The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

There's one thing worse than reading a novel by Oscar Wilde...

Yes, the celebrated playwright and short-story writer wrote one novel and The Picture of Dorian Gray is it.  Wilde wrote this book before his plays, and many of his famous witticisms that we may know best from his plays appeared in this book first.  They are mostly spoken by Lord Henry Wotton; and once they start, they don't stop whilst Lord Henry is on the scene.  The book fairly sizzles with them.

[Spoiler Alert] Most people who are familiar with the name Dorian Gray will know that this book contains the story of a far-more-than-handsome young man who does not age; rather, his commissioned portrait starts to show the lines and wrinkles.  Worse yet, or better still for Dorian, the portrait also bears all the marks of Dorian's dissolute and debauched life, until it's visage becomes hideous to behold.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is such a multifaceted book that I can hardly do it justice in the limited scope of this review.  On face value, we have a fantasy story of a wish come true; however, dig beneath the surface and it can be read as a satire, a tract about the nature of art, of morals, of love, of homosexual love, and of taking pleasure in clandestine behaviour abhorrent to the so-called right-minded people of the Victorian Age.

Whatever it is, Wilde has told the story magnificently.  Lord Henry Wotton is a totally unforgettable creation: a debonair and cynical man of leisure who has an acid wit and a sparkling turn of phrase.  Dorian's gradual but finally absolute corruption proceeds ruthlessly.  There is human collateral damage everywhere.  In the meantime, the reader is challenged about how to think and feel about so many important matters.  Just to finish off, here is Lord Henry in one of his more serious moments:

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course they are charitable.  They feed the hungry, and clothe the beggar.  But their own souls starve, and are naked.  Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion - these are the two things that govern us.  And yet -

 What do you suppose the 'And yet -' leads to?  You will have to read the book.