The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Category: Classic Fiction Grade: A

And so we continue with the effort to try to read some of the classics that, when we had to read them as kids or college students, we hated.

Almost everybody knows the basic premise of this book -- painting ages, real person doesn't. The theme has been used repeatedly in various formats, but this is the first time (or at least the first time I remember) that I read the original. The first really surprising thing is that the book reads like it was written last year, not 115 years ago. I guess it shows that true "wit" is ageless. Wilde is an amazingly good writer. Wilde was one of the leaders in promoting a hedonistic, i.e. pleasure first, lifestyle in late 19th century England. Of course, the homosexual undertones of the book had to be masked enough that publishers would accept his book for publication. Wilde eventually ended up imprisoned because of a homosexual affair he had about five years after writing this book.

The common view of the book - an aging painting leaves the subject young and beautiful is actually only half the story. As the book develops, the painting becomes far more than a stand in for Gray's beauty. It becomes first his conscience, then a repository for all the less-than-beautiful things that make up Gray's hedonistic life. It's unusual in that, essentially, Wilde ends up condemning the life that he himself lived.

This is one of the books that will encourage you to continue finding all the classics that you really should read before you die.