This summer, I passed a Barnes & Noble after lunch with some friends in Midtown. I had a gift card that I hadn’t used, so I decided to stop in and peruse their selection. On the landing of the second story, I was faced with a shelf full of Penguin Classics, complete with lovely black spines punctuated by white font. At the very bottom, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde stuck out slightly. Perfect! A book I’d been meaning to read, so readily presented. I bought it and brought it home with me. To my great delight, it surpassed my expectations; Wilde spins an enthralling story with multiple major plot twists in a concise 200 pages. The prose is grand but simple, and there is a certain literary texture to the entire work that makes it both an artifact of its period and relevant to the modern day—in other words, it is timeless. The dynamic of Dorian Gray is a bit like an episode of The Twilight Zone. The titular main character lives a life of corruption while appearing respectable to society; Dorian Gray stays young and perfect while the portrait of himself hidden in the attic shows his true, grotesque nature. Upon its publication, the novel was a succés de scandale, a reputation that solidified after selected passages were brought as evidence in Oscar Wilde’s trial for “gross indecency.” But fear not, sensitive readers! By 21st-century standards, Dorian Gray is quite tame—though Wilde does not hesitate to point to our human failings. In one of my favorite passages from the novel, he writes: “Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.” If that excerpt wasn’t enough to convince you, The Picture of Dorian Gray is brief, entertaining, and insightful; whether you love literature or want to read a classic on your own for the first time, I would highly recommend this book.
Shelf Life: Review of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
