The Picture of Dorian Gray

Nov 9, 2025 2:52 AM

Author:Oscar Wilde,Ben Barnes

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Ben Barnes, star of the film adaptation of Dorian Gray, also known for his roles in Westworld and The Chronicles of Narnia. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Robert Mighall.

Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The novel was a succès de scandale and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895. It has lost none of its power to fascinate and disturb.

Reviews

An exercise in masculine anxiety and nationalist paranoia, Stoker's novel is filled with scenes that are staggeringly lurid and perverse... The one in Highgate cemetery, where Arthur and Van Helsing drive a stake through the writhing body of the vampirised Lucy Westenra, is my favourite

—— Sarah Waters

It is splendid. No book since Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror

—— Bram Stoker’s Mother

In my opinion Dracula is about how suffocating Victorian times were. The bonus is, you get vampires!

—— Ryan Adams

Very funny...I cracked up laughing on the tube

—— Evening Standard

The Winter of the Witch, the third in Katherine Arden's magical Winternight Trilogy, creates a layered world full of Russian myths and legends

—— EMERALD STREET

A historical fantasy perfect for those who love ancient stories and tradition

—— Good Housekeeping

Like McEwan's other work, The Cockroach is a beautifully written novella and an in-depth critique of Britain's current political situation… I found this an exciting and inventive retelling of Kafka's classic tale, and a clever commentary on not just Brexit, but modern British politics as a whole.

—— Meg Horridge , SCAN

An extraordinary book which can truly be said to break new ground

—— New Yorker

The outstanding Japanese novelist of the century...The Makioka Sisters is his greatest book

—— Edmund White, , New York Times Book Review

Sensitive, thoughtful and rich with the spoils of its author's plunder of the past

—— Irish Independent

This is a tremendous book: affecting, intelligent, ironic, humane and utterly convincing. It is also extremely funny

—— Spectator

A brilliant read

—— Dermot O'Leary , Waitrose Weekend

A rich, imaginative, vividly characterised rite-of-passage tale

—— Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting

—— The Times

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