Sunday, 14 December 2008

Dorian Gray - no. 24

Insel Verlag, 2003 (think that's the publishers... )
Price: £4.99

History: A present from my parent's anniversary in Vienna.

Look: quite nasty. Nasty shade of beige, not a particularly nice picture of the author, and threatening typeface on the cover. It's very odd seeing in in German. Dorian is intrinsically linked with France - it is related to the Victorian idea of a "scandalous French novel", and Oscar Wilde went so far as to write his play Salome in the language. Fairly badly I believe, but what do I know? A French copy makes sense - there is no such connection with Germany, and I have always considered the language very harsh for such a delicate novel.

Introduction/Appendices: Norbert Kohl has written a fascinating piece called Culture and Corruption, and my knowledge of German is sufficiently bad that I would never be able to read it.

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