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Old 04-20-2014, 06:30 AM   #3
caleb72
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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OK. I've been meaning to read this for a couple of years now so the book club gave the excuse I needed to jump in.

I found the book much more accessible than I thought it would be, which was a benefit. The dialog and narrative was pretty clear, even if I found Lord Henry often contrary for the sake of being contrary without any particular reason or argument.

There was a particular chapter which described Dorian over the years that was immensely tedious; describing the instruments he had playing in his parlour and the scents he used etc.. I'm sure it was only 10 pages or so, but it felt like 100 pages of lists.

The ending was a bit abrupt and the final chapters didn't quite achieve the tension I was hoping for, such that I was surprised to find that the last page was actually the last page.

I'm glad the uncensored version is out there as there is certainly nothing to shock a modern reader. It made sense to me that someone who had delegated all suffering and sin to an inanimate object should be tempted to lead a debauched life, so the insinuations gave me just enough to imagine the rest. I don't know exactly what was censored from the original as I've never read to compare, but if that had been sanitised in some way, it would have lessened the story in my eyes.

So I liked the writing; clear and satisfying, much more than I was expecting. I liked the aspects of Dorian's life that was hinted at by the narrative. However, the story itself didn't work as well for me as I thought it would. It seemed like a great deal of Lord Henry saying bad is good and good is bad, followed by tedious lists of Dorian's hobbies over the years culminating in an ending I found myself unprepared for.

I would have thought Lord Henry was modeled after Oscar Wilde. I'm only writing that because I remember watching some of the movie Wilde with Stephen Fry and Fry's dialogue reminded me somewhat of Lord Henry's speechifying. Not the most scientific conclusion to draw, but it's just how it came across to me.
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