Picture in the attic (The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde)

Member Name: albacookie

Product:	The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Date:	27/08/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good characterisation

Disadvantages: Language style, slow start

Oscar Wilde's only full length novel The Picture Of Dorian Gray is set in late Victorian London and tells the story of a beautiful young man who never ages. He is however hiding a terrible secret - hidden in an unused school room is a portrait painted by his friend Basil Hallward which bears the consequence of Dorian's sins and grows older and more hideous.

When Dorain first arrived in London as an innocent 20 year old Basil persuaded him to sit for the portrait. While at Basil's studio Dorain meets Lord Henry (Harry) Wotton who believes beauty and pleasure are the only things worth persuing and that youth is a person's most valuble asset. Influnced by Henry Dorian wished that the portrait would age and not him. Over the 18 year span of the novel Dorian experiments with all kinds of vices and ruins many lives along the way. He eventually murders Basil and is nearly killed by the brother of his former fiance. This experience prompts Dorian to reconsider his lifestyle and he resolves to change. Expecting to see this
reflected in the portrait he is enraged to find it unchanged and resolves to destroy what is left of his soul.

This is a very enjoyable book though quite dark and gothic in style- it is a little hard to get into at first as the langauge is very descriptive and it sometimes feels like nothing happens for a few pages but worth persevering with. It allows you to really get a feel for the era and the lifestyle of the upper classes.Dorian and Harry are exceptionally well written characters, Henry really being the embodiment of the Devil and Dorain a representation of Wilde himself.

A classic novel.

Summary: Classic novel