Classics #2 Oscar Wilde

 If I had a "My Life In Books" column in Elle Magazine, this book would be no.1 on my list. I thought "Don't I look cool buying an Oscar Wilde book in a massive old fashioned Waterstones... I'll never read this". Oh how I was wrong. I didn't realise Oscar Wilde was homosexual. Did anyone else? I mean I've seen the bit in The Inbetweeners where everyone accuses Neil's dad of being gay and he protests saying he was married for several years, then Will mentions that "Oscar Wilde was married" - That probably should have given it away. Nevertheless, Oscar Wilde was gay and this book has hints all the way through it. The book was published several times and the final in 1891. He was accused in 1895 of "acts of gross indecency with another male person"and was sentenced to two years imprisonment and hard labour. Ok, so it was illegal to be gay in those days (Oscar Wilde was Irish, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey, England) and this book is very risqué for the 1890's - there isn't one kiss in Jane Austen novels but this was potentially the 50 shades of the time. 

 The book is about an artist (Basil) who paints a portrait of Dorian Gray - Basil's friend loves it so much he insists that it should be sold but Basil is having none of it... why?... because he is clearly in love with Dorian Gray and wants to keep the painting for himself... yeah. I won't quote anything out of the book but the first chapter was enough to have me hooked. The best bit is that with the Penguin Classics there are notes at the back which display what Wilde had first written and was taken out - some you can see why. The book was used against Wilde in this trial as you can tell somethings are his own thoughts and when someones wife enters it is clear he is potentially talking about his own wife... 

 Anyway I have just got to the part where Dorian Gray is engaged - poor Basil- I will quote this (just as a taster!) - Wilde here is talking about Basil - "A strange sense of loss came over him. He felt that Dorian Gray would never again be to him all that he had been in the past" - shocking, I know. 

 This isn't a boring Jane Austen novel and it is one of very few of Oscar Wilde's - its free on iBooks - so I highly reccomend it - I want to write down every quote that one character in particular says... This is my favourite:

"Never marry Dorian. Men marry because they are tired and women because they are curious - both are dissapointed" - ahh and people ask why I'm not getting married. 

Beautiful,

RHS x