Finished The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. This was my Halloween read for this year. I wish Wilde had written other novels. His prose is such a delight. Dorian's friend Lord Henry Wotten, a.k.a. Harry, is the key to Dorian's demise. Throughout the novel I saw him as a representation of the devil himself, hence "Harry." Also, towards the end, when Dorian is turning over a new leaf, he tells Harry of a young village maid named Hetty who he had planned to run away with, but instead leaves untouched. This immediately made me think of Hetty in Adam Bebe.
The novel is funny, exciting and gruesome at points. I enjoyed it very much. There were times when it reminded me of Hawthorne's story Rappaccini's Daughter, since nearly everything the beautiful Dorian comes into contact with is destroyed.
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