The Picture of Dorian Gray is essentially a re-telling of the Faust legend, done in a victorian era british writing style. Wilde's skill as a dramatic playwright shines greatly in the dialogue which is rich with philosophical implications and interesting characterization. His dialogue flows perfectly and is consistently interesting to read. The events that take place are consistently interesting from a characterization perspective and are often dramatic and exciting, as a result it's very hard to get bored reading this book. You can sit there and ponder the in-depth meaning of the character's discussions at a slow but fulfilling pace or just read along at a faster pace and enjoy the brilliant interactions and character developments.
Wilde's prose is timeless, its from a sweet spot in history where the aesthetic fluff of the best writers' prose was perfectly balanced to not be unreasonably wordy but still be creative and meaningful. It isn't very difficult to appreciate as well, making this a great book for anyone to enjoy regardless of their level of experience with literature.
Overall this book is a very well executed and stylized version of a classic western legend which offers insightful commentary on the moral and spiritual failings of decadent hedonism and criticizes the superficial obsession with appearances and aesthetics. It also offers interesting and enjoyable characters who have engaging conversations. I would recommend this book to anybody, it is short, easy to read and very enjoyable on multiple levels.
SPOILERS BELOW
I loved the depiction of the poisonous influence that Lord Henry had on Dorian. Lord Henry is written to be Dorian's devil who tempts him towards sinful hedonism. Dorian has an awareness of this for most of the book but chooses to continue his sin anyway. His character then develops to the point where he dramatically blames the painter and painting who concealed his sin from the world, rather than placing blame rightfully on the person who convinced him to commit the sins in the first place. His reluctance to admit that Lord Henry was the problem points to the timeless truth that misery loves company, so they stay friends.
The painting provides an interesting insight into the nature of sin and consequences. The painting intercepts only the surface level, visual consequences of sin, that being ugliness and aging. Dorian in his superficiality and focus on aesthetics comes to assume that he is then safe from sin, but this results in him committing sins which are harmful to his spirit. He becomes miserable, anxious and angry. He may have avoided the superficial consequences of his sin but the corruption of his spirit is a far worse unavoidable consequence.