly o€€€n the comments dropped by the original publishers. But surely they had as much to gain by linking it with Wilde’s name as modern publishers do? (<a href="http://www.oscholars.com/TO/Specials/Teleny/boyd.htm">read a good defence of this position, one with footnotes</a>)<br /><br />I have more stock in the other idea: that it was passed around and co-written by Wilde’s circle, and that he brushed it over at some point. Yes, that would make sense of a lot of things: the fact it looks like but doesn’t always feel like his work, plus the rather fragmentary nature of the plot. You can easily imagine some of the more irrelevant chapters being added in by extra authors – even the publishers commissioning a bit more screwing to pad it out. At one point, it does begin to feel like the story has been jettisoned entirely in favour of increasingly obscene subplots. Rather like those sandwiches Scooby Doo used to eat, with a tiny bit of bread on the top and bottom, packed out with hundreds of fillings. I wonder if anyone’s ever done a serious study to attribute different parts to different writers?<br /><br />As for the story itself – it’s sillier than <span style="font-style: italic;">Twilight</span>, fantastically loopy high melodrama. Camille falls in love with the pianist Teleny the first moment their eyes meet, and at the same moment gets a prophetic vision of his death! Teleny falls in love with him, because he is the only person who gets the same visions when he hears him play! A brilliantly romantic concept. Camille tries to keep away from him, but also obsessively stalks him – at one point, he sees Teleny take a woman home and has a vivid hallucination about what they are up to. When he tells Teleny this, it all turns out to be exactly as he imagines! Which you might think was rather ridiculous, but the narrator refers us to the “Psychikal Society” for proof that such things do exist. And yet, at times it is genuinely moving, as our hero struggles with his unnatural desires and rails against the cruel world he is stuck in.<br /><br />All this is well and good, and I might even have enjoyed this for the daft brilliance it is, were it not very very porny – porny in a decadent way, all mossy clefts, little acorns and Classical references, but still far more explicit than I had expected. And certainly enough to make reading it on the Tube a pretty shady experience. It’s basically Victorian erotica: PWP, as they would call it on Livejournal, Porn Without Point. It frequently derails the story of romantic obsession for all sort of irrelevant (but horny) digressions, like introducing a maid only to violate her three times, recounting the tale of My First Orgy, and presenting what must be the literary precursor of One Girl, One Bottle. Even while our hero claims he’s never fancied a woman, you do get at least ten (by my last count) sex scenes involving them – this is equal opportunities arousal. Which I suppose is the point of porn – thin narrative stringing together titillating scenarios – but combined with the heady style, it feels a bit like being raped by Georgia O’Keefe.<br /><br />This rather random selection of increasingly tacked on sex scenes is, I think, fairly intriguing proof that it was written as a collaboration. Particularly the chunk about the maid, which seems pretty incidental; or the <span style="font-style: italic;">Eyes Wide Shut</span> symposium which is so much nastier than one would possibly expect (even from the rest of the book) that it’s tempting to see it as a beefed up addition. In that context, I almost feel there’s a place for the readers to expand on it as a work in progress. When one fellow at the symposium stands up to tell a naughty story, it feels as if every dinner guest could have recounted something equally ribald, and maybe in time it would have been expanded by the Writing Team. I’m also bemused they didn’t reach the natural conclusion of the Teleny/Camille/Bryancourt love triangle: it seemed like such an obvious plot development.<br /><br />Yet it is also very cleverly written: we know our hero must get off with Teleny eventually, but it keeps you on tenterhooks for about eight chapters of longing glances, with only a stolen distant kiss and a lot of adjectives to tide you over. When Camille does finally talk to Teleny – they meet at the moment he is about to throw himself into the Thames due to the torments of passion! – Teleny whisks him home to a specially prepared chamber of white silk, just like white heliotrope. At one hilarious moment, he apologises:<br /><br /><blockquote>“I cannot give you a banquet, though I expected you; still there is enough to satisfy your hunger, I hope.”</blockquote>At which point I, as a student, expected Teleny to offer him beans on toast – but no:<br /><br /><blockquote>“There were some luscious Cancale oysters – few but of an immense size; a dusty bottle of Sauterne, then a <span style="font-style: italic;">pate de fois gras</span> highly scented with Perigord truffles; a partridge with paprika or Hungarian curry, and a salad made out of a huge Piedmont truffle, as thinly sliced as shavings; and a bottle of exquisite dry sherry...then came a dish of Seville oranges, bananas, and pineapples, flavoured with Maraschino and covered with sifted sugar. It was a saviory, tasty, tart and sweet medley, combining together the scent and flavour of all those delicious fruits. After having washed it down with a bottle of sparkling champagne, we then sipped some tiny cups of fragrant and scalding Mocha coffee.”<br /></blockquote><br />And all this in a house which, we are told, is safely free of servants. Oh, how I love the decadents! Whenever the plot cranked up again, I did genuinely enjoy this book – silliness and all. The central love story is a moving one, the characters were well drawn, and the conclusion was pretty devastating. While lots of the screwing was gratuitous (PWP, remember?), it was also at times used to brilliant effect – that first kiss, the climactic ending (one of those brilliant moments where you know with a sinking feeling what has to happen, and totally justified in its sickly voyeuristic detail) – even the chapter-and-a-half which Teleny and the Narrator spend rolling about in a timeless, luxurious eternity adds to the atmosphere. There are great Freudian undertones, particularly if you mirror the ending with the Teleny-as-sister dream sequence; and as a gay novel, is a brilliant study of a man struggling with his desires. It’s just a pity that the florid decadent noodlings so frequently tip it over from erotic back into laugh-out-loud bad. I particularly enjoyed a man dismounting: “all covered with perspiration, date syrup, sperm and spittle”. There’s something about the culinary detail which struck me as particularly bathetic. It's so <span style="font-style: italic;">Victorian </span>- not erotic, merely accurate...<br /><br />Final verdict? Attributing this to Wilde is rather like attributing <span style="font-style: italic;">Traci Lords of the Rings</span> to Tolkien, or <span style="font-style: italic;">Team America: World Police</span> to Gerry Anderson or Michael Bay. It has the trappings of a Dorian, but none of the intelligence – no musings on art and life (or none of any significance), no depth. I’m not sure that Wilde could have written something completely unconcerned with his pet projects – it’s possible that he was involved somewhere down the line, but he was certainly not the sole author. One wonders if he would have put the screwing back into Dorian Gray, had he been allowed to. One thinks not – it would lose that unsettling ambiguity. But I do wonder whether he ever read <span style="font-style: italic;">Teleny</span>, and what he thought of it.<br /><br />The Oscholars have a special issue on the novel:<br />http://www.oscholars.com/TO/Specials/Teleny/ToC.htmUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-68431449591495849102009-06-03T04:18:00.000-07:002009-06-03T04:39:39.267-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 42<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Eye Classics</u><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZga7dUMRI/AAAAAAAAAUc/dEFDu7nky7E/s1600-h/51RcTWXp9JL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZga7dUMRI/AAAAAAAAAUc/dEFDu7nky7E/s400/51RcTWXp9JL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343064023675187474" border="0" /></a><u>Price:</u> £12.99<br /><br /><u>History: </u>In West Hampstead there is a fantastic little bookshop, run by shop assistants who discuss poetry while not serving people and with two shelves of "deluxe editions". It's filled with lovely books, and I've never bought a single thing from there because I've never found a <span style="font-style: italic;">Dorian Gray</span>. I complained to Friend 2 about this, as we browsed on my last day there, and she discovered this some half a minute later. It was meant to be.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> You might remember my joy and, indeed, surprise at how good <a href="http://theweblogofdoriangray.blogspot.com/2008/12/dorian-gray-no-33.html">my last graphic novel version</a> was. The pencils were gorgeous in their own right, the chosen imagery perfect, the omissions so skillfully done that even I didn't miss them. I haven't read the whole of my new one yet, but there's already an interesting split in my brain. The art is simplistic, childlike, and not in a good way. At face value I dislike it. Strongly. But the use of colours and shadows is good, and there's something surreal in the friendliness of the art - when I start reading it, I do get horribly involved in the world of strange grey shapes and stretched rooms. Full report when it is finished, but I think ultimately I will adore it. It also wins brownie points for crediting Oscar Wilde first on the cover.<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices: </u>A brief intro and author biography.<br /><a href="http://www.selfmadehero.com/classical_eye/podg.html"><br />Some reviews and the like</a><br /><a href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=12422">And Forbidden Planet gushes, with more images which make my heart aquiver.</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Captured:</span> 1-6-09<br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-18923662936553853402009-06-03T03:51:00.000-07:002009-06-03T04:52:23.143-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 41<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Broadview Literary Texts</u><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZj1-kw1YI/AAAAAAAAAU0/WVmo4RQ9YiQ/s1600-h/102.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 215px; height: 337px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZj1-kw1YI/AAAAAAAAAU0/WVmo4RQ9YiQ/s400/102.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343067786903082370" border="0" /></a><u>Price:</u> £4.99, technically, but it was a gift<br /><br /><u>History: </u>I remain endebted to my friends and family for my awesome, and growing, collection. Friend 4 bought this for herself in the first weeks of university because she forgot her own copy, and passed it on when she got home. It's a lovely beastie.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> I strongly approve. It's otherworldly, this book - funny colours, funny fonts, but somehow it works. The text is very small, but the pages are very soft. I like it. It is also nowhere near this red in real life, the red is less bright.<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices:</u> This would be a great copy for someone who wants to read a little further than the text, without drowning in academia. There are brief footnotes throughout for the weirder references, a nice introduction, and a series of short appendices (extracts from other relevant works, some trial excerpts, something on <span style="font-style: italic;">A Rebours</span>, and an interesting page on "langour"). If you want to do a proper uni-level essay on the novel, <a href="http://theweblogofdoriangray.blogspot.com/2008/12/dorian-gray-no-27.html">Number 27</a> is still the one to look for, but this would be perfectly servicable for GSCE/A-Level, or people who just want a little more context.<br /><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SxQAr_rvRwMC&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281&dq=dorian+gray+broadview+literary+texts&source=bl&ots=uJ8xENl74R&sig=CdFT5D7JAa-AVqJC6d-pxgw6jeA&hl=en&ei=YmMmStCiLc7OjAfoh4nnBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#PPA5,M1"><br />You can have a flick through this on Google Books, including a better peep at the cover.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-24654015211502092502009-03-11T13:08:00.000-07:002009-03-11T13:36:08.414-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 40<div align="center"><u>Solar Nocturnal 2000</u></div><u></u><div align="left"><br /><br /><u><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SbgfbejeGSI/AAAAAAAAAPk/7hDAeaemwPw/s1600-h/imageDB.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312030317402265890" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 191px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SbgfbejeGSI/AAAAAAAAAPk/7hDAeaemwPw/s400/imageDB.jpg" border="0" /></a>Price:</u> £9.95, although I used a book token so I logged it under gifts.<br /><br /><u>History: </u>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.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> Can't argue with Aubrey Beardsley, whose art I adore, and is linked to Oscar Wilde because he did the art for <em>Salome</em>. 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 <a href="http://theweblogofdoriangray.blogspot.com/2008/12/dorian-gray-no-28.html">very similar indeed to No 28</a>. I was actually expecting them to be different prints by the same publisher.<br /><br /><u>Introductions/appendices: </u>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.<br /><br />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...<br /><br />And some observations tacked on today:<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://theweblogofdoriangray.blogspot.com/2008/12/dorian-gray-no2.html">one beloved copy again</a>. This brings me to three again.<br /><br /><a href="http://web.uvic.ca/~gifford/eng433/dorian.htm">http://web.uvic.ca/~gifford/eng433/dorian.htm</a> - 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. </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">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?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-22302289116704991652009-03-11T12:57:00.000-07:002009-06-03T05:04:51.570-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 39<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Penguin Books, 1954</u><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZmyTZ6MvI/AAAAAAAAAU8/8wTR42LbrdM/s1600-h/9780141037684.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 163px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZmyTZ6MvI/AAAAAAAAAU8/8wTR42LbrdM/s400/9780141037684.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343071022310109938" border="0" /></a><u>P</u><u>rice:</u> 2/ -, but I got it for £1.80 including student discount.<br /><br /><u>History</u> I've got a walk I do every few weeks - up to Forbidden Planet via Treadwell's occult bookstore, then back to the tube past Orbital Comics and a whole host of antiquarian bookshops. Of which Henry Pourdes is my favourite, and this is my second Dorian from there (<a href="http://theweblogofdoriangray.blogspot.com/2008/12/penguin-modern-classics-1966-from-for.html">the previous one being no. 33</a>)<br /><br /><u>Look</u> Lovely! It's that iconic Penguin style, with the orange border.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/appendices</u> Nothing, ignoring a very...tactful author biography on the back cover, the closest it comes to explaining what went on in the 1890s is "flouting of conventional morality". Hmmm.<br /><br />I've started to wonder what the cutoff date for Dorian Grays is. According to the cover of this, the first Penguin edition of the book was 1949, but I'm not sure if that isn't more to do with the Penguin publishing house. What I mean is: I wonder how big the gap of time, the space of infamy was in which you could not get a copy of the book. Is there one? Say, the very late 1800s, early 1900s - was there a patch where respectable publishing houses wouldn't touch it?<br /><br /><u>Captured</u> 11-03-09, at about 3 in the afternoonUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-76331353080559129772009-01-15T02:33:00.000-08:002009-01-15T02:48:23.728-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 38<div align="center"> <u>Oxford World Classics, 2008</u><br /></div><div align="center"><u></u></div><u><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SW8R7XXMSCI/AAAAAAAAAMc/mz4lNKB_63Q/s1600-h/dg2.bmp"></a><br /></u><u>Price:</u> well, it says £4.99 on the back cover - but technically I got it free, as part of a "Buy one get one" offer. And I paid £8.99 for the <em>Aeneid</em> I got it free with. Where does that leave me?<br /></u><u><div align="center"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SW8R7XXMSCI/AAAAAAAAAMc/mz4lNKB_63Q/s1600-h/dg2.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291467798764865570" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 86px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 130px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SW8R7XXMSCI/AAAAAAAAAMc/mz4lNKB_63Q/s400/dg2.bmp" border="0" /></a></div>History</u> It's been a while. Long, long while. Folks, I think this is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen - and I've been putting it off because of it. But when I saw a way to get it free, well, I could find no more excuses. That foul picture they have on the front was on the previous Oxford World Classics edition, which I hated and haven't got - but now it's stopped appearing in shops, I feel rather guilty that I might have "lost" one. Anyway, you heard it here first folks: yuck, yuck, yuck!<br /><u>Look </u>See above...<br /><u>Introduction/appendices</u> the worst bit is there's barely anything here. The back advertises that it contains "Wilde's revised and expanded text" (what, like all of them?) and "Wilde's provocotive preface" as if not every other copy in my collection has both those things. I am not expecting much of the introduction.<br /><u>Captured </u>13-01-09Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-11721605268192089492008-12-24T04:58:00.000-08:002008-12-24T05:14:15.512-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 37<div align="center"><u>Hamlyn 1983 (complete works)</u></div><div align="center"><u></u> </div><div align="left"><u>Price:</u> £1.50</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><u>History:</u> got this at the Charity Shop in town. According to stamps inside the book, this used to belong to our local library's School service. Dating complete works is fairly easy, at least approximately, because the complete text of De Profundus was not allowed to be published till after 1960. </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><u>Look:</u> I think it is the Victoriana that has given me a suspicion towards books with yellow covers. This is yellow, and it's got one of the Aubrey Beardsley drawings on the front, coupled with a quote about immoral books. It's certainly trying to capitalise on a certain aspect of Oscar Wilde's appeal. The text is very small...but other than that, a lovely copy. under the dustjacket it is peach, which is interesting but not necessarily wrong.</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><u>Introduction/appendices: </u>three pages, not very interesting. </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><u>Captured: </u>18-12-2008</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-76362601038625323572008-12-24T03:36:00.000-08:002009-06-03T05:06:46.426-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 35<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Penguin Classics - 2008 hardback edition</u><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZnPIvLdYI/AAAAAAAAAVE/oOvSw9deg-8/s1600-h/3040974482_059a151e6f.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 162px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZnPIvLdYI/AAAAAAAAAVE/oOvSw9deg-8/s200/3040974482_059a151e6f.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343071517662737794" border="0" /></a><u>Price:</u>£8 (it was £4 off)<br /><u></u><br /><u>History:</u> So, on the way out from that extravagant luxury purchase...I kinda saw another one. Because it was gorgeous, and because it was reduced. And exclusive to Waterstones.<br /><u></u><br /><u>Look:</u> Nice, chunky hardback, which I especially admire for the black/white colour scheme and the old fashioned style. What I really want is a good facimile of the original, but this will do for now. The actual style of the text is also identical to the paperback Penguin Classics, which was the first edition I ever read.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/appendices:</u> the Penguin Classics default by Robert Mighall. I've read it before - and so have I the notes at the back, and the selection of reviews. Its identical to some of my other Penguins. It has a thin, white bookmark.<br /><br /><u>Caught:</u> 12-12-2008Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-27899836078202351132008-12-24T02:38:00.000-08:002009-06-03T05:17:36.236-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 36<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Marvel Illustrated</u></div><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZp0mMuz-I/AAAAAAAAAVM/g9QppQMY7TA/s1600-h/51KCV1As9RL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SiZp0mMuz-I/AAAAAAAAAVM/g9QppQMY7TA/s200/51KCV1As9RL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343074360249733090" border="0" /></a><u>Price:</u> $19.99 according to the back cover</p><p><u>History:</u> Just last week, I popped "graphic novel" into my requests list, and but a few days later I was presented with an overdue birthday present. Fate methinks.</p><p><u>Look: </u>Obviously, a Dorian Gray graphic novel is a world of terrors all of its own, especially for someone who goes frowny faced at covers which depict him. Shouldn't have worried - the style is wonderful, and more importantly, comes so close to what is in my mind. Maybe the descriptions really are that vivid that everyone imagines the same things? I like the little tributes too - in the background of the opium den scene, the moon really is a yellow skull. And the descriptive chapter is all present and correct. Like all the best adaptations, you don't really miss the bits which are cut - and that's saying a lot from me, who knows it far far too well. My only serious complaint on that count was the character of Sybil's mother, whose penchant for melodrama is missed entirely. And that Sybil is dark haired, not blonde - not that it matters (my friends and I have been arguing this for half a year; last night, we decided to check, and I <u>was</u> right - not blonde, not ginger, but dark haired! Ha! So it's a sore point...) Finally, the art is gorgeous in its own right - as is the use of colours and shadows. </p><p>It's nice to read as well - and underneath the dust jacket, the hardback is black with gold text, which is <u>always</u> a score for this novel. </p><p><u>Introduction/Appendices: </u>two pages by the guy in charge of the adaptation, two interesting pages at that; the six original covers, and a glossary for the more obscure Victorian words</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-47738154628142771262008-12-15T14:57:00.000-08:002008-12-24T04:03:44.992-08:00Dorian Gray no. 34<div align="center"> <u>Penguin Classics, with Bill Amberg, 2008</u><br /><u></u></div><div align="left"><u>Price:</u> £50</div><div align="left"> </div><u>History: </u>This collection can barely count as my very own. Almost everyone I know has contributed, many by sending me copies from all over the globe, others just by seeking them out for me. Someone tipped me off that there was a very expensive copy in Waterstones, Picadilly - I went hunting, and there it was - in nice neat brown boxes in the corner of that wonderful shop. There are five other books in the collection - "who on EARTH would buy one of these at that price?!", I found myself asking as I gently levered Dorian Gray off the shelf and into my arms. At that point, I thought I'd better OK the purchase with my parents, who offered to get it as a Christmas present. Sorted!<br /><br /><p>So. £50?! I hear you say. It's a prestige thing. If it weren't for my collection, I too would be asking "who would pay that much for a book? Isn't it the contents that matter?!" But I have wanted a really expensive, deluxe copy for a long time now; and as a collector, don't I deserve one? I'd kill for a first edition, but would never be able to afford one. And I'd be too afraid of mistreating it. No one else, however, has any excuse at all...</p><u><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SVIk3gAwcTI/AAAAAAAAAKc/9tciQvydpqU/s1600-h/Dorian34.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283325848763527474" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/SVIk3gAwcTI/AAAAAAAAAKc/9tciQvydpqU/s320/Dorian34.jpg" border="0" /></a>Look: </u>The price is down to the leather binding, which surrounds the creamy pages. What's more, it comes in a gorgeous brown card box, wrapped in thin white tissue. It was specially designed by this Bill Amberg character for Penguin. It comes with a bookmark, which has the book's name embossed on it - just in case you forget what you're reading half way through. Although I wouldn't actually use it. According to the information sheet, the binding will actually improve with use. I'm ready to believe them - a bit like expensive designer clothes, in part you are paying for the label, but they also hang together in a way that cheap clothes simply don't.<br /><br /><br /><p><u>Introduction/Appendices: </u>None, but there is a slip in the front reminding you why you just wasted so much money, and explaining that the leather comes from naturally dead creatures.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-56098076749795471952008-12-14T09:56:00.000-08:002009-06-22T08:25:10.448-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 30<div style="text-align: center;"><u>Classici Mondadori 1990</u><br /><br /></div><div align="left"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/Sj-iQTKkKZI/AAAAAAAAAWg/SdsdYBZE7eI/s1600-h/9788804516651.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 263px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/Sj-iQTKkKZI/AAAAAAAAAWg/SdsdYBZE7eI/s320/9788804516651.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350173283245631890" border="0" /></a><u>P</u><u>rice:</u> €8.40</div><br /><div align="left"><u></u></div><div align="left"><u>History:</u> Found it in Italy, summer 2008</div><br /><div align="left"><u></u></div><div align="left"><u>Look:</u> the Italians have apparently not lost their appreciation of gorgeous books. Foreign bookshops are always a torment, but this was worse than usual because all the editions were lovely. On a different note, I would love the red dressing gown being worn by the man on the cover. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u>Introduction/appendices:</u> In Italian, alas - by Masolino d'Amico. But the real tragedy is that includes Andre Gide's memoram letter from 1901. I've wanted to read this for a long time - but I've a nasty feeling the original was in French. Italian is actually one step down - I know nothing of that language except what Latin can do, while my French is competant enough for reading.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-91939708734368093682008-12-14T09:48:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:26:31.297-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 29<div align="center"><strong><u>The Viking Press, 1946</u></strong></div><div align="center"><strong><u></u></strong></div><div align="left"><u>Price: </u>Not sure</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u>History:</u> missing the title of Oldest Copy in the collection by a whisker (well, a year...), this was a present from grandma and one of my faves.</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u>Look:</u> it's thick, with a lovely "OW" on the cover. As it is both quite an old copy, and a thick one, reading is difficult for fear of damaging it. Which is a pity, because...</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u>Introduction/appendices:</u>...because it bills itself as a "portable libray" book - Salome, Earnest, the expurged De Profundis, a selection of poems, letters, reviews and anecdotes pack this into a book I'd love to carry around with me. Shame I'm too worried about damaging it. The introduction by Richard Aldington is pleasantly wry - calling him the "greatest English - pardon! Irish - writer", skeetering off the sex question as quickly as possible and criticising some popular Wilde myths in a way that does still make me think. It also contains a few brilliant 40's generalisations about homosexuality...</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-80594412525295226072008-12-14T09:39:00.000-08:002009-06-22T08:27:13.918-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 27<div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><u>Norton Critical Edition, 2007</u></strong><br /></div><strong></strong></div><strong><u><br /></u></strong><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/Sj-ivv3p2II/AAAAAAAAAWo/lAPGUaodXiA/s1600-h/5175BSFFWEL._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/Sj-ivv3p2II/AAAAAAAAAWo/lAPGUaodXiA/s320/5175BSFFWEL._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350173823526885506" border="0" /></a><u>Price: </u>$12.50</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u><br />History:</u> New York, Christmas 2007, although it's been on loan to a friend for a long time, so still has the novelty value of a new copy.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u><br />Look:</u> it's thick and heavy (see below...), but is nice to hold and read. You can't go far wrong with a picture of the author. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u><br />Introduction/appendices: </u>This is the grandmother of all Dorian Grays - if you want a copy to study, or get into the background, this is the one to buy. BOTH the 1891 and 1890 versions in one book, with copious notes describing the editing process. Even more notes explaining references and ideas. 7 critical essays, from "Irishness" in the novel to sexual politics and character design. Lots of contemporary reviews, and as many open letters from the author defending his book to the newspapers. Extracts from other Wilde work, <em>A Rebours</em> and Walter Pater, on topics which reflect the novel's themes. And a chronology.<br /><br /></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Accordingly, this is also my "desert island" copy, provided I had pen and paper to note down my thoughts, because it's going to keep me going for ages.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-69640946399904596872008-12-14T09:12:00.000-08:002009-06-22T08:28:44.186-07:00Dorian Gray - no. 28<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><u>Creation Books 2000</u></strong><br /><strong></strong></div><strong><u><br /></u></strong><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/Sj-jHh1sJOI/AAAAAAAAAWw/1ZutZ1hi1NQ/s1600-h/3081525vb.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 290px; height: 290px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lE8ckZANG7w/Sj-jHh1sJOI/AAAAAAAAAWw/1ZutZ1hi1NQ/s320/3081525vb.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350174232077411554" border="0" /></a><u>Price:</u> £7.95.<br /><br /></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u>History:</u> Even though this is quite recent, I had to grill my entire family before someone remembered that it came from Borders in York.<br /><br /></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><u>Look:</u> brilliant - all black, with some black pages inside as well; art deco title in pink, and one of Aubrey Beardsley's drawings on the cover. It gives the whole thing the look of a demonic, banned book - which is perhaps fitting as this contains the original text of the novel published in Lippincots magazine. He then expanded and added to it to create the book you are familiar with - but crucially, he also did some cutting. Specifically, some of Basil's more "romantic-obsessive" passages were toned down; unsuprisingly, these were ultimately dragged out for the trial.<br /><br /></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"><u></u></div><div align="left"><u>Introduction/Appendices:</u> an introduction by Jeremy Reed, which following the atmosphere of the copy, focuses on the seedier aspects of the book's reception, and discusses the difference between the two versions of the text. They also put the "all art is quite useless" preface in an appendix at the end - too iconic and brilliant, I suppose, for them to cut entirely. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-15153631926278365222008-12-14T09:09:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:23:25.890-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 26<div align="center"><strong><u>Ward, Lock &co. 1945</u></strong> </div><br /><u>Price:</u> £7.99<br /><br /><u>History:</u> a Chrismas present from Friend 4 in 2007. As it stands, this is my oldest copy - I'm holding out hope to get my hands on, or at least look at one day, an original...<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> just wonderful. Even though I'll probably be too careful to read it, the thick tatty pages are lovely, and who'da thought that grey would suit this novel so well? The gold, curly text on the spine is sweet too.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices:</u> Nothing, aside from the author's dates.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-12219432538526533102008-12-14T09:07:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:22:51.392-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 25<div align="center"><strong><u>Great Writers Library, 1986</u></strong></div><br /><u>Price:</u> £4.99<br /><br /><u>History:</u> A birthday present from my aunt and uncle in New Zealand. Maybe I should move there? All of my really nice copies seem to come from there...<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> gorgeous in every way. The black leather has an evil, medieval feel; the cover image is pleasingly sepia (even if the gent on the right resembles Sgt Andy "your dad sells apples" Wainwright from <em>Hot Fuzz</em>). The thin paper and splotchy text just increases the antique feel.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices:</u> None, but my relations sent it with a cutting from the Weekend Herald about a priest who quoted Oscar Wilde in a book entitled Aphorisms for an Anti-Conformist Christian. It sounds pretty exciting to me. It's a fairly good little article, even if a Catholic establishment figure thinking Wilde had something relevant to say isn't exactly what I'd call news. And the journalist makes the mistake of claiming the book's "moral" is drawn from Catholicism, with "the painting clearly stands for the soul steadily stained by sin regardless od outward claims or the appearance of piety". If there is a moral in there, then I have never found it with any certainty, and I'm positive it isn't that simple...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-5664804068140173492008-12-14T09:06:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:21:32.490-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 24<div align="center"><strong><u>Insel Verlag, 2003</u></strong> (think that's the publishers... )</div><div align="center"></div><u>Price:</u> £4.99<br /><br /><u>History:</u> A present from my parent's anniversary in Vienna.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> quite nasty. Nasty shade of beige, not a particularly nice picture of the author, and threatening typeface on the cover. It's very odd seeing in in German. Dorian is intrinsically linked with France - it is related to the Victorian idea of a "scandalous French novel", and Oscar Wilde went so far as to write his play Salome in the language. Fairly badly I believe, but what do I know? A French copy makes sense - there is no such connection with Germany, and I have always considered the language very harsh for such a delicate novel.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices:</u> Norbert Kohl has written a fascinating piece called Culture and Corruption, and my knowledge of German is sufficiently bad that I would never be able to read it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-22089772926738189652008-12-14T09:04:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:19:40.536-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 23<div align="center"><u>Random House vintage Classics 2007</u></div><br /><u>Price:</u> £4.99<br /><br /><u>History:</u> I can't remember buying this at all.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> This cover, though it is far from my favourite, approaches my ideal concept for what a cover should be. The circle suggests both painting and mirror, and the various shapes form themselves into smoke, into a book, into a deaths head with a scythe. The colours are also lovely (the spine is red), as is the text.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices:</u> Irvine Welsh - did he write Trainspotting? He wrote something...his introduction is passable, but short and mostly biographical. It does briefly touch on the treatment of Sybil's "hideous Jew" manager, suggesting this is Dorian's characterisation instead of genuine anti-Semetism from the author. I'd never consider it, but it's a pretty ironic discussion to raise about this book in particular, which complains of art being treated as autobiography. For my part, I don't know or particularly care which it is. You don't choose your reading material on the morality of the author, and thus it is illogical to abandon a book because of it (the same goes for films and music. Any unsavory behavior Michael Jackson may or may not be guilty of should have no bearing on his music etc...)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-20576284002747939262008-12-14T09:03:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:23:05.636-08:00Dorian Gray - no.22<div align="center"><strong><u>GF Flammarion, 2006</u></strong> </div><br /><u>Price:</u> Don't know.<br /><br /><u>History:</u> Another French copy, a present from Friend 3.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> A very interesting cover image, with a splintered portrait. The French make their books in a wonderfully floppy way, which makes them nice to hold. Presumably, if read, this translation would be slightly different from my other french edition. The translation of books is an interesting area - I've a bilingual friend who claims, for example, that <em>Twilight</em>'s Spanish translation is actually a stylistically better written book.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices: </u>Pascal Aquien provides what could be a fascinating introduction, if I could read it...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-90982904843397017582008-12-14T09:01:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:17:59.941-08:00Dorian Gray - no. 21<div align="center"><strong><u>Complete Works (Geddes and Grosset, 2005) </u></strong></div><br /><u>Price:</u> Insultingly cheap, something like £2.<br /><br /><u>History:</u> I found this while looking around universities, in one of those terrible bookshops which sells cheap editions of a random selection of books. It wasn't even in alphabetical order, and was mostly made up of non-fiction.<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> This is a really nice size, nice to hold and read - more the plays than the books, because the text is set out in two columns, newspaperstyle, and my eye wanders all over. I'm not sure what to make of the cover image - I suppose its Ok, but not what I would have chosen. I'm in two minds about the orange as well.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices:</u> None.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6704725680689576353.post-1764379095825072352008-12-14T09:00:00.000-08:002008-12-24T03:17:22.033-08:00Dorian Gray - no.20<div align="center"><strong><u>Penguin Popular Classics 1994</u></strong> </div><br /><u>Price:</u> £2. Miser that I am, there is a point where great novels can be insultingly cheap...<br /><br /><u>History:</u> The same school English trip, bookshop on the Southbank. It was one of those occasions when reading put a strain on my survival - it came to a crunch in a particularly good bookshop, where it was either the Yes script, an Einaudi music book, the Lays of Belariad, Manga Hamlet and This, or dinner later that evening. On account of the shamefully low price, I finally settled for this and a very cheap pizza...<br /><br /><u>Look:</u> I first encountered this series of green books in Dublin. Having spent the week chasing after Oscar Wilde's house, museum, school and statue, I desperately wanted to leave with an Irish copy of the novel. No such luck - they seemed to have every other classic in a green copy, but not mine. Luckily, I did later find one in London, so all's well. The white text is very attractive, and the cover is genuinely my favourite colour. Inside, the pages are very thin, but it is a nice book to hold.<br /><br /><u>Introduction/Appendices: </u>Just a page-long bio.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0