Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 3/23/2020 + 1223 more book reviews

Although I have seen various movie versions of this including the 1945 classic, I had neglected reading the book until now. I remember also enjoying the Showtime TV series Penny Dreadful which included Dorian Gray as one of the key characters.

So of course the story is quite familiar about a young man, Dorian, who is the subject of a painting by Basil Hallward. The artist and his friend, Lord Henry Wotton, are stricken with Dorian's beauty. Dorian meets Sir Henry who gives Dorian a view on life in that the only things worth pursuing are beauty and pleasure. Dorian realizes that his beauty will fade as he grows older and expresses a desire that the painting age instead of him. Well he gets his wish and his life becomes a series of debaucheries which show up in the changes to the painting while Dorian remains ageless. At one point, Lord Henry gives Dorian a scandalous French novel which inspires Dorian to perform every form of vice he can. (The title of the book is not given but at Wilde's trial he admitted that he had Joris-Karl Huysman's A Rebours or Against the Grain in mind.) Early in the story, Dorian falls in love with an actress but when he later rejects her, she commits suicide. Her brother vows revenge but doesn't know Dorian's real name. As the novel progresses, Dorian gets more vile and his picture gets uglier until the climax of the story that is still quite shocking.

I enjoyed the dark nature of the book and I probably should read more of Wilde. The book was used in Wilde's trial where he was accused of "gross indecency with other men" and there is definitely a thread of homoeroticism running through the narrative but it is pretty mild by today's standards.

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