Sunday, October 31, 2010

Ten of the best mirrors in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best mirrors in literature.

One novel on the list:
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Dorian is in the habit of taking a mirror up to the locked room containing his portrait and comparing his reflection with the increasingly horrid image on the canvas. When he realises what a monster he has become, he becomes another mirror-smasher. "He loathed his own beauty, and flinging the mirror on the floor, crushed it into silver splinters beneath his heel."
Read about another book on the list.

The Picture of Dorian Gray also appears on Mullan's lists of ten of the best disastrous performances in fiction and ten of the best examples of ekphrasis in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue