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I'm planning on reading The Picture of Dorian Gray for a British Literature assignment. Does anyone know of a book I could read by an author of the British Commonweath that has similar themes? Maybe something referencing hedonsim or an infatuation with beauty?

thanks

The Picture of Dorian Grey is a great book. If you are interested in Wilde i'd also check out the short story The Happy Prince, you can find it online for free, just search for it. He had such a creative mind. Being that i just woke up from a nap and my mind isn't fucntioning very well... i can't really think of other pieces that might be comparable to Wilde's work. If anything comes to mind i'll let you know


Good Luck with your assignment.

Oscar Wilde was a true wit and genius. A master of dialogue and king of one liners.

I will have to think about something along the lines of Dorian Gray for you, vanity and narcissism... should be plenty out there but I've gone blank!

The Happy Prince was so good! ha at first I didn't think a good story could be told with such few words, but after reading that one I change my mind. That was the cutest thing ever, sad , but I'm glad I read it lol. thanks

i'm glad you enjoyed it as much as i did =)

i barely read anything so far...like a few chapters and already i love Oscar Wilde. It's amazing everyother line is quotable. if this copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray was mine i'd have underlined so much stuff by now. just wanted to share my enthusiasm.

YAY! <--- that's what i call enthusiasm shared

oh well my bad....i should match your excitment.
yah hooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE OSCAR WILDE. THERE'S NOTHING I WANT MORE IN LIFE THEN A SONG FROM DEREK AND TO READ OSCAR WILDE lol

I relaise youve probably chosen one already but never mind, I'll have a go...

erm...despite being british I havent got a clue what British Commonwealth really means...if it doesn't limit you to a particular time period, how about Dorian by Will Self? Same book but re-written to be set in the 80's, and a very good read. Ooor you could compare it to something from the romantic period, for the hedonism? Like Keats or something, but I suppose that would be poetry...oo, or compare it on the gothic lines to something like The Monk by Matthew Lewis or even Wuthering Heights, which is like Dorian Gray in that it combines gothic and romantic genres.

Its such an amazing book with so many layers you could probably compare it to anything

thanks. i'll check those things out.

knightss wrote:The Picture of Dorian Grey is a great book. If you are interested in Wilde i'd also check out the short story The Happy Prince, you can find it online for free, just search for it. He had such a creative mind. Being that i just woke up from a nap and my mind isn't fucntioning very well... i can't really think of other pieces that might be comparable to Wilde's work. If anything comes to mind i'll let you know


Good Luck with your assignment.

I agree I've read "The picture of dorian Grey" and I find it a very interesting read, it's a good book.

Linda wrote:i barely read anything so far...like a few chapters and already i love Oscar Wilde. It's amazing every other line is quotable. if this copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray was mine i'd have underlined so much stuff by now. just wanted to share my enthusiasm.

I completely agree. Good for me that I read an e-book version of Dorian Gray. I could mark all the lines I thought were good and now I have a pretty neat collection of quotes from that book. Let me know if you are interested, I can post them here.

While not really in the same vain, another Oscar Wilde work that I enjoyed and suggest is An Ideal Husband.

You could also try Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Another play I can think of is William Congreve's The Way of the World, although he was before Wilde's time. Congreve quotations are often misattributed to Shakespeare, but he is brilliant in his own right. The Way of the World is about the petty games and inauthenticity of life at court, with a love story being the focus, and (depending on your point of view), involves the only redeemable characters. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something smart, witty, and an almost disturbingly accurate portrait of society, even today.