Quote:
Originally Posted by fantasyfan
...While I read, I became aware that the novel is not the natural literary medium for Wilde. A character like Sir Henry could come straight out of one of Wilde's plays and there is a tension between the frothy cynical brilliance of the wit and the underlying tragedy of the novel. The 20 chapter version does give more character development but the style of writing is often overly rich while the earlier effort has considerable intensity--though even here some of the passages are simply over-elaborated. I am left with the impression that this should have been at most a novella or even a novelette. Dorian Gray's character is simply not interesting enough to sustain the length of even a short novel....
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The central character wasn't enough by himself to hold the book together, but Lord Henry and others more than compensated for any blandness in the character of Dorian Grey, and in my opinion, though there were some passages that appeared to be padding, the length was now at all a problem. I enjoyed both the 13 and 20 chapter versions, although I thought the demise of Sybil Vane's brother was a bit too abrupt. It was as if, after having introduced the character for the extended version, Wilde simply tired of the character at some point and decided to remove him from the story as quickly as possible.
As to your observation that the novel was not the natural literary medium for Wilde, I can only suppose that he also felt that way as well, as it was the only novel he ever published.