Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Mid-terms are almost over, and so I'm back to posting again after a short absence.  Today was rough, with an exam in Eastern European History and then the last part of my mid-term test in my Spanish class.  Just a paper for Middle Eastern History is left (due on Tuesday, so you know what I'll be doing this weekend) and then I can start worrying in earnest about my Senior Thesis.  Ok, on to that book review:

Source: Amazon.com

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Right up front, I’ll say this was a great book.  It’s a classic, so many readers may already know the story.  Therefore, I won’t go heavy on the details.  A simple overview and a recommendation is all I’ll provide on this one.

The premise of the book is that a young man, our Mr. Gray, gets a portrait painted by an artist, who in turn tells a friend that he doesn’t think he can paint anymore because he put too much of himself into the work of painting this young man.  The portrait is supposed to be quite striking and life-like.  The artist’s friend (I forget names, but that is one of the curses of reading so much in such quick succession... ok, I’ve looked up names on Amazon.com), Lord Henry Wotton, befriends Gray and leads him into a life of depravity through his influence.  The artist, whose name is Basil Hallward, doesn’t agree with this corruption of Gray, but has no influence over his young portrait subject.

Gray’s life is attached to the portrait through a wish he makes upon it.  He wishes that he may remain young and beautiful forever, and the painting begins to take on the signs of his misdeeds and his advancing years.  All the while Dorian Gray remains young and in the prime of life.  Eventually Gray murders Hallward in a fit of rage after showing him the painting and its curse.  He also manages to escape the wrath of the brother of a young woman whom he loved earlier in his life and then spurned.  Things seem to be going well for Dorian Gray, until he decides to cut himself loose from the painting and live without it “looking over his shoulder” so to speak.


As for the exact details of the ending... well, if you don’t know the story, go read it.  It is quite good.  In fact, I enjoyed it better than Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson.  The stories are similar, but the effect of The Picture of Dorian Gray on my imagination is more convincing to me than Stevenson’s work.  My only objection would be that Gray’s so-called indiscretions sound pretty tame since they are only subtly spelled out until he murders Hallward.  Well, that and his treatment of the spurned young actress, which was when the book first really grabbed me.  Both were juicy, but the rest is all: “...he was seen in the company of disreputable men and sailors...” And junk like that.  Really?  And sailors too?  Shiver.  I’d hate to see what Wilde would have written about our modern times.   

The book also seemed a bit slow in the first few short chapters, as a book of this vintage often does.  But this and my other qualms are not of any great significance.  The story is a product of the time in which it was written, but the concept is timeless, and so it is easy for me to see how it might have been “modernized” (though I loathe many modern attempts to modernize classic tales for lazy present-day audiences).  Then again, the lack of gory details does allow the reader to use their imagination to fill in the details, which is good.  You can take things as far as you wish, since Wilde doesn’t spell it all out.  The nuances of his descriptions are good enough.  The fact that no “civilized” person can be comfortable around Gray alone makes the reader uneasy.  What has this guy done that is so off-putting, you wonder?  Your mind fills in the blanks deliciously.

Either way, if you haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is worth your time.  It is a short read, taking me only about an hour in audiobook format.  Your mileage may vary, based on your preferred manner.  But as for me, I’d definitely read it again.  The classics never really go out of style.

Oh, and by way of Post-Script: Now my wife is going to pester me about reading Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre since I’ve spoken about how classics never go out of style.  But I’d expect to see a review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (I think that is the title) before any real serious work will be considered, dear reader.  That’s just how I roll.

Learn more about The Picture of Dorian Gray on Amazon.com 


My parting comment:

Source: LOL Snaps.com

 If I could easily do it, I'd replace the picture of that hairless cat with one of "our" (and I use the term loosely) cat Oscar.  I complain that he never wants anything to do with people unless he is hungry.  Any other time, he looks at me with barely disguised contempt.  Cats cannot be trusted, I say.  But our dog Sadie fits the dog's journal almost perfectly.