Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of the classics. Something about the language, settings and story-lines makes my eyes roll. I can’t help it, I really don’t know why.

Every so often I attempt to make myself cultured. I’ll pick up a copy of The Great Gatsby or The Scarlet Letter or Great Expectations, hoping that this time I will succeed in enjoying the novel. It’s never happened. Not once.

It’s not that I don’t think the authors are talented or that the plot isn’t creative, because I recognize the genius in these works of fiction. It’s just how I am (the same goes for music and movies.) Pretty much everything I enjoy comes after 1980 (setting included.)

But I’ve never given up on my attempt to love great works of literature (set in and written in pre-1980), so I decided to borrow The Picture of Dorian Gray from the library- the only published novel by Oscar Wilde.

The Picture of Dorian Gray follows Dorian Gray, the muse of artist Basil Hallward. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, an opinionated man with a refreshing world view. Lord Henry corrupts Dorian by telling him the only things worth pursuing are beauty and fulfilling the senses. Knowing that his beauty will one day fade, Dorian jokingly wishes his portrait – which Basil is painting of him – ages rather than himself.

Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it… And, in Dorian’s case, he did. Dorian falls into a dark life filled with sin, but his skin remains unlined and his hair stays full. As the years pass and those around Dorian age, he holds on to his youth, while Basil’s portrait shows the ugliness of his soul.

It is clear from The Picture of Dorian Gray that Oscar Wilde was a playwright. The majority of the novel is dialogue and written with equal wit to the only Wilde play I’ve seen, The Importance of Being Earnest. But, I’ll admit, I found it hard to get through this novel. Scenes dragged on too long and part way through I found myself tuning out. I thought it was just me and my weird anti-pre-1980s-thing, but a number of people told me they never made it passed the first few pages.

I think the concept of The Picture of Dorian Gray is incredibly clever. I think some of the dialogue featured in the novel is amazing. I think the character of Lord Henry is richly developed. But… I think the novel, overall, just isn’t for me. I believe much of this is attributed to time. In his day, Oscar Wilde was pushing boundaries with hedonism and homosexual undertones, but, today, we see that everywhere. What made The Picture of Dorian Gray a staple of great literature was the ground Wilde broke and, without that, there’s less of a thrill in reading it.

I didn’t give up on The Picture of Dorian Gray after the first few pages, I actually read the entire thing. Because Wilde was a playwright and the dialogue is so perfectly suited to adaptation, I’d be interested to see it on film, but, in written-form, I just couldn’t get into it.

Upon completion, I returned the paperback novel to the library and decided to give my brain a break (I checked out Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.) I think The Picture of Dorian Gray was just too heavy for a summer read.