The Picture of Dorian Grey
Ratings1,317
Average rating4.1
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
this book makes me love philosophy
I feel this story and character is better used in more elaborate story telling (ultimately what made me interested in this book). I did really enjoy the poetic prose and key plot points, although there seemed to be a lot of fluff I just lost interest in occasionally.
Quite possibly my favorite classic along with Gatsby. The themes and lesson of it is so rich that in ever era of my life I learn something new from it each time. I cannot understand why Victorian England hated this book but they were missing out and missing the point of the novel entirely.
I absolutely hated this. Gets two stars only bc i do understand the moral behind the story. I still hated every second
This was so interesting and different ! It has a really bold statements but it is normal for the time it was written. Really good read.
I've always been curious about this book. Now I know why I know so little about it. It's complicated to explain! I think this book would have to be studied, as well as the author, to understand its deeper meanings.
After trying to read it, I realized that it was going to take way too long. The style and period are so unique that I felt like I had to concentrate on every line. So I switched to the audiobook.
There is no clear-cut way to give an opinion. I liked and felt sorry for the painter. I hated Lord Henry through and through and never understood why people liked him so much, while at the same time knowing too well that there are people today just like him. I liked, then hated, then pitied Dorian.
I don't know why, but I couldn't stop listening to it. Though I don't know why I liked it, I feel compelled to listen to it again.
One man is killed very brutally by repeated stabbing. But it was written very matter-of-fact, like the rest of the book. So though, you know it's gross, it somehow feels distant.
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
I would consider this the Wal-Mart version of Edgar Allan Poe. Pretty good story but I would be better if I was alive when he wrote this book because a lot of the references I don't understand. Also the relationship between Dorian, Basil, and Henry had creepy homoeroctic undertones.
oh god where to start. i can definitely say that the book was a lot better than the film. i felt the film more homoerotic, and more focusing on dorian's sins rather than dorian's madness. the book talks of beauty and we see a lot of concepts from harry. i think the homoeroticism is definitely still present in the book with the relationship of basil and dorian, and perhaps dorian and alan. basil worshipped him until his death. harry is a more complex character. when i say complex i mean he gets on my fucking nerves. team basil !!!!! the book is absolutely eerie and amazing to read as you sort of fall into this madness WITH dorian. you see how he is changed by harry's ideas, and how harry and basil are contrasted like angel and devil. basil pulls him to the surface whereas harry drowns him. eventually, dorian becomes overcome by the guilt of the murder, i suppose, among other things. he realises that eternal beauty and the boyishness of youth isn't something that he needed, anymore. this book focuses on vanity and how some, like dorian, take it for granted. it shows how one would do anything to stay looking youthful.
Pretty good, glad I read it!
Pros: incredibly gay. Like, when people tell you that a classic book was gay, it's often a parting glance. This book only stops short of two men going down on each other.
Cons: Wilde really hates poor people and anyone worth a skin colour less than porcelain. Long diatribes full of antisemitic tropes, the “disgusting habits” of the poor, and the “brutishness and backwardness of pagan nations” (paraphrased but still).
This disturbing gothic novel follows the story of an excessively good-looking young man, the titular Dorian Grey, in British high society. He effortlessly captivates and charms, to the point a painter becomes obsessed with him and painting him. He gives the painting to Dorian, who then sees the portrait change and grow uglier with time the uglier the sins he commits in real life, while his actual body remains youthful and unchanged.
It took me a while to get into this book, possibly due more to life circumstance than the writing itself; that being said, I don't think the writing was immersive or particularly captivating. This novel is a vessel for metaphors, threaded with plenty of (too many?) Oscar Wilde-isms — which, personally, I think are better suited to plays.
I haven't quite dissed out what the book says about art, but personally I think the bulk of critics (she says, having read very few pieces of analysis) have gotten carried away with analysis of the book from a moral standpoint (as in, Dorian never really having to repent for his deeds, or some condoning of hedonism, or of unabashed vanity). But I think the book says a lot more about art: perhaps art as being more reflective of the soul, and of human nature, and of the artist, than life itself. Or something like that.
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
The storyline of this book is not very complex. Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man just in his first bloom of life, his beauty captures the attention of a painter, Basil Hallward, who invites him to sit for a portrait. He perfectly captures Dorian's beauty on the canvas. Dorian, after speaking to Basil's enigmatic and thoroughly hedonistic friend, Lord Henry, suddenly realises just how fleeting and transient youth and beauty really is, while simultaneously becoming jealous of the painting's immortality that he cannot enjoy. He fervently wishes that it was the painting that grew older and more sinful instead of him - and his wish is fulfilled.
It's been a long time since I last read this book, and I think I had a fairly neutral impression of it. After growing older and also having had the advantage of taking a module on Victorian literature since, revisiting this book was an absolute delight. There's so much to unpack and discuss about this book.
A huge theme of this book is the idea of art and beauty - obviously. What exactly does justice to beauty? Is it in an immortal preservation in a frozen “original” state, or is it in molding something already beautiful into an image that further fits one's standards and ideals of beauty? At the very beginning chapters of the book, I kinda felt sorry for Dorian because, due to his beauty, no one seems to treat him like a human individual but as a subject on which to project their own ideals.
Basil, though he is extremely fond of Dorian, nevertheless wants to preserve him as much as possible in an “unspoiled” state, as if he could freeze the human being in a snapshot in time just as he had done on the canvas when painting him. It's simultaneously exalting but also dehumanising at the same time, when you refuse to let a person be the person they are, and just want them to be this ideal muse in your mind.
Lord Henry is both self-centered and also more callously apathetic in his treatment of Dorian. It feels like he wants to create a sculpture out of him, almost in his own image. In Chapter 4, when Lord Henry is musing about Dorian and says “to a large extent, the lad was his own creation”. He preaches a lot of his own hedonistic principles to Dorian, swaying him around like a rag doll but also just apathetically watching how things unfurl (“It was no matter how it all ended”).
Even Sybil Vane, Dorian's first love interest, is satisfied not even knowing his name. She simply calls him Prince Charming, and projects onto him all the ideals of the heroic male lead in the plays that she acts in. There is certainly something tragic in the way that, because he incited passion for the first time in her, it drew its source from her talent for acting, and that in turn caused his love for her to wither away.
Though this book is short, at less than 300 pages, it feels so much longer - but not in a bad way. Every sentence is so thought-provoking, and Wilde doesn't waste a single word. This is one of those rare books that I actually wanted to read on an ebook/physical copy because I wanted to slowly digest each line. Whether Dorian Gray can simply be written off as a “villain” by the end of the book is really so, so up for debate which I don't really want to go into here in a review. Nevertheless, this book was such an excellent introspective read about youth, immortality, art for art's sake, hedonism, morality, and conscience.
[3.5] i really loved the prose, i thought it was beautifully written and all the symbolism was very interesting. however i struggled a lot to really get into the story and i only really got invested towards the middle of the book. i don't know why i wasn't that interested at the beginning, but it definitely made me like the book less despite the fact that's it's objectively amazing. it's one of the best book i've read and i would recommend it to anyone. i would've loved to give it 4 stars but the truth is that i didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would, probably because my expectations were too high.
again, i would recommend it to anyone because it's a classic (duh) and also because it deals with pretty interesting topics, and it's one of those books that everyone has to read at least once in their life.
pretty entertaining and easy to read, for a classic! i really wish we got to see more of those corrupt years, but oh well.
One of those classics with a moral lesson, you know how it's going to end and the journey keeps you excited throughout. The characters are very well written, I had strong feelings towards/against them. Makes for a great book club read.
That ending though ;-;
Full review soon! Need to let this one sink in. I freaking LOVED it.
This was a little tough to get through. Luckily it was read by one of my favorite readers (Simon Vance), and I really liked the banter of Sir Henry.
Dorian Gray is a master class in cynical misanthropy. Sir Henry, the ever so witty man shamelessly encouraging Gray to embrace his vanity, all for the thrill of it. Gray himself, becoming hopelessly enthralled with his picture and himself, at the cost of leaving everyone hurt or, quite literally, dead in his wake. And through it all we wonder, is Dorian the crazy one, or the “high society” that is too busy admiring his antics and enabling his narcissism to take him down to earth when he really needed it.