Author Brian S. Ference shared with me a copy of his debut novel The Wolf of Dorian Gray in exchange for an honest review. Obviously, his work is derived from Oscar Wilde's classic The Picture of Dorian Gray. Despite having earned a B.A. in English and pursuing a career teaching English literature and composition at the secondary level, I never read Wilde's original tale. Despite knowing the basic premise of Wilde's original story, I felt it was only fair to go back and read the classic work of literature in order to write a thorough and accurate review of Ference's work.
Wilde's classic story takes place in 19th-century Victorian England. Prior to the beginning of the tale, a dashing young man, Dorian Gray, befriends artist Basil Hallward who, in true artistic fashion, becomes obsessed with Gray as a model for his art, and so paints many portraits of him. At the opening of the story, Hallward is working on his final portrait of Gray as the culmination of his talents and the best work he has ever produced. In the opening scenes, Gray sits for Hallward as the artist puts the finishing touches on the painting. Also in attendance is Lord Henry Wotton - a well-to-do member of society with nothing better to battle ennui than to question, criticize, or contradict anything set before him. In their first conversation together, Lord Henry Wotton induces Dorian Gray to think deeply about the meaning of life, personal pursuits of pleasure, and other philosophically hedonistic ideals. This, in turn, corrupts Gray, being a very young man and only just emerging into adulthood. As such, when the painting is finished, Gray realizes that this portrait and this point in his life is the pinnacle of his existence. He begins to question what more there is in store for him from here. If youth and beauty are all that matter in life (as the mental seed planted by Wotton was sure to imply), then Gray believes it must be true that his only purpose is to pursue life's greatest pleasures from here on out. Internally, he has a moment of existential crisis in which he prays to keep his youth and beauty forever if only the picture would age instead of the realistic reversal.
As the story progresses, Dorian Gray and Lord Henry Wotton continue in their friendship. Gray seeks out the romantic pleasures of life, pursues and loses love, betrays some of his friends, commits heinous and immoral acts, yet never seems to age. The surrealism of his continued youth is sometimes questioned by those around him, but it only serves him well as his garish charms circumvent any consequences that might otherwise befall his ignoble pursuits. While Gray remains vividly young, Hallward's painting of him begins to, disbelievingly, change. Gray realizes that with each act he commits against someone else, the picture magically alters to represent his inner-self and soul. The more Gray carelessly moves through life, the more grotesque the picture becomes until he can no longer stand to look at it and he refuses to let anyone else see it. In the end, he is consumed by his guilt, his vanity, and his immoral behavior emphasizing Wilde's warnings about the shallow and unscrupulous nature of society.
Personally, I don't read many classics as the classical style of writing can come off as rather archaic to a contemporary reader. In this particular work, as with many others of this time period, there are points at which the philosophical dialogue and elaborate imagery seem to continue on far longer than necessary. I felt myself checking out of many of these longer passages and sometimes even skimming over large chunks of descriptive narrative. It is definitely a novel that shows its time. However, the story itself is highly original and the plot line is what kept me reading through to the end. Wilde's work has continued to remain a classic piece of literature whose morals and themes still hold true for society. In the 21st-century, selfie-driven social media culture that we live in today, it is easy to see how these life lessons still bare food for thought for any contemporary reader.
Upon my reading of Ference's rendition of Wilde's story, the immediate differences I recognized were that Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton were exchanged for female characters though retained their same personalities from Wilde's original version. It was unclear why Ference chose to make these character changes which didn't feel as if they added anything of substance to his work. Many of the remaining characters retained their original names - Dorian Gray, Sybil Vane, James Vane, etc. - which made the change the opening two characters even more confusing. It seemed that, in the beginning of the writing process, Ference intended to change the characters, then went in a different direction for the duration of the novel.
One aspect of Ference's work that I favored over Wilde's original was its brevity. While Ference retained much of the classical style of Wilde's writing, much of the philosophical dialogue, the incorporation of Victorian and romantic elements, and many of Wilde's same themes about vanity and the consequences of unbridled hedonism, Ference did so in a way that I enjoyed much more as a reader. Unlike with Wilde's work, I did not find myself checking out or skimming over parts of Ference's story in the same way. Ference was able to incorporate the style, imagery, and dialogue in the essence of Wilde without the tangential and seemingly interminable passages that Wilde's original work employs. As such, from a cognitive standpoint, Ference's work kept me more engaged throughout.
WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS: Another clear addition to Ference's novel that did his work justice was the Gothic incorporation of the titular wolf. Instead of just a portrait of Dorian painted by the artist, the portrait also contains an abandoned wolf cub that Dorian Gray rescued from the wilderness. As such, throughout the progression of Ference's novel, it is the wolf who becomes more and more evil and grotesque both in the painting and in the reality of the novel. It is also the wolf who commits many of the heinous acts that Gray originally commits himself in Wilde's story, causing Gray to question his actions not based on his own vanity, but rather out of his care for the good of society that the growing wolf continues to terrorize. As a fan of the horror genre and of supernatural elements incorporated into surreal settings, I could appreciate the addition of the werewolf-esque creature into Ference's retelling of Wilde's story.
I was somewhat disappointed to see how closely it followed Wilde's original. There were points at which I felt like I was re-reading the same story almost word-for-word. The few digressions from the original that Ference chose in his own title did not change the heart of story in any way, which made his work feel somewhat unoriginal at many points throughout.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed Ference's work. His writing style was much more readable for me and the incorporation of even more paranormality into Wilde's already Gothic tale made it all the more enjoyable. My only qualm remains that the story feels a bit too mirrored at times to Wilde's original, and, as such, lacks some of the intended creativity. Ference's story does have a sequel, though, and I hope this second book emphasizes more of his own innovation in the story line while maintaining all the traits of this first piece that one can appreciate as a reader.
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