One night I was up reading on Wikipedia, as I am wont to do
occasionally, about the Faustian legend. Now, how I came to be doing this, or
why escapes me at the present time, perhaps I’d been listening to that Police
song and as wondering who exactly Mephistopheles was, perhaps something else
prompted this subject matter, but regardless I ended up perusing a list of
works with Faustian elements—a long list to be sure, including operas, movies,
books, and other things. The only thing that really jumped out at me was The Picture of Dorian Grey. The basic
idea behind the Faust Legend, for those who may not know, is selling your soul
to the devil for something. You can see why the list is so long.
My only previous experience with Dorian Grey comes from that
excellent Sean Connery film, his last I believe, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Dorian Grey in that work is a little
different than in the original. While in both he has his portrait age instead
of himself, the effects somewhat differ. In the movie he covered the portrait because
if he ever saw it, his age would return to himself, which is how he died in the
movie. In the book, not only does the portrait age, it also bears his sins.
When he kills the artist who painted it, for example, in the portrait his hands
drip with blood. Also in the novel, Dorian is free to look at the picture as he
pleases, and he does. In fact, the way he dies he in the book is when he
decides to destroy the picture, plunging a knife into it.
While I somewhat infrequently read the classics, this
particular book well, it was short, but not enjoyable enough for me to read
quickly. I kinda trudged through it the best I could. That’s not to say the
story wasn’t good, or it wasn’t well written. It was actually quite good. I
simply struggle adjusting to that older style of language. And it’s not like Dorian Grey is even that old—about a
hundred and twenty years. If I struggle with that, it goes without saying I struggle
a bit with even older works.
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