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The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is classic literature. So, you may ask, why is it on a teen books blog? Because it’s awesome, that’s why (and because there is no reason for teens to not read classic literature). Will it be a bit more challenging to read than most of the books here? For sure, but it is completely and utterly worth it. Some of you may already be familiar with the basic premise of the book (I’m pretty sure there’s a Twilight Zone episode based on it). Basically, there is a man with a portrait of himself and after wishing for this, the portrait begins to age and change while he does not. A few common misconceptions to dispel: 1) Dorian is very vain, well, eventually, but he does not start that way. 2) the portrait only shows his physical aging. Not at all, and this is very cool, it shows the markings of his sins and crimes on it as well. 3) Classic literature is humorless or very hard to discern humor. False!
Oscar Wilde is, for lack of any better word, witty. To an extreme. Most of this is apparent in the character Henry Wotton. Henry or Harry as he is also called, is a very Wilde-ish character. If you have not been privilege to the wit of Oscar Wilde, I highly recommend the movie The Importance of Being Earnest or a stage production of it. Oscar Wilde wrote mostly for the stage, this being his only novel, and his mastery of dialogue is apparent in this book as well.
It is basically one of my favorite types of fantasy, the subtle kind. Dorian’s portrait is the only fantastical element, and I absolutely love that on occasion. It keeps it much more character focused. Even though people do not read fantasy for its believability, it’s kind of creepy-in-the-best-way to have a little bit of the “this could have happened and we would be none the wiser”. (Try looking at most urban fantasy or even Harry Potter(up until book 6) in that way and it gets much more fun.)
Basically, Dorian Grey is one of those beautiful characters, like Hamlet or Quentin Compson*, that you get watch fall to pieces and it is absolutely breathtaking.

P.S. No, you haven’t been spending too much time on Tumblr, there is indeed same sex sexual tension. The author, Oscar Wilde, was gay and actually spent time in jail for it.

*if you Google Quentin Compson it will give books by William Faulkner, although great books, I will highly warn you against reading The Sound and the Fury without some assistance, it is dangerous and crazy difficult