Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book because I am going to see a dance production based off it. I haven't ever read any of Oscar Wilde's books, but I now understand why he became such a notable writer.

It took me a while to get used to the style, but as Wilde was a friend of Conan Doyle, and having read some of Doyle's Sherlock novels, it didn't take me long to grasp the flow of the writing and the use of the terminology from that era.

There is so much in this book, far more than the story of Dorian Gray, which in itself is a complex diatribe on vanity, aging, youth, and exploring what it is to push moral boundaries. Wilde uses this book as a platform to speak on many topics about life, society and culture. I do understand why people of that era might feel that this book denoted homosexual influences, but by today's standards all I read were infactuations with people, their gender being irrelevant. Gentleman in rich society in those times spent a great deal of time socialising and hanging around in their clubs. At no point in this book was any detail honestly glimpsed as to anything that actually went on behind closed doors. In fact, even the immorality of Dorian Gray was suggested and described in such a way that just a sense of it was given and no actual details. But it seemed back then that just spending time in 'the wrong sorts of places, with the wrong sorts of people' was enough to get your branded as a bad person and shunned by their society.

And that is exactly Wilde's point I feel: The fragility of the rich society's ego, and the hypocrisy - and I feel that was probably why he was vilified; those people didn't like it being revealed.

Wilde's use of words through the characters, especially Lord Henry, is rich and descriptive and occasionally rambling - but even in the ramble there is value to his words and observations.

The book as a story about Dorian Gray, a young, extremely good looking rich gentleman, influenced by Lord Henry, whom he met while having a portrait painted by an artist who is infactuated by him, chose a path of excess to try and taste all that life offered and explore the darker side after finding the painting absorbed his sin and aging, is a horror story of sorts. Although the horror itself doesn't really take form until the middle of the book onwards as the character desends into angst, fear and paranoia about what is happening to him.

I thoroughly enjoyed the depth of both the story and the diatribe and observations on life by Wilde. There is a lot that is quotable. Definitely worth a read.

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