Jenny's review
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde
Jenny's review
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Jenny's review
rating:
** spoiler alert **
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is definitely a disturbing book. I think there is great worth in reading it, particularly when paired with a book such as Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe or Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Contrasting Dorian's sordid downfall with with the heroic ascension of Uncle Tom or Jean Valjean is particularly beneficial.
The Picture of Dorian Gray begins with Dorian, a young and handsome gentleman who is involved with philanthropy, sitting for a portrait while his new friend, Lord Henry, a sarcastic and hedonistic man of society, watches on. Dorian is described as being “unspotted from the world” and his beauty inspires the artist to his very best work. Lord Henry exclaims how lovely the portrait has turned out, but laments that it is too bad that the picture will stay young forever, whereas Dorian will eventually age and lose his youth and beauty. A vexed Dorian makes a wish that he will stay timeless and the picture will age instead o...more
The Picture of Dorian Gray begins with Dorian, a young and handsome gentleman who is involved with philanthropy, sitting for a portrait while his new friend, Lord Henry, a sarcastic and hedonistic man of society, watches on. Dorian is described as being “unspotted from the world” and his beauty inspires the artist to his very best work. Lord Henry exclaims how lovely the portrait has turned out, but laments that it is too bad that the picture will stay young forever, whereas Dorian will eventually age and lose his youth and beauty. A vexed Dorian makes a wish that he will stay timeless and the picture will age instead o...more
