Following in Daniel Radcliffe's "fuck your family-friendly franchise" footsteps, The Narnia Chronicles: Prince Caspian's titular star Ben Barnes just signed on as the lead in an adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Gay Lit 101: Dorian Gray -- the only novel by Oscar Wilde -- is the ultimate horror story of gay narcissism. It's the tale of a beautiful young man (Dorian, code name Prince Charming), an older painter, and the devil's bargain they both strike to get what they want. It's also chock full of hedonism -- sex, drugs, dirty French novels -- homosexuality and (spoiler alert!) homicide.
On that middle part (the gay part, the part you're actually reading this for), see, um, for example:
Dorian, from the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power, by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream. I worshipped you. I grew jealous of every one to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you. When you were away from me, you were still present in my art.... Of course, I never let you know anything about this. It would have been impossible. You would not have understood it. I hardly understood it myself. I only knew that I had seen perfection face to face, and that the world had become wonderful to my eyes-- too wonderful, perhaps, for in such mad worships there is peril, the peril of losing them, no less than the peril of keeping them....
Should you be inspired to do a little summer reading of the queer classics, you can download the book for free via Project Gutenberg. And the Wiki Cliff's Notes version isn't bad if you just want to show off at a party.
Previously > Who's that guy? Ben Barnes!
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