I really just miss reading. It's so relaxing and let's you get away from the real world for an hour or so, but unfortunately we don't always have the luxury of time on our side. Luckily, I'm in school, so a lot of times I have required readings that I find more fun the tiresome. While in London, I'm taking a London in Literature class which is absolutely fascinating! It basically takes novels and authors starting with Dickens and seeing how the City itself is shown on the pages. Our first novel was Oliver Twist, which I unfortunately did not get to finish. Huge bummer right? It actually wasn't that bad and surprised me with the wittiness of his writing. I liked it a lot more than Great Expectations which I could not get through. How am I suppose to have any emotional reaction to a boy called Pip? Anyway, this past week we had to read Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Now I'm going to get up on my soapbox for a moment and tell you why this is such a phenomenal book. I'm not going to give a whole lot a way because I really feel like you should go pick up this right now and read it straight through. It is Wilde's only novel and it is packed with wonderful ideological views about hedonism and enjoying the finer things in life. The novel surrounds the life of a young Dorian Gray who is apparently very attractive and very impressionable. One of his admirers/friends is a painter and paints a portrait of the young man that captures his beauty in such a way that it's surreal. The picture is given to Dorian as a gift. At the same time Mr. Gray gets closer and closer with the aristocrat Lord Henry who shows him the way to live a rich life. He is very influential and Dorian in this life of no consequence. It isn't until he begins to commit a series of sins than he realizes that his portrait that has been sitting in his room has begun to change. With each wrong doing it grows uglier and older as the real Dorian remains the same (you should have known about this already from gossip or something so I feel like I'm not giving anything away). The entire book is basically a downwards spiral for the man's soul.
Here are just some of my favorite quotes (most from Lord Henry):
"...there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
"But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face."
"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
"And beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation."
"Be afraid of nothing...A new Hedonism--that is what our century wants."
"Always! That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last for ever."
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed."
"It is only the sacred things that are worth touching."
"Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich."
"Life has always poppies in her hands."
In class we talked about the idea of decadence as being something that happens right before the huge crash of society. For some reason that imagery with this book and society today was so jarring I loved it. Are we too decadent? Do we not care about our actions as long as we enjoy ourselves? I love having a good time as much as the next gal, but is it too much? Gives you something to think about right?
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| He's such a dandy ain't he? Oh Oscar. source |
