'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde - Review

My rating: 10/10

(Spoiler alert!)

Wow. I just finished reading Dorian Gray about an hour ago, so I'm still in that emotionally unstable phase that I get stuck in whenever I finish an amazing book; or as I like to call it, the 'what am I supposed to do with myself now?' phase.

Unfortunately, many online reviews of this masterpiece place extensive focus on the controversial reception of the book due to its implications of homo-eroticism. I for one am going to simply talk about the book itself and how it was written, not how it was read.

Before I get into the actual plot, I want to mention the way the book's style. Oscar Wilde's narrative is simply beautiful. Even in a very sinister, Gothic novel such as this one, it can't be denied that Wilde's writing is intelligent, articulate and enthralling. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those books in which, when you read it, you can tell that the author has put so much of themselves and their faith into it.

The key theme of the novel is unarguably aestheticism, through art and the human form intertwined. This is shown through the emphasis on the aesthetic philosophies embodied by Dorian and Lord Henry Wotton, as well as Wilde himself, creating parallels between Wilde and his characters. Throughout the novel, these two crucial characters exert their beliefs perfectly, through language, attitudes and downright snobbery. In fact, this is the entire basis of the novel, as Dorian is so entranced by his beauty in the eponymous portrait. However, Wilde arguably presents the excessive commitment to such a belief as ultimately destructive. He does this by showing how the over-indulgence in his beauty (and the exchange of his soul for eternal youth as a result) of it is the intrinsic cause of the corruption of Dorian's life.

Surprisingly, this is the first (or one of, if I've forgotten one) book that I've read in which I've detested the protagonist. Not because he is unrealistic, but because he's simply a cruel person; his outlandish egotistic nature is quite frankly repulsive. Nevertheless, I find his character quite fascinating, with his complex (to say the least!) thoughts and seeming desire for a corrupt lifestyle. Lord Henry Wotton has almost the exact same summary in my mind; I see him as starkly similar to Dorian, with the exception that he is older and even more shockingly opinionated. My favourite characters of the novel were Sibyl and James Vane. With my love for sibyl comes a twinge of anger - her future is so promising, her acting depicted as so remarkable, it is a tragedy that she is denied true potential. The way her character almost transforms entirely is painful to read, conveying highly destructive influences of patriarchal Victorian society. I have seen many people say that James Vane is not a believable character - I disagree. He's one of my favourites. Possibly this is because I have two older brothers myself, and so I know that level of protection as being a constant presence in my life. I took thrill in the constant lurking of James being somewhere, watching, searching, culminating his anger for the perfect moment. Frustratingly, he is another character who tragically does not fulfill his desires, much like Sibyl (although their desires are very different).

The violation of Sibyl and James is what makes the ending oh so satisfying. As I approached the final pages, I quite honestly had no clue as to what would happen. I knew what I wanted to happen, and what should rightfully happen in order to prevent me throwing the book out of the window in rage, but it wasn't happening, and the last page dawned upon me. However - and this is a big however: that last page... that will probably remain my favourite ever last page of a novel. The brewing and boiling of tension throughout the novel is finally released in a climax that blew my mind because, in my naivety, I hadn't worked out that this was coming. I got all that I wanted and more from the ending; satisfaction, closure and a shocked O shaped mouth.

Of course, I don't want to glorify the novel - or its ending - in any way, because it's far better to read a book with few expectations, but I can't help sharing that it really did blow my mind a bit. I'm also aware that I talked about the ending in this novel whereas I don't in other reviews, but this was vital because the ending is so fundamentally powerful to me that it couldn't go unmentioned. Seriously, get reading.