Reading the Classics discussion

Discuss chapters 4-10.

I am delighted we are reading Thr Picture of Dorian Gray. It's always been for me one of those books - like 1984 - that you don't get round to reading because you 've heard it referred to so much you think you have read it. Fascinated by the yellow book. I did read A Rebours as an undergraduate & found it alluring but disappointing.

I couldn't help but be surprised when Dorian fell in love with Sibyl. Up until now he was so obsessed with Lord Henry I thought he was gay. Now it seems he's not only straight but learning that Basil was right about Lord Henry all along (I knew it!). I still believe Basil is in love with Dorian though. I'd ship them but a.) a love story would ruin this book and b.) Dorian is not good enough for Basil.

I found Basil's feelings about Dorian in the first two or three chapters very affecting and I'm sorry there is less of him in the subsequent chapters. Watching Dorian change from an innocent to a more callous young man is interesting. Even Lord Henry seems surprised at the change in Dorian. I'm reading the annotated and uncensored edition, with excellent notes.

Susan, is there more homoerotic content perhaps between Basil and Dorian in the uncensored edition? now that i've read the standard original version, which i wanted to know before i try the uncensored one sometime, i'm curious about that edition.

I loved chapter 4 by the way, my favourite chapter, lots of witty and interesting musings on life there, mostly by Lord Henry.

I guess I had a hard time believing he truly fell in love with Sybil in the first place. I got the impression it was more of an interesting fascination, almost like he found her more like a science experiment.

What I think drew Dorian to Sibyl was her art. He loves things that are artificial so it is appropriate that Dorian's soul has been captured in something artificial - a painting. Just as soon as Sybil feels real love for him, Dorian loses interest. Two of the myths Wilde seems to have drawn on are that of Pygmalion, the artist who fell in love with his creation, & Narcissus, the beautiful boy who fell in love with his reflected image. G. B. Shaw, of course, had his own take on the Pygmalion myth too.

And i think Dorian also lost his admiration for Sybil when they witnessed her bad performance in theater. That night Sibyl played badly, because she had to play Julia while for the first time in her life having found real love, seeing the fakeness of the stage love. I think she was constantly thinking about Dorian during the play, too, so she was distracted. It's a shame that Henry and Basil never saw her at the top of her art, i wonder what Henry would have thought of her then, and whether Dorian's admiration of Sibyl was grounded in her actual high skill as an actress, or whether it was the rose-colored glass of love all along. The otherwise bad actors and bad production may suggest that Sibyl wasn't that special of an actress either, though it seemed like she soared above it, at least for Dorian.
It's a shame Dorian never gave Sibyl a second chance to show her acting skill though, it's foolish to judge someone on one night's performance alone, everyone can have an off day.

I hope everyone gets a chance to read the annotated edition because some of the speculation here is answered there. First, Basil continues to be the one decent and attractive character in the book, and he does at one point declare his feelings for Dorian. For me, and perhaps for anyone in the 2000s, the content seems mild throughout.

On the night when Sybil performs badly, I think Wilde is pointing out that Sybil sees her performance on stage as a shallow reflection of real life and is put off the art of performing. Instead, she should have understood that drama/art has its own mode of perfection. There are notes on these and other passages that emphasize, for me, the capaciousness of Wilde's mind and thinking.

Now that the annotated edition is out, I would hope that more schools would use this in various classes. Wilde was thinking hard when he wrote this.

Great to know, Susan, thanks! I intend to read the annotated, uncensored version next time.