classics – Reviews, illustrations and bookish thoughts

I finished the weekend by finishing what I’ve been reading this past week: Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. I picked it up in the charity shop when the Almedia production with Paul Mescal was announced in the hope of rereading it before seeing it but due to the high demand I never managed to get tickets. Either way, it is a really good play and a fun read.

I’ve read it before, I’ve seen several productions of it but this was definitely my best experience with it so far. It’s such a well-crafted play, very atmospheric in its scene directions and with an incredible use of light and colour. There are different hues of blue, strong primary colours and the softer pastels that Blanche hides behind, further emphasised by her name meaning ‘white’, as there is so much colour around her that she is never quite part of.

The story itself is tragically moving. Blanche’s slow downfall and the realisation of what has happened to her is expertly revealed bit by bit. She is deluded but also highly relatable and you cannot help but pity her.

Stanley’s horrible character is oozing off the page from the very beginning. Can you not picture this man in front of you? Is he not revolting? He actually reminded me of one of the customers I had in the coffee shop where I used to work and who, in my head, I always thought “Oh. here’s Stanley Kowalski again”.

I have held a position as a reader at a theatre for the last few years and as part of that I have read so many unsolicited play submissions of varying quality that it was such a relief to read a play that is really good, where everything has been carefully considered (including the stage craft). As such, I would really recommend it not only as a stage production but also to read.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those books that has been on my radar and tbr for YEARS but for some reason I’ve never picked it up. As soon as I did, though, I immediately asked myself: Why have I not read this earlier? It has all the elements that I look for in a classic: a moral dilemma, philosophical ideas, a gothic atmosphere, psychological turmoil, discussions on aesthetics, a healthy dose of decadence, and so on.

I loved it! The constant battle between aestheticism and morality and the complementary discussions on ethics and aesthetics. Well-crafted and so well-written there were so many elements to enjoy: the gradual manipulation of Dorian by Lord Henry Wotton that leads to decadence and decay, the dichotomies between was is hidden and what is seen, what is moral and what is sin, what is art and what is life and how they correlate and contradict. The countless provocations and ideas throw into the dialogue by more hedonistic characters and the attempts at reason by Basil Hayward.

I also enjoyed its London setting. It is always fun to read about places you know well in books, and the historical aspects adds another level. Dorian Gray inhabits a London that we can still see traces of today. As a true ‘flaneur’, he moves through “this grey, monstrous London of ours, with its myriads of people, its sordid sinners, and its splendid sins.” He visits Covent Garden, mentions Euston Road, rides in a carriage through Hyde Park and crosses the social border to the East End.

His house is situated in Grosvenor Square, where Wilde himself lived 1882-3, and which central location just below Oxford Street means that all of Central London lies accessible at Dorian Gray’s feet.

I went to Grosvenor Square just after having finished the novel and could not help but wonder in which of these houses (and attics) Dorian Gray (and his picture) lived? Did he cross the leafy green on his way out into the shadowy night?