'Salome' is probably one of the most notorious femme fatales in literature. But through no fault of the historical or biblical accounts mind you; but rather because of Aubrey Beardsley's grotesque ink panels that were inspired by Wilde's play. Like most people, I became aware of the play through these oriental drawings, yet had a devil of a time finding a translated English version (Wilde originally wrote it in French) anywhere on the the web. However, thanks to pinkmonkey.com I have finally sated my curiosity. But...

Yes, big but. I'm not sure why, but this one didn't really come across as particularly good. I'm holding the quality of the translation to blame, as I'm sad to say that this is very different to Wilde's other plays. To start with, the brilliance of language that we are used to is totally lacking. The dialogue between the characters are monotonous and annoyingly repetitive which is NOT a Wilde trademark.

Also the ending was quite abrupt, it felt hurried or somewhat
'missing' in something. However what I did like about it was the inclusion of many characters from different lands and religions. I really got a sense of cultural mix and tolerance of other religions (even though John the Baptist gets killed!) King Herod had many people in his court and this is clearly illuistrated. But beauty of language was what I was looking for. Hell, scrap that, I was expecting Art Nouveau decadence but that wasn't to be.

This could have been more interesting as prose, interspersed with some of Aubrey Beardsley's fantastic drawings based on the play. Having said that, I'd give anything to see this on stage. The choreography of the 'seven veils' would be wonderful to watch!

3/5 stars

To read the version I have, please go to: http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/sal...