Tring Book Club - The Children's Book and The Picture of Dorian Gray

Before I went off to book club, I found a list of characters for The Children's Book on wikipedia. If only I had done that before I started reading. The three families include sixteen Wellwoods, three Cains and five Fludds. That doesn't include runaway Phillip Warren and his sister Elsie who, for me, are the most engaging characters in the book and numerous other characters. So it is quite a job keeping up with who is who. The first third of this 600 page volume from the Booker prizewinner A S Byatt (the longest book I have read for years) is a lovely story and somehow revolves around Philip as he is meets the three families. The passages which centre on his relationship with the unpredictable master potter Bendedict Fludd are beautiful to read. But then Philip disappears from the story (how disappointing was that)  as if he was just a device to introduce the parents and children of the families who then take over. That is not to say there was nothing to be enjoyed in the family drama that follows. The book does swop a little too much between characters, but is interesting to see how the children grow up. Perhaps the central character is Olive Wellwood who writes and illustrates a book for each of her seven living children, the title of the novel suggests this is what it is about, but really it is about the children. But what I found most irritating were the interminable passages about summer camps, the plays and trips abroad. And all the historical references were too much. However, it was well written and cleverly crafted. If only the author had let the editor have their way. There was actually a brilliant book struggling to get out from some diversionary boredom.

Having never read anything by Oscar Wilde, although having enjoyed some of his plays, I was looking forward to his famous (or infamous) novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. I must have seen a film of the same name at some point, as I knew the basis of the plot. The book is very much character led, and the set up was very well constructed. The painter BasilHallward, Lord Henry Wooton and Dorian Gray make an engaging trio in the early chapters. Every page has something witty or philosophical to say, mainly from the mouth of Lord Henry. "Never trust a woman in mauve".... "A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her"..... "the tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young"...... "When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy". But I have to say, these do later get on your nerves. The book seems very modern, even though it was written 120 years ago, so quite a feat. There are some quite despicable acts as Dorian proves to be a degenerate and heartless man. His treatment of his first infatuation is truly awful. The story does flag on occasions over halfway through, and some situations do not seem at all real. At one point Basil tells Dorian that he is despised and shunned by all society, but still so many still visit him at his big mansion. In the end this is a well told cautionary tale, perhaps as too short as The Children's Book is too long.