#The Picture of Dorian Grey

[remusjohnslupin]

LITERATURE SERIES: Classic Horror

“The horror genre never dies. It just keeps getting re­invented and it always will. Horror is a universal language; we're all afraid. We're born afraid, we're all afraid of things: death, disfigurement, loss of a loved one. Everything that I'm afraid of, you're afraid of and vice versa. So everybody feels fear and suspense.” —John Carpenter

[ijustkindalikebooks]

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[ellie-makes-mbs]

happy birthday, oscar wilde!

[invertedmoth]

there is a weirdly large amount of classic literature in which an ordinary guy is homoerotically besties with a charming and widely liked popular guy and i kind of love it

[oldshrewsburyian]

hi there! Just finished the audiobook of Dorian Grey and I have OPINIONS. Was wondering if you could recommend any reading re: flower language or other symbolism in the book?

Also I think it’s fascinating how at the end, Harry tells Dorian that he doesn’t have it in him to be a murderer, which highlights very dramatically how wrong he’s been about Dorian. In fact, I’m reminded of the epilogue of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, where Lady Russel has to learn she’s been “wrong about pretty nearly everything”. All Harry’s certainty about philosophy and hedonism and enjoyment of dominating Dorian’s personality, and he’s wrong. There’s not a single reliable narrator in the whole book.

Also also, the book that “poisoned” Dorian - is that a reference to a real world book from Wilde’s time, do you think? Or a self-referential nod to the book we have in our own hands while reading Dorian’s story?

Also the third, Basil needs better friends. I’ve decided that he played dead for 18+ hours while his blood was pooling around his feet, and Alan helped him escape, and then Alan pretended to end his own life and the two of them escaped to the Continent to set up a halfway house for Boys Dorian Messed Up.

And it seems like Harry actually really misses his wife now she’s gone? Or maybe he just misses being wanted by her? I wonder how he takes the news of Dorian’s death?

...hello! I'm delighted that you enjoyed The Picture of Dorian Grey, which is indeed a fascinatingly multilayered text (with nary a reliable narrator to be found.)

I'm wondering, to be honest, if you have me confused with another literate academic on here. I am an historian, not a literary scholar, and I'm not a Victorianist. I can recommend @jstor, and commend you to the generosity of my followers.

[mack-anthology-mp3]

ages ago i bought a copy of the picture of dorian grey from a second hand book fair, it was three dollars of something, fairly nice hardcover edition, marbled endpapers, and it had a bit of paper in it, some work thing dated 1987. i read about half of it and then stopped for some reason, was clearing out some books and gave dorian grey to my sister, she wanted to throw out the bit of paper and i got upset cos the bit of paper had been in there since 1987 and i didn't want them to be separated. anyways, eventually my sister read it, and then she lent it to a friends agesss ago, the friend took it to japan and only read like one chapter, my sister thought she may have left it there by accident because she never mentioned it again, but the other day i almost bought another copy cos i want to read it again, so i got my sister to ask the friend and she said she'll give it to her at school today. so i'll get my book back. even though it's technically my sister's now. and i kinda wonder if that bit of paper will still be in it.

[woelfin-sheeps-clothing]

"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."

Finished my portrait of Dorian Grey! Full image available on my Patreon!

Let me know what you think. Just lines, sepia tones, or full color?

Next up is his slightly more risqué bookmark, and then we move on to Mr. Darcy!

[picklepie888]

I have this idea for a survival horror game that's a crossover of characters from various works of gothic literature that are suddenly trapped together in a realm that's like an infinite forest with everlasting night. The gameplay would be sorta Until Dawn-esque. The objective of the game is that the characters start out in seperate groups and add more to their parties until they all come together to try to escape this realm and go back to their original 'stories'. The villains from these respective stories are also there, and the player must survive every encounter with them. The narrative would have a shifting character point-of-view with the player character changing every chapter. There will also be several diary entries from various characters scattered throughout that must be collected and read in order to peice the story together. Player characters and groups I've thought of:

Jane Eyre and Mina Harker

Christine Daee and Adam (The Creature)

Victor Frankenstein, Jack Seward, and Henry Jekyll

Heathcliff and Dorian Grey

Gabriel Utterson and Jonathan Harker

Ichabod Crane and Quincey Morris

Lucy Westenra and Laura

The characters' personalities and backstories would be book-accurate of course. No Hollywood influence here. I may expand on this idea more later...

[shiveringfrogspawn]

What's up sluts (affectionate)

Welcome to my blog! Things you may care to know about me:

Name: Bee

Pronouns: she/her

Religion: Born and raised Catholic BUT BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY ASSUMPTIONS: I do not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, sexuality, social standing, or religion. I am an ally to the queer community. I will never force my personal beliefs upon other people. It's sad I even have to make this disclaimer, but I'm aware many people have preconceived notions about Christians that are based on very real personal experiences. This is a safe space ship, I'm here to meet like-minded people not preach :)

Ethnicity: Pākehā living in Aotearoa

Sexuality: who knows at this point 😭 let's say unlabeled queer??

Other socials: Letterboxd, Spotify, Pinterest

CW: this blog contains swearing and spoilers for all fandoms listed below. I can't think of anything else on here that warrants a TW, but if you see something, please let me know and I'll add it - thats valid!

I'm part of many, many fandoms, so if you're interested in them, take a look at things I've reblogged. Wanna talk about any of them? DM me (or whatever the tumblr equivalent is called). I'd love to chat (as you can tell by this disgustingly long intro post). I'll leave it open-ended so I can add more, because I am ravenously consuming more media - books, movies, TV shows, bands - and becoming more powerful.

MOVIES

Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Pride and Prejudice, Dead Poets Society, Knives Out, Stardust, Night at the Museum, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Labyrinth, Hunt for the Wilderpeople...

TV SHOWS

Doctor Who, Good Omens, Sherlock, Shadow and Bone (though it's absolutely awful compared to the awesome book series, it's special in its own way 🥴), Taskmaster, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Countdown, Our Flag Means Death, The Mighty Boosh, All the Light We Cannot See...

BOOKS

Shadow and Bone trilogy, Six of Crows duology, King of Scars duology, Good Omens: the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, The Secret History, Harry Potter (side note: this blog is a safe space for LGBTQ+ people! I do not agree with JKR’s transphobic views, 99% of my fandom activity involves reading gay porn about her characters - yes, I am a whore for the marauders era), The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson/the Riordanverse, Heartstopper, The Picture of Dorian Gray, We Hunt the Flame, One Last Stop, Red, White, and Royal Blue, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Traitor and the Thief duology, Kaitangata Twitch, Heidi series, Little Women series, most things by Roald Dahl, the Robert Langdon series, All the Light We Cannot See...

BANDS/MUSIC

Queen, the Beatles, David Bowie, Aerosmith, The Beautiful South, Green Day, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, ABBA, the Bee Gees, Elton John, Elvis Presley…

MISC.

Hamilton the musical, SIX the musical…

[leonenjoyer69]

This is literally a canon scene guys, trust me

An alt version that's brighter w/o the paper texture and the sketch ^^^

NICHE GANG WHERE YOU AT??? fr tho, please, where are you? The world needs more TPODG fanart :333

Anyway, the 1976 tv adaption version of Basil is literally my favorite Basil ever and if you haven't watched it GO WATCH IT RN IT'S ON YOUTUBE

[oldtvandcomics]

Happy Queer Media Monday!

Today: The Picture of Dorian Grey

(One of the many covers this book has had over time, showing forever-young Dorian and his corrupted picture)

If I’m already doing this, I might just as well start with one of the Big Classics.

The Picture of Dorian Grey is Oscar Wilde’s only novel. It is a gothic horror story about a young man, who makes a wish that his portrait would age instead of him, and he could remain forever young and beautiful. His wish is granted, and very soon, Dorian falls into a life of hedonism, where he keeps hurting other people, but suffers no bad effects from it, while the picture becomes more and more hideous. It’s only after he commits murder that he breaks down and destroys the picture. The curse is broken, and the picture is back to being beautiful, while Dorian himself becomes an unrecognizably ugly old man, killed by the knife stabs he inflicted on the painting.

Besides being so homoerotic that it had to be censored multiple times, The Picture of Dorian Grey addresses some interesting themes about beauty, and art, and the corruption of the soul. It is also very interesting in both British and queer literature history. It was wildly hated by the contemporary Victorian audience, but has since then become a classic of gothic horror literature. It underwent multiple censorship to tone down the gay undertones, and passages from the first edition were used at Wilde’s trial as evidence against him.

All in all, The Picture of Dorian Grey is an interesting, and fairly quick, read, that gives us an invaluable insight into the minds of gay men in the late 19th century.

As it is in the Public Domain, you can get it online for free, even as an audiobook.

Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!

[the-red-shelf-of-westmarch]

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing

- The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde

[ecruvianfancontent]

So, suppose I began posting fake AO3 summaries featuring popular tropes, but about famous literature. Who would be down to treat them as writing prompts?

Examples (using Dorian Grey as bait because that book already has a fandom)

Dorian Grey Coffee Shop AU Dorian Grey is a philosophy major, stressed out of his mind for midterms. Basil is a barista, passionate about both coffee and his latte art Instagram page but struggling with depression. It's love at first sight for Basil. Dr. Wotton is the most popular professor at the school, but he has a reputation for affairs with students that nobody can quite prove. Dorian is in his class, but Basil just knows that the minute grades go up, he's going to make his move - and possibly ruin Dorian's life.

Frankenstein, Onecest Style A relatively young, bright-eyed Victor Frankenstein receives a dire warning about his own future. When he has the opportunity to meet his power-hungry and half-mad future self, he is horrified, and knows that he has to do something to save him. This feeling is made stronger because the future Mister Frankenstein has an innate fascination with such a scientific oddity as his temporally displaced self... and treats Victor in a way that he's never been treated before.

A Rose for Emily lich AU One day, Homer Barron wakes up.

[theturntechgod]

[iknowwhereyousleepatnight]

Top 5 mangas/comics/animes/movies/tv shows/books/stories in general you get the idea

good question. for the sake of things i'm excluding dn because we all know i like that. i'm also doing more than 5 because there are too many to trim down. so in no particular order we have:

avatar the last airbender -- probably the best show in the world. i cannot find any fault in it. the plot is fantastic, the worldbuilding is amazing, the characters are so well developed and their arcs (specifically zuko's redemption arc) are astounding. i could go on for years about why i love atla. i watch it at least once every year and i love it dearly

psych -- this is a detective show that my family and I must've watched at least 30 times by now. that's not even an exaggeration. it is the default thing to watch and i have family members who need noise to focus so it's always playing. literally we can reenact scenes from memory at the drop of a hat. we quote it all the time and since i was exposed to it so young i know for a fact that it shaped my personality. it's why i'm funny

everything by jane austen (but specifically Emma) -- what can i say? i'm a sucker for classic lit and jane austen novels are so humorous and romantic and i like that

the great gatsby -- i could wax poetic about why i love the great gatsby, but instead i shall just say that i love analyzing literature and the great gatsby is just so rich in analysis. it's great if you haven't read it, you should it's only like 40k words

fight club (book) and anything by chuck palahniuk really -- the writing style and the pacing and the strangeness of it all captivates me. i've never watched the fight club movie, but i seriously doubt it could live up to the book. i read it first because i read a dn/fight club crossover fic and was like. these vibes are immaculate i simply must see what's going on with fight club. so i checked it out of the library and finished it in one sitting and then proceeded to check out everything by chuck palahniuk that i could get my hands on. his style is just so iconic and his stories are captivating

howls moving castle by diana wynne jones -- i LOVE this novel (and the whole series, yes there is a series). i first read it a couple years back and honestly it got me through some rough times so it's very nostalgic and soothing to me. i especially love it when you compare the movie (which i will talk about in a second) and the novel. they're surprisingly different and it's really cool how both are awesome. they're also really short btw like one-sitting reads, plus they are children's books so they're very easy to read

anything studio ghibli, especially spirited away, howls moving castle, princess mononoke, and ponyo -- i love studio ghibli films. the animation is spectacular and the vibes are immaculate and they make me want to melt into a puddle but like a happy one. they're just so nice i need to watch them all day every day u know?

full metal alchemist -- it's awesome. both the manga and the show (fmab, i haven't watched the older one). i love the characters and i love the story and i love the art/animation and i love everything about it

so there it is, 7/5 of my favorite stories. It's actually surprising that i chose these because usually my taste is darker but like. those scratch a particular itch and these ones make everything better so idk. maybe i just find happiness in the whimsy of classic literature and soft, pretty stories

for this

[woelfin-sheeps-clothing]

Dorian Grey

Determined to finish this painting today!

And then back to the drawing board so I can make a Dorian Grey pin-up bookmark. Or, at least what Basil would certainly love to see in a pin-up of Dorian.

The full illustration and coloring page are available at my Patreon. Full painting will be available shortly.

Once I get to about 25 patrons or so I'll start looking into stickers and bookmarks of my classical literature lads and ladies.