By now, most people are aware of the basic plot of this book: young man foolishly wishes that, upon seeing his current beateous youth captured forever in a picture, he could remain in that moment of youth forever, and the picture age in his stead. Not only that, but the picture becomes twisted and cruel as a result of the callous hedonistic behaviour perpetrated by Gray in his perpetual youth. At first, Gray is horrified, but then finds himself submitting to it…

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a fantastic novel, so fantastic that it made me sad that the eminently quoteable Wilde has only written the one. At one point, a bad-influencing friend of Dorian’s lends him a novel that Gray is charmed by, a novel that tells of a man who lives a hedonistic lifestyle, with care only for pleasure and enjoyment, and it’s this novel that kick-starts Gray’s eventual downfall as it affects Gray’s behaviour, leading him to eventually describe it as dangerous. Wilde’s novel is possibly one of these books: it’s seductive discussions on hedonism, pleasure, and the real joys of life almost make one want to throw mores out the window and life such a life oneself, or at least wish intensely for a period that one has or could. Henry Wotton, Gray’s witty, philosophical influence is a raconeteur, a man of life, who knows its pleasures and derides it’s follies, chosing simply to ignore them. It’s his discourses that are particularly charming and fascinating. There’s obviously a temperance to his message (in terms of the whole arc of the novel), but that’s almost neither here nor there. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a superb book, fascinating, witty, supremely intelligent and philosophical, romantic and gothic and chilling also. It’s one of those books that might lay a bomb under your life, and it deserves its classic status.

‘A heady late-Victorian tale of double-living’ – Sarah Waters
This edition of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’(1890)is better than other editions as it appears to be the most recent and up to date (Vintage Classics 2007). The introduction by novelist Irvine Welsh is a helpful insight into the novel’s structure and offers literary criticism. Both Welsh’s introduction and the epigraph before this provide basic and helpful information regarding the novel’s origin and Oscar Wilde’s life. From here, we are able to read the novel with a clearer view of the intertextuality, censorship and idea it created.
Such examples of intertextuality include ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, ‘Frankenstein’ and the works of Shakespeare and theatre. These postmodern traits become more obviously identified once having read the introductions.
This edition is perfect for study or reading for pleasure.

A Dark Delicious Classic
Though The Picture of Dorian Gray is a short book it has hidden depths and very dark undertones. We first meet the image of Dorian Gray in a painting which Lord Henry Wotton sees at his artist friend’s house, Basil Hallward and falls in love with the painting as he thinks the person depicted may be one of the most beautiful and alluring people he has scene. When Dorian then arrives Henry sees in the flesh he is even more so. Soon the two people Bail is closest too and never wanted to meet have struck up an unlikely friendship and under Henry’s influence Dorian comes to believe youth and beauty are the only thing that matter. He then makes a fateful wish as he wants never to grow like the painting of him. He soon notices that indeed the picture does begin to age and as it does so it gets crueller looking as if the painting is the true Dorian himself.

Now if the plot wasn’t enough the book is also very much about society and which on a first read years ago I didn’t care for I completely and utterly loved. Looking at the upper classes who have endless money to burn and too much time on their hands other than to `chase the dragon’ or embark on affairs the thing they go very well is gossip and discuss. I could easily write endless wonderful quotes from the book as to what they say “he is sure to be furious and I couldn’t have a scene in this bonnet. It is far too fragile” and also how they are described “she was a curious woman, whose dresses always looked like they had been designed in a rage and put on in a tempest” in fact so many quotes it would probably make up 98% of the book.

This latest Jack Reacher novel has all the fast-paced action that we
The characters are all well-developed and believable with Lee’s trademark
strong women adding special dynamics to this story. Combined with an unusually twisted plot, it is probably one of Lee’s best books yet. Written in the first person, Jack Reacher goes undercover, partly to help Duffy, a DEA agent chasing a major drug dealer in Maine, but mostly to try to find an old enemy he left for dead ten years ago while still in the army, an enemy who now seems to be associated with the dealer.

Reacher’s motive is personal: unfinished business. Duffy’s motive is personal: she sent a female agent in after being pulled from the case, and has lost contact with her. Everything is very off-the-record. It is a personal fight, and Reacher makes even more personal enemies with some spectacularly unsavory characters along the way. Expect some very dirty fights. The first person form does give a unique insight into the Reacher character and seems to work well, though I personally think Lee Child handles the third person better. The sentences do get very short, giving an almost staccato feel to parts of the story. Probably how Reacher is supposed to think, but at times the lack of rhythm makes the reading harder than it needs to be.

The characters are great. Duffy is a particularly fine portrait, and Dominique Kohl, the investigator in the original case ten years ago, is lovingly sketched. As usual, Lee excels in strong women. The weaker women are less convincing: Elizabeth Beck, the long-suffering wife of the drug dealer, is a good enough effort while the other women (e.g. Teresa Justice) are barely developed beyond their names!!! I would also recommend reading Tino Georgiou’s masterpiece–The Fates–if you haven’t read it yet.

Jack gets his teeth loosened
PERSUADER, the seventh installment of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, is perhaps the best so far.

On a Boston sidewalk, Reacher almost collides with a man shot three times – including twice in the head – and pitched off a cliff into the Pacific ten years before. Having a former colleague in the Military Police put a trace on the man’s license plate brings the Drug Enforcement Agency to Jack’s door. And what might your interest be, sir? Reacher, is it?

Jack, a former Army MP major that now wanders the United States as a near-vagrant always on the lookout for wrongs to rectify, finds himself aiding the Feds as he goes undercover to penetrate a fortified mansion on an isolated headland on Maine’s wild coast. The DEA suspects that the mansion’s owner, Zachary Beck, is using his importing business to bring in something other than Oriental floor coverings. And Beck apparently has a connection to Reacher’s sidewalk ghost. Jack doesn’t care about Beck or his rugs, but does have another old score to settle once and for all. And this time he going to get it right, or die trying.

The plot of PERSUADER includes the first time I can recall Jack feeling fear. Well, not fear maybe, but at least apprehension. Beck’s gatekeeper, Paulie, is six inches taller, ten inches wider across the shoulders, and two hundred pounds heavier than our hero. Paulie’s arms are bigger than Jack’s legs. And he’s surprisingly quick. Both you and Reacher know that, at some point, he’s going to have to fight this monster. From Jack’s point of view, that’s going to be the dodgy bit. The reader savors the expectation.

Jack’s my favorite Loner and Tough Guy in the Trashy Literature genre. But, his habitual physical impregnability becomes almost monotonous. So, the fact that Reacher’s life comes within a gossamer thread of being extinguished more than once in this thriller is refreshing. Now that his vulnerability has been established, I look forward more than ever to Child’s next volume.

Part of Jack’s allure is that there’s a hint of dysfunctionality to his personality. In PERSUADER, the reader learns that during Reacher’s time in the service as an Army officer, he owned no civilian clothes. In an earlier book, it’s revealed that Jack doesn’t even know how to iron a shirt. Child’s hero has some serious issues, which I hope someday the author will explore.

Jack Reacher as a Drifter Version of James Bond
I liked Persuader best of the Jack Reacher novels I have read so far. The plot is more deliciously complicated with little twists, there’s a better use for all of that gun lore, high tech makes brief appearances and the bad guys are more complex than usual. In addition, Mr. Child provides us with a nice back story that develops along with the primary story line.

This story revolves around serendipity. There’s a chance meeting where Reacher sees a man who should be dead . . . and Reacher wants him dead. When approached by DEA agents for an illegal penetration of a suspect’s operations, Reacher wants in to finish the job he started ten years earlier.

The story revels in the sort of twisted villains, monster guards, pitched battles, and intrigue that make the earliest James Bond books so appealing. As a result, you get gore with a cutting edge of sadism. I don’t recall a book about a different type of hero that’s so much like Bond in the action. Perhaps You Only Live Twice.

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