More Beautiful Than Good

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 793, 1 October 1954, Page 6

More Beautiful Than Good

"It is better to be beautiful than good. But . . . it is better to be good than ugly.’-The Picture of Dorian Gray. N Adonis-like young man sits for a picture painted by a struggling artist. The result is an amazing like-ness-a_ living, breathing. likeness of Dorian Gray at the height of his wonderful youth. Lord Henry Wooton, the artist’s friend, points out to the young man the great enjoyment he can extract from London society while his attractiveness lasts. But "youth’s a stuff will not endure." Passionately the young man desires that the ‘picture should grow old in his stead-and his wish is fulfilled. Prompted by Lord Wooton, Dorian goes from one adventure to another, leaving destruction and ruin in his path. And, after each adventure, the strange picture alters just a little. The story mentions a number of women in his life, reflecting the increasing impetus of his downward career. There is Sybil Vane, the innocent seventeen-year-old actress, the imperiOus society beauty, the Duchess of Mon-

lishman, Paul Johnstone, looking at both sides of the picture, has said: "Grant our sentimentality, our muddled thinking, lack of logic, distrust of cleverness, there still remains a core of toughness, of moral resolution, that is none the less Priceless because it is best seen to advantage in times of difficulty." This. core. of toughness and moral resolution provides the starting-point for Aspects of an Englishman, a series of a half-hour programmes produced by e NZBS in which five authors exaspects of the English character, illustrating their argument with readings, from: English . literature from Chaucer to Sir Winston Churchill. In some programmes there are dramatic excerpts as well as prose and verse, and on one occasion, which listeners will find well. worth waiting | for, a musical example "is used. "Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies." This prayer of Robert Louis Stevenson is the first illustration in the first programme-"Courage"-written by Dennis McEldowney. (In the eighth programme Mr. McEldowney writes again, on tolerance.) If we knew

mouth; and finally the. cheap, flashy little barmaid who lives in the world to which he sometimes descends under an assumed name, a world of criminals and drug addicts. Oscar Wilde’s fable points the moral that the pursuit of pleasure alone brings no happiness to the seeker, but only a terrible restlessness, a desire for fresh pleasures and new excitements ending in complete frustration and weariness of life. The novel, published in 1891, was an immediate success because it captured so perfectly that spirit of "decadence" abroad at the end of the century, but the fascination of the story has lasted to this day, aided, of course, by the brilliance of Wilde’s wit-en-crusted style. A radio adaptation of the novel has been produced by George Edwards, with Reginald Goldsworthy in the title role. For greater chills and thrills, ZB stations have programmed it for 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday nights, beginning October 5."