I mentioned previously that I read 3 books on the Europe trip, but only posted about two. The third book I read was The Picture of Dorian Grey. I had only brought two books with me, but I found the e-book online for free and downloaded it to my e-reader. Yes, I have an e-reader. It is creatively named the Sony e-reader. I use it mostly for reading work-related material. I still like the feel of real books and clearly like buying real books... hence the problem this blog is meant to address.
Anyway, I read this book on the plane home. It's a quick read, although the language is pretty florid. In general, I enjoyed it. I don't know what I was expecting, exactly, but the book wasn't really what I thought it would be.
For anyone who doesn't know, here's the plot: Basil Hallward is an artist who contracts a young man named Dorian Grey to act as a model for him for several pieces. Basil becomes obsessed/infatuated with Dorian. The crowning achievement of this relationship is a portrait of Dorian that Basil considers to be his best work. He gives the portrait to Dorian because he doesn't want to exhibit it - he's afraid that people will be able to see how obsessed he became with the subject of the painting, and he doesn't want to deal with people's judgment. While the portrait is being painted, Lord Henry Wotton visits and Basil introduces him to Dorian. Lord Henry (confusingly often called Harry) is the villain of the piece. He espouses hedonistic ideas and basically uses Dorian as an experimental prop to see what his ideas will do to an "untainted" young man. I'm really not sure how he's friends with the sympathetic and moralistic Basil, but he is. Lord Henry's constant talk of beauty and sensual pleasure leads Dorian to wish that the painting will age so he can stay young, and it magically happens. No devil involved. This was strange, but also kind of pleasant - get the conceit out of the way and don't bother explaining it. From that moment on, Dorian basically debauches his way across the world and each experience puts a mark on the painting. He breaks a young actress' heart and she kills herself, then he upgrades to outright murder by killing his friend Basil when he comes to see the painting years later. He gets quite a reputation, but people who don't have personal experience with his bad behavior find it hard to believe that he could be so evil, since they all believe that a life of sin would leave marks on his face or person. But, aha, the portrait does that for him! Well done portrait! Anyway, ultimately Dorian can't deal with his own sin anymore and decides to start anew by destroying the painting. Anyone who has seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen knows the rest: when the portrait is damaged, Dorian dies and the portrait goes back to being a picture of the beautiful young man he once was.
Throughout the book there is a lot of discussion of beauty and sensuality, but it's all euphemistic and veiled. It's hard to believe how controversial this book was when it was published, given how difficult it is now to figure out exactly what sins Lord Henry is promoting. There is, of course, a heavy dose of homoeroticism. The relationship between Basil and Dorian reads like an unrequited romantic love. I wonder how this played to the contemporary audience.
I spent most of the book wanting to strangle Lord Henry. He is basically just evil - no redeeming quality can be found. Why does Dorian listen to him?! His speeches are verbose and hard to follow at times. Those passages were my least favorite in the book.
Overall rating: 6 out of 10. Not my favorite, but short and a classic.
Next book by the random number method: Short Stories by Edith Wharton.
Apparently I'm on a classic literature kick.
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