Classic Creep

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891) – A fashionable young man gets a wish fulfilled when his portrait absorbs all the damage and decay of his decadent lifestyle and age. Painted by his best friend, the portrait has all the painter’s feeling for Gray in it as well. This masterpiece becomes the container for effects of aging, plus the spiritual devastation of the young man’s descent into hedonism. It seems nothing can stop the destruction inside Dorian Gray.

Why I Liked It – The level of creeping horror in this story was a pleasant (? LOL) surprise.

A couple of things right off the bat. In my mind, Oscar Wilde is “The Importance of Being Ernest”. He writes the comedy of manners stuff with the quick, witty dialogue. It’s the theater kid in me. This book, his only novel, is not that. At all. It lacks the precision of story that his plays display. This book was generally derided in its time, and for a good many years after that. There are flaws, which I’ll touch on in a moment, but the slow decay of a man’s integrity, soul, and personality is stunning.

The other item is more of a question. Am I the only person who thought the title of this book was “The PORTRAIT of Dorian Gray”? I’ve known the book for decades but it’s never been “picture”. This falls into the category of Robert Louis Stevenson’s book “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. We all want to put a “The” at the start, but that’s not the title given it by its author. Just caught me by surprise.

This is another addition to my list of “Classic Literature I’ve Never Read”. As has been the case for most of the books on that list, It was a pleasant surprise. Written in 1890, the language, especially the dialogue, differs from modern writing. Sometimes that’s an issue, sometimes not. It took me a couple of chapters to slide into the storytelling voice of the story. The people at the center of the story are caught up in the social fashions of the day. Thus, their language is extravagant and indirect. Given my preference in real life for direct speech, it was a minor hurdle to overcome.

Dorian Gray is a young man of decent social standing, with a bit of money, and head-turning good looks. What he lacks is depth, experience, and any drive to do or become anything. His best friend is the painter Basil Hallward, a solid, rising talent in the art world. It’s through Basil that the two pivotal events in Gray’s life occur. First, there is the painting. Hallward’s passion for Gray isn’t addressed directly, (far too controversial for the time. As Wilde knew very well), but it’s clear quickly. All that passion goes into the masterwork portrait. When he sees it for the first time, Gray mourns he will age while the picture remains beautiful forever. He makes a wish that the situation could be reversed.

How that wish comes true isn’t explored. It just happens. For a work described as a “philosophical novel”, that strikes me as a major shortcoming. But it is what it is. Through whatever device, the Faustian bargain is made.

The second pivotal event is Dorian’s introduction to Lord Henry Wotton. It’s hard for me to express how much I dislike “Harry” Wotton. From my point of view, he’s a poseur and manipulator. He spouts this hedonistic/solipsistic nonsense in order to watch the reactions of the people around him. In modern terms, he’s a pot-stirrer. They aren’t interested in having intelligent conversations, they just want to watch the world burn. I call him a poseur because it’s all pretense. While he urges his new young friend to turn away from social convention, Wotton does nothing of the sort in his own life. The radical thinker in social circles is boringly average in his private life. But he pushes Gray in a direction that over the course of almost twenty years will destroy the young man.

Because so much of what Wilde chooses to happen to his main character was way outside the social norms of the day, much can only be hinted. But the hints describe horrible acts even by today’s standards. This is a creeping horror kind of story, where the evil slowly grows. The downside is that we are stuck understanding the downward spiral of Gray’s character, mostly through descriptions of the decay of the picture. It’s not as satisfying as it might have been.

In the end, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is not at all what I expected going in.

Rating – **** Recommended