The Picture of Dorian Gray

Not sure I could ever call an audio edition better than the printed version. It was, however, a great way to experience Dorian Gray. I compare an audio edition to a movie, not to a book.

Henry - I was guessing at who he truly really was throughout the whole book - was he a devil or just a free spirited Englishman?

No, but I certainly will. He made this book come alive.

I hadn't planned it but I did. Well, not sitting, but it was in my robe pocket as I went around the house.

Dorian Gray has been sitting in my Audible library for a while. I am so glad I finally listened to it (in less than a 24 hour period, I might add!). The characters hooked me from the start. And Michael Page's narration was fantastic. Great combination of writer and narrator!

The fact that the writer directly engaged the moral issue, which can be summed up as, "Is it better to be beautiful than good?" Oddly he answers his own question in the conventional way, which is not what I was prepared for. It seems Gray gets his just punishment at the end. But along the way there is the idea that fate, accident, random occurrences also can determine one's outcomes. So this isn't a straightforward justification of the "wages of sin." I think Wilde was more subtle than that in his contemplation of art and aesthetic appreciation and their effects on human life.

There isn't a single likeable character in the story. Dorian is immorality incarnate, Basil allows his appreciation of aesthetics to get in the way of his judgment, Sir Henry is a loathsome upper class idiot, and Sybil is a fool. But Dorian's development from a beautiful young innocent to a decadent monster is fascinating.

The narration was very good and Page did all the characters well.

No, but I learned more about the 19th century foppish British aristocracy--possibily Wilde's own circle--that I might have wanted.

Great story idea and fairly well executed. I deducted a star for preachiness. Some of it is essential to the story, but IMHO it's overdone a bit. Michael Page's performance was good, but didn't grasp my attention in any special way. If you like classic SF and Horror, but missed Wilde's contribution to the genre along the way, then it will be worth your time, but probably not a credit. I bought it for $0.99 by getting the Kindle version (free) first under Amazon's offerings of classics at low prices to introduce WhisperSync. At $0.99 for e-book and a-book, you can't go wrong. If you haven't discovered this secret, and read Kindle e-books, check out classics on the Amazon site. You'll find that many are very inexpensive or free and entitle you to the a-book for $0.99. It's a great way to add classics to your library