5 Oscar Wilde - The picture of Dorian Gray

First off, I'm really sad Oscar Wilde only wrote one novel. How dare he leave me hanging. He was in prison, shouldn't he have had enough time to write another one? Also, if you put someone in prison for being gay, is prison really the best place to put them (dropping-soap-scenarios, you know what I mean)?

"The picture of Dorian Gray" was also a recommendation from a friend and I'm really glad he thought of me because it definitely ranks with my favorite books of all time (I think second/third place).

Dorian Gray is a young, inexperienced boy and meets an artist, Basil, who worships him deeply and needs him as a muse. Through Basil he meets Lord Henry Wotton who thinks only pleasure and beauty makes life worth living (I do too, but for me that means pizza). Lord Henry puts all kinds of ideas into innocent, sweet little Dorians head and Dorian realizes how beautiful and captivating he is to other people. After Basil gifts him a picture of himself, Dorian wishes that the picture should age instead of him. Well guess what... 

He meets a young actress, Sybil Vane, who he intends to marry but after she puts on a bad peformance he looses his interest and she kills herself (ok, condensing the story like this makes it sound crazy). That changes Dorians life and things happen that I won't tell you about because I spoiled enough of the story! 

It has a lot of references to other literary pieces and to antique history which is genious and really made me look up a lot of names and background stories. But it didn't feel forced and I understand how this is a classic. My highlight were always dialouges that included Lord Henry and I did mark some interessting quotes. There are a lot of conversations and I think it's because Oscar Wilde was more into writing theater pieces.

I loved it. 

Ten out of ten hot dudes!