I was ready for a very deep and disturbing story with this book, since I have been introduced to the character is several modern movies. The old English writing style made it choppy for me to follow and it took a bit of work. The thoughts of Mr. Gray as the book progressed were easier to understand then the conversational sections with the other parties in the book. Mr. Gray's emotional anguish was not portrayed as deeply as I expected, but I believe that is due to the lovely act of letting the readers imagination take over. Without much illustration we were allowed to envision the degradation of the picture and the loveliness of our hero/villain. That is of course, what he was. By keeping the secret of the picture Dorian was the worst sort of vain, but the best kind of curious. With today's standards of what is decent and moral this book did not have the impact with me that it would have had 50 or even 25 years ago, but the idea of his having to commit murder and atrocities to protect his secret is an idea we have all become accustomed to.
- missiericker5