Emma's Bookery

Happy Friday everyone! Less than three week until Christmas- I am so excited! My Christmas decorations are up and my gift shopping is slowly coming to a close. Anyway here we are again, and today I've chosen 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde as my 'Favourite Book Friday'.

I've been meaning to write a blog post about Oscar Wilde but haven't quite got round to it yet so I guess I'll start by telling you all how much I admire Wilde's style of writing, its dry, witty, and full of drama...

"After having his portrait painted, Dorian Gray is captivated by his own beauty. Tempted by his world-weary friend, decadent friend Lord Henry Wotton, he wished to stay young forever and pledges his very soul to keep his good looks. As Dorian's slide into crime and cruelty progresses, he stays magically youthful, while his beautiful portrait changes, revealing the hideous corruption of moral decay.

Set in fin-de-siecle London, the novel traces a path from the studio of painter Basil Howard tot he opium dens of of the East End."

I read 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' a couple of years ago now, I'm not even sure what drove me to picking up the book in the first place. I can only think it had something to do with me having a big love for Ireland in general and decided to look up famous Irish writers and Wilde being one of them!

This books holds one of literature's most exceptional interpretation of vanity, shallowness, hedonistic selfishness and cruelty- Wilde is for me the master of this oh my! From what is a corrupted story, its blunt dialogue really got to me. I am somewhat a fairly blunt person and I understood and found funny Wilde's wit in this novel, the book is simply quotable throughout- I've never read anything so wonderfully written.

The main characters, Basil, Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray shape this story. Basil an artist who after painting Dorian becomes utterly obsessed with him because of how beautiful he is- this love comes across as homosexual behaviour vs the art object love Basil has towards Dorian but is rather vague more likely to do with the time period it was written. This perhaps explains why despite this novel being most notable, did not get approval of everyone as you can imagine. Dorian however, meets Basil's friend Lord Henry who bestows extreme hedonistic views of the only worthwhile life is to pursue beauty and satisfaction for the senses- this is what drives Dorian into further vanity and wish to stay youthful forever.

Anyhow I'm getting a bit carried away here! I just really adore this book and I urge each of you to give it a read, the language may be difficult to grasp but it is so worth the read. I think you'll find yourself turning down the pages and quoting from Wilde's brilliant words.