I actually finished my spin selection! Seemed like I wasn't going to, as I felt I was plodding along at the end.
I've had this book on my TBR for a long time. I am glad I finally read it. I've long been an Oscar Wilde fan. I was in his play, The Importance of Being Earnest in high school.
Dorian Gray is a good novel. It raises questions about narcissism, morality, even the association of ugliness with aging (and with evil), and the old being less than. It also has one of my favorite quotes, "The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame." So true.
The only problem I had, and it's a minor one, were the long passage describing Dorian's interests, his fleeting passions, and Lord Henry's various monologues. Yet there's no denying that this is an excellent novel of Gothic fiction.
I have seen two film adaptations of Dorian Gray. The 1945 and 2009 films. Both of them changed the story and I have to say I much preferred the book. Not really a surprise though, right?
It's good you got thru Dorian Gray. I have not read Oscar Wilde yet ...but Dorian seems to deal with important themes ... and the quote about immoral books ... is pertinent to today's crazy bans. It's too bad the movies changed the story ...
ReplyDeleteI was struck by the fact that no one in the book seemed to work. They just visited each other all the time.
ReplyDeleteI saw a one woman show of Dorian a couple of years ago - it was amazing and I've been meaning to read the book ever since to see how close the show was to the original.
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