The Picture of Dorian Gray
I really thought I knew what to expect when I picked up Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Dorian Gray has a painting down, and that painting grows older while he
stays young. And, yeah, that's the basic plot. But the book ended up
being a lot more than that. It gave me a lot to think about.
Dorian Gray is introduced as a seventeen year old, much younger than I expected. His beauty makes him the favorite model of an artist named Basil Hallword. While sitting for the titular painting, Dorian metes Basil's friend, Lord Henry. Basil and Henry function as the angel and devil on Dorian's shoulders in some respects. But Basil is quickly corrupted by Lord Henry and decides that pleasure, beauty, and selfishness and the best traits one can hope to possess.
After Dorian promises to marry a girl, then quickly changes his mind resulting in her suicide, the painting begins to change, to become ugly. It's revealed that it's not just that the painting ages instead of Dorian. It bears the brunt of his sins, becoming physically ugly as a representation of the ugliness in Dorian's soul.
At this point the book jumps ahead nearly two decades to the events that lead to Gray's ultimate demise. And I have to say that he deserves everything he gets. It's amazing how many lives Dorian destroys in the course of his own selfishness. I really enjoyed seeing him get his comeuppance.
I also need to comment on my edition of this book, which had some of the most ridiculous footnotes I've ever encountered. I bought the cheap Barnes and Noble edition, and at times I wondered if it was aimed specifically at high school kids.
I learned a lot about both Shakespeare and Greek mythology: Mercutio is a character in Romeo and Juliet. Narcissus fell in love with himself.
I learned about colors: forget-me-not means blue while mauve was very fashionable in London when the book set.
I learned about London: Wardour Street was known for its antique shops. The Athenaeum was a "superior London club".
The footnotes in the last few chapters even referenced events from the first few chapters to clarify the plot and point out foreshadowing.
The footnotes were definitely informative, as footnotes should be. It's just that the information they provided confused me more often than not. A lot of it seemed entirely periphery to the story. At one point Wilde lists all the heroines Sybil Vane portrayed, and the footnotes meticulously record which play each is from, but give no substantial information about them. It made me laugh.
There were also a few times when I really would have liked additional information (e.g., what book is a certain quote from?) that was inexplicably left out. Like someone was annotating this book for a class project and couldn't be bothered to look up some of the more obscure details. Ah well, I suppose the footnotes mostly did their job. And they added to my enjoyment more than they distracted from it.
Dorian Gray is introduced as a seventeen year old, much younger than I expected. His beauty makes him the favorite model of an artist named Basil Hallword. While sitting for the titular painting, Dorian metes Basil's friend, Lord Henry. Basil and Henry function as the angel and devil on Dorian's shoulders in some respects. But Basil is quickly corrupted by Lord Henry and decides that pleasure, beauty, and selfishness and the best traits one can hope to possess.
After Dorian promises to marry a girl, then quickly changes his mind resulting in her suicide, the painting begins to change, to become ugly. It's revealed that it's not just that the painting ages instead of Dorian. It bears the brunt of his sins, becoming physically ugly as a representation of the ugliness in Dorian's soul.
At this point the book jumps ahead nearly two decades to the events that lead to Gray's ultimate demise. And I have to say that he deserves everything he gets. It's amazing how many lives Dorian destroys in the course of his own selfishness. I really enjoyed seeing him get his comeuppance.
I also need to comment on my edition of this book, which had some of the most ridiculous footnotes I've ever encountered. I bought the cheap Barnes and Noble edition, and at times I wondered if it was aimed specifically at high school kids.
I learned a lot about both Shakespeare and Greek mythology: Mercutio is a character in Romeo and Juliet. Narcissus fell in love with himself.
I learned about colors: forget-me-not means blue while mauve was very fashionable in London when the book set.
I learned about London: Wardour Street was known for its antique shops. The Athenaeum was a "superior London club".
The footnotes in the last few chapters even referenced events from the first few chapters to clarify the plot and point out foreshadowing.
The footnotes were definitely informative, as footnotes should be. It's just that the information they provided confused me more often than not. A lot of it seemed entirely periphery to the story. At one point Wilde lists all the heroines Sybil Vane portrayed, and the footnotes meticulously record which play each is from, but give no substantial information about them. It made me laugh.
There were also a few times when I really would have liked additional information (e.g., what book is a certain quote from?) that was inexplicably left out. Like someone was annotating this book for a class project and couldn't be bothered to look up some of the more obscure details. Ah well, I suppose the footnotes mostly did their job. And they added to my enjoyment more than they distracted from it.
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