Edginton, I. (2008). The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Graphic Novel. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
ISBN-13: 9781411415935
•Plot Summary
Dorian Gray is a young man who fears growing old, of losing the adoration of those that love him for his appearance. When painter Basil creates a portrait of Dorian, the young man's wish of remaining young and beautiful becomes possible. The portrait ages, but he does not, and encouraged by the villainous (yet sardonically amusing) Lord Henry, Dorian immerses himself in a lifestyle of depravity. Disregarding the lives of those that come to care for him, and ruining those lives in the process, Dorian does not learn the error of his ways until it is too late. In an act meant to kill the painting, a sign of his inner evil, Dorian inadvertently kills himself.
•Critical Evaluation
Content of the dialogue and thoughts are the same as in Wilde's original work, but the graphics are half-heartedly rendered throughout most of the novel. The only exceptions are as we see the true version of the original painting, and what it slowly becomes. It is hard to see Dorian at the ultimate in beauty, when the pictorials of him are as unexciting and bland as the rest of the characters in the storyline.
•Reader’s Annotation
Graphic novel version of Wilde's classic about a narcissistic youth bent on a life of hedonism.
•Information about the author
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1854, and attended both Trinity College in Dublin, as well as Magdalen College in Oxford. After graduating, he became a member of the Aesthetic movement in London. He toured America using funds from operetta producer D'Oyly Carte. The Picture of Dorian Gray was his only published novel. He had also published three works of short stories and some poetry, but it was his social plays and his lifestyle for which he received the most attention. Following his trial for "gross indecency" (i.e. living as a homosexual and being extravagant), Wilde fled to Paris, where he died penniless three years later.
Ian Edginton has worked for Lucas Films, Paramount Pictures, and 20th Century Fox on comic adaptations of Star Wars, Alien, Predator, and Terminator. He has also done adaptations of works by H.G. Wells, D'Israeli, Edgar Allen Poe, and Steve Yeowell. At the Eisner Awards in 2007, his graphic novel Scarlet Traces was nominated for two awards: Best Limited Series and Best Writer.
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