This is a story of moral corruption. A gothic melodrama, it is full of subtle impression and epigram. It touches on many of Wilde's recurring themes, such as the nature and spirit of art, aestheticism and the dangers inherent in it.
Великолепный английский - легкий, изящный, красивый и при этом вполне понятный. Много интересных мыслей, афоризмов. Потрясающая история. Рекомендую читать только в оригинале - стандартный перевод отвратителен.
But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are!