The picture of Dorian Gray

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This book is about, as you might guess out of the title, a portrait of a man called Dorian Gray. Dorian is an extraordinary beautiful young man and the picture is painted by his friend the artist Basil Hallward (who sounds like he is rather in love with his muse, Dorian). Another friend of Basils (lord Henry Wotten) is in the studio as the portrait is being finished and with lord Henry’s manipulating flatter Dorian claims that he wishes never to age or decay in looks but instead he wishes the portrait to carry all his years and mistakes. His wish comes true and under the influence of the sarcastic, manipulating and almost cruel lord Henry he turns from an innocent, virgin like young man to a cruel bit older man that looks like an innocent, virgin like young man. The picture, he hides away from all humanity.

The main character is Dorian Gray. He was brought up by his tyrannical grandfather Kelso; his father being killed a few month before his birth in a duel with one of Kelso’s men and his mother killed by sorrow and of course of childbirth. The grandfather has just died some month before the book begins and Dorian has inherited a fortune and a beautiful house in London. He has not been out in the social life much and is therefore unaware of his beauty and splendid manors. But during the 18 years this book covers he turns into a man that is narcissistic and vicious, capable of murders, still well fit to the Victorian society, even dough a growing group of enemies.
Lord Henry Wotton is a man in his early 30s or late 20s, he is married but he and his wife tries to stay out of the way of each other. He is the one who places all the sarcastic comments that is also written in Oscar Wilde’s Preface which makes me wonder if he might be some kind of alter ego of the author.

The language is easy to understand but unfortunately there is some French and Italian expressions that I did not understand other then in its context. There are a lot of dialogs and many descriptions of those speaking rather then descriptions of the settings.
It’s an intriguing novel but the real reason that it was written seems to be the authors way of telling the world about his ideas especially about the Victorian society.
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