Dorian Gray - no. 23

Random House vintage Classics 2007

Price: £4.99

History: I can't remember buying this at all.

Look: This cover, though it is far from my favourite, approaches my ideal concept for what a cover should be. The circle suggests both painting and mirror, and the various shapes form themselves into smoke, into a book, into a deaths head with a scythe. The colours are also lovely (the spine is red), as is the text.

Introduction/Appendices: Irvine Welsh - did he write Trainspotting? He wrote something...his introduction is passable, but short and mostly biographical. It does briefly touch on the treatment of Sybil's "hideous Jew" manager, suggesting this is Dorian's characterisation instead of genuine anti-Semetism from the author. I'd never consider it, but it's a pretty ironic discussion to raise about this book in particular, which complains of art being treated as autobiography. For my part, I don't know or particularly care which it is. You don't choose your reading material on the morality of the author, and thus it is illogical to abandon a book because of it (the same goes for films and music. Any unsavory behavior Michael Jackson may or may not be guilty of should have no bearing on his music etc...)