Dorian Gray - no. 46

A Bantam Classic (1982)

Price: a gift from Friend 2; inside pencil suggests it was sold for $3.

History: Friend 2 returned from America with three rather lovely presents for me.

Look: 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...

Introductions/appendices: ...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.

This edition also contains the Ballad, Lady Windamere, Ideal Husband, Earnest and a new translation of Salome. An interesting idea, but even this can't save it from almost total awfulness. I adore Salome, but as far as I'm concerned, the original line:

One would fancy she were looking for dead things

and the new translation:

She might be seeking for the dead.

are more or less equally bad.

Captured: ?-8-10

Dorian Gray - no 45.

Penguin Classics 2010

Price: a gift from Friend 2; back indicates it was $6.99, reduced to $4.99

History: Friend 2 returned from America with three rather lovely presents for me.

Look: 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.

Introductions/appendices:
Short biography and chronology, plus a facimile of the original front page - nothing worth writing about.

Captured: ?-8-10

Dorian Gray - no. 44

Barnes and Noble Classics (2003)

Price: a gift from Friend 2; back indicates it was $4.95

History: Friend 2 returned from America with three rather lovely presents for me. This is my favourite of the three.

Look: 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.

Introductions/appendices: 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.

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.

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!

• Lowell Liebermann's Dorian Gray opera. I hope there is a recording...
• The 1997 Dorian 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.
• Two possible precursours to Dorian:
  
• Ashes of the Future (A Study of Mere Human Nature): The Suicide of Sylvester Gray. Fantastically awful title, proving frustratingly obscure to find.
• Vivian Gray
Mercifully, is on Project Gutenburg. Looking forward to reading this!

Captured: ?-8-10

Dorian Gray - no. 42

Eye Classics

Price: £12.99

History: 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 Dorian Gray. 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.

Look: You might remember my joy and, indeed, surprise at how good my last graphic novel version 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.

Introductions/appendices: A brief intro and author biography.

Some reviews and the like
And Forbidden Planet gushes, with more images which make my heart aquiver.
Captured: 1-6-09

Dorian Gray - no. 41

Broadview Literary Texts

Price: £4.99, technically, but it was a gift

History: 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.

Look: 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.

Introductions/appendices: 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 A Rebours, and an interesting page on "langour"). If you want to do a proper uni-level essay on the novel, Number 27 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.

You can have a flick through this on Google Books, including a better peep at the cover.

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?

Dorian Gray - no. 38

Oxford World Classics, 2008

Price: 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 Aeneid I got it free with. Where does that leave me?

History 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!
Look See above...
Introduction/appendices 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.
Captured 13-01-09

Dorian Gray - no. 35

Penguin Classics - 2008 hardback edition

Price:£8 (it was £4 off)

History: 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.

Look: 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.

Introduction/appendices: 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.

Caught: 12-12-2008

Dorian Gray - no. 36

Marvel Illustrated

Price: $19.99 according to the back cover

History: 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.

Look: 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 was 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.

It's nice to read as well - and underneath the dust jacket, the hardback is black with gold text, which is always a score for this novel.

Introduction/Appendices: 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

Dorian Gray no. 34

Penguin Classics, with Bill Amberg, 2008

Price: £50

History: 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!

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...

Look: 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.

Introduction/Appendices: 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.

Dorian Gray - no. 30

Classici Mondadori 1990

Price: €8.40

History: Found it in Italy, summer 2008

Look: 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.

Introduction/appendices: 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.

Dorian Gray - no. 27

Norton Critical Edition, 2007

Price: $12.50

History: 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.

Look: 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.

Introduction/appendices: 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, A Rebours and Walter Pater, on topics which reflect the novel's themes. And a chronology.

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.

Dorian Gray - no. 28

Creation Books 2000

Price: £7.95.

History: Even though this is quite recent, I had to grill my entire family before someone remembered that it came from Borders in York.

Look: 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.

Introduction/Appendices: 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.

Dorian Gray - no. 25

Great Writers Library, 1986

Price: £4.99

History: 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...

Look: 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 Hot Fuzz). The thin paper and splotchy text just increases the antique feel.

Introduction/Appendices: 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...

Dorian Gray - no. 24

Insel Verlag, 2003 (think that's the publishers... )

Price: £4.99

History: A present from my parent's anniversary in Vienna.

Look: 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.

Introduction/Appendices: 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.

Dorian Gray - no. 23

Random House vintage Classics 2007

Price: £4.99

History: I can't remember buying this at all.

Look: 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.

Introduction/Appendices: 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...)

Dorian Gray - no.22

GF Flammarion, 2006

Price: Don't know.

History: Another French copy, a present from Friend 3.

Look: 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 Twilight's Spanish translation is actually a stylistically better written book.

Introduction/Appendices: Pascal Aquien provides what could be a fascinating introduction, if I could read it...

Dorian Gray - no. 21

Complete Works (Geddes and Grosset, 2005)

Price: Insultingly cheap, something like £2.

History: 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.

Look: 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.

Introduction/Appendices: None.

Dorian Gray - no.20

Penguin Popular Classics 1994

Price: £2. Miser that I am, there is a point where great novels can be insultingly cheap...

History: 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...

Look: 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.

Introduction/Appendices: Just a page-long bio.

Dorian Gray - no.19

Wordsworth Classics 2001

Price: Can't remember - the introductory note claims it is an "inexpensive edition", whatever that means.

History: I picked this up on a school English trip, in Covent Garden

Look: This is possibly the most horrific thing I have ever seen. Just in case you thought I drooled over all my copies. That shade of blue is appalling, and it is coupled with one of my least favourite images. Nasty in every possible way, though not so foul I wouldn't have it on my shelf. There is one copy I keep seeing about, a skinny one with a close up of a rusty young man, which I have as yet flatly refused to purchase.

Introduction/Appendices: John M.L. Drew does the honours - I have not read it yet, but at a cursory glance it seems pretty informative.