The Picture of Dorian Gray
Author: Oscar Wilde
Year of publication: 1891
Plot summary: The young and beautiful Dorian Gray sits for a portrait by the painter Basil Hallward, which completely changes his life. (I trust you're all familiar with how the story goes?)
I actually started reading this right after I'd finished Gulliver's Travels, even though I was interrupted by some forced reading, and it seemed to me then to be incredibly modern for a novel written in the late 19th century. I now realise that was simply because Gulliver's Travels had been so incredibly old-fashioned by comparison (310 pages and no dialouge!) and when I picked up reading it again after some modern literature, I got a better feel for the style typical for its own age. I find "The Picture of Dorian Gray" fascinating, not just because of the setting and manner of speech, but because of the story around it and the scandal it caused. On the first page of my edition there's a picture of Wilde with an explanatory text saying it was the last picture taken of him before his trials, with him looking competely at ease sitting in an armchair, smoking a cigarette. The author gives life and more depth to his characters, I find; in the photo, Wilde resembles exactly my mental image of lord Henry, and when lord Henry speaks in the novel, I can easily imagine that his opinons represent those of the author himself. The witty dialouge is as intriguing as the many cultural references made; they mark the characteristics of the Victorian Age as well as the novel does.
Year of publication: 1891
Plot summary: The young and beautiful Dorian Gray sits for a portrait by the painter Basil Hallward, which completely changes his life. (I trust you're all familiar with how the story goes?)
I actually started reading this right after I'd finished Gulliver's Travels, even though I was interrupted by some forced reading, and it seemed to me then to be incredibly modern for a novel written in the late 19th century. I now realise that was simply because Gulliver's Travels had been so incredibly old-fashioned by comparison (310 pages and no dialouge!) and when I picked up reading it again after some modern literature, I got a better feel for the style typical for its own age. I find "The Picture of Dorian Gray" fascinating, not just because of the setting and manner of speech, but because of the story around it and the scandal it caused. On the first page of my edition there's a picture of Wilde with an explanatory text saying it was the last picture taken of him before his trials, with him looking competely at ease sitting in an armchair, smoking a cigarette. The author gives life and more depth to his characters, I find; in the photo, Wilde resembles exactly my mental image of lord Henry, and when lord Henry speaks in the novel, I can easily imagine that his opinons represent those of the author himself. The witty dialouge is as intriguing as the many cultural references made; they mark the characteristics of the Victorian Age as well as the novel does.
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