Book Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, originally published in 1890, is Oscar Wilde's only published novel (we generally know him better for his plays, i.e., The Importance of Being Earnest, De Profundis, etc.).  Dorian Gray is an exceptionally attractive young man who becomes the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward.  Basil becomes obsessed with Dorian, convinced that his beauty is responsible for the best years of his art (lots of man love in this book y'all).  Dorian quickly meets Lord Henry Wotton, a close friend of Basil's, and becomes impressed by Henry's hedonistic world view.  Paranoid that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian wishes to sell his soul to guarantee that the portrait Basil painted would age rather than himself.  Dorian's wish is granted, and throughout his tormented life, each ill act is only apparent in his soul as reflected in the painting, while his facade escapes any sign of age.

This was our pick for this month's read in my classics book club.  While I'm pleased to finally have some Oscar Wilde in my repertoire, I can't say I'm disappointed that this was his only novel.  The tale was really a 250-page parable (technically a fable without the animals), which I found to be an over-simplified, obvious moral lesson.  Well, the "what-not-to-do" was obvious, as all of Dorian's evil acts resulted in the further degradation of his "soul" in his portrait.  Not so apparent was exactly what would have the ideal behavior have been in the situation?  Not to mention, who was the protagonist?  Basil was painted as a pathetic wretch, and though he was the most obvious victim of Dorian's self-obsession, I wasn't convinced he was who Wilde wished to uphold as a moral model (although Wilde apparently related most to Basil's character according to interviews).

Most enlightening (and at times frustrating) were the depictions of women in the book.  Henry in particular was incredibly insulting to all women, especially his wife.  His insults range from maddening, where he refers to all women collectively as a "sphinx without a secret," and having no sense of art, to very clever and quite true (some ladies should be ashamed of themselves, y'all):

Lord Henry sipped his champagne in a meditative manner.  "At what particular point did you mention the word marriage, Dorian?  And what did she say in answer?  Perhaps you forgot all about it."

"My dear Harry, I did not treat it as a business transaction, and I did not make any formal proposal.  I told her that I loved her, and she said she was not worthy to be my wife.  Not worthy!  Why, the whole world is nothing to me compared with her."

"Women are wonderfully practical," murmured Lord Henry -- "much more practical than we are.  In situations of that kind we often forget to say anything about marriage, and they always remind us."

All in all a short classic read worth adding to the bookshelf, but underwhelming compared to his plays or the drama that was Oscar Wilde's personal life... 

xo