Shannon's Review - The Canterville Ghost By Oscar Wilde

Title: The Canterville Ghost

Series: N/A

Author: Oscar Wilde

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Ghosts

Publisher: Walker Books

Received: Bought

Release Date: May 1887

Pages: 126

Rating:

Author Oscar Wilde’s Official Websites:

Website:

https://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/

Blog:

N/A

Facebook:

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Twitter:

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Shannon’s Thoughts:

An overly confident and not easily scared American family moves into a haunted British castle. The British caretakers know to fear the ghost that has caused as much chaos in life as he does death.  The American children do not fear the nasty spirit that is running out of scare tactics to frighten the family. The American’s daughter finds a connection to the ghost that may bring him peace.

I read this after I read The Picture Of Dorian Grey and I have never seen the movies based on this short story so my mind had no real thoughts on the story except that I knew it was supposed to be humorous.  Again the author, Oscar Wilde, bring description like an artist brings paint to a canvas. The details are lovely and even in slow parts there is beauty in them

Something is missing in this compared to TPODG.  I knew this was supposed to be funny and thought there would be some laugh out loud moments. For me there wasn’t I could not fully connect maybe because this story was a commentary on British nobility.  I just felt more a disconnect reading TCG then I did TPODG.  

There are very few classic authors I like. Even though I thought The Canterville Ghost was okay a not great I will still try to read more Oscar Wilde at this point.  His writing is a treasure.

Shannon's Review - The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Title: The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Series: N/A

Author: Oscar Wilde

Genre: Fiction, Classic, Fantasy

Publisher: Amazon Classics (for above version not original)

Received: bought

Release Date: June 1890

Pages: 252

Rating:

Author Oscar Wilde’s Official Websites:

Website:

https://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/

Blog:

N/A

Facebook:

N/A

Twitter:

N/A

Shannon’s Thoughts:

The Picture Of Dorian Gray starts out with the artist who is painting the title character, Dorian Gray. The artist is enthralled with Dorian’s beauty and a sense of innocence. The artist, Basil, introduces Dorian to a friend, Lord Henry, as he sits for the portrait.  Some could say that Lord Henry introduces Dorian to a life of no morals and selfishness. As the lord is the first to mention that the painting will always be a picture of Dorian forever young and the real Dorian will grow old. In a way, this stimulates Dorian to announce his wish to give his soul for the reverse.

This was my second time trying to read TPODG.  The first time I just could not get into it.  This time,  I can not figure out what made me not want to read it.  The story is beautiful. Oscar Wilde’s words paint a portrait of its own. It is written in this mesh of Victorian and Contemporary.  So for me that makes it easier to relate to. The words are not like reading Shakespeare.

I am not good at critiquing books and getting into every metaphor, or meaning behind it all.  When I try that with a book I can’t enjoy it. So I just read, and from the beginning, I could tell this was going to be a new favorite author.  This coming from a reader who is not a fan of many classics...but I keep trying and here I found one I loved.

I bought the book of the complete works of Oscar Wilde and will be next reading The Canterville Ghost.  I can not gush enough how much I loved this book. I am curious now to watch one of the movie version of Dorian Gray because I never have.