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袩芯褉褌褉械褌 袛芯褉褨邪薪邪 覑褉械褟
"袩芯褉褌褉械褌 袛芯褉褨邪薪邪 覑褉械褟" - 胁械褉褕懈薪邪 锌褉芯锌芯胁褨写褍胁邪薪芯谐芯 袨褋泻邪褉芯屑 袙邪泄谢写芯屑 械褋褌械褌懈褑懈蟹屑褍 褨 胁芯写薪芯褔邪褋 胁械谢懈泻芯褩 屑懈褋褌械褑褜泻芯褩 褋懈谢懈 蟹邪锌械褉械褔械薪薪褟 写械泻邪写械薪褋褜泻懈褏 泻褉邪泄薪芯褖褨胁 褑褨褦褩 泻芯薪褑械锌褑褨褩: 褑械 芯写懈薪 蟹 薪邪泄锌邪褉邪写芯泻褋邪谢褜薪褨褕懈褏 褉芯屑邪薪褨胁 屑芯写械褉薪褨蟹屑褍.
袟邪 褋谢芯胁邪屑懈 褋邪屑芯谐芯 锌懈褋褜屑械薪薪懈泻邪, "褋锌褉邪胁卸薪褟 屑芯褉邪谢褜 褑褜芯谐芯 褌胁芯褉褍 锌芯谢褟谐邪褦 胁 褌芯屑褍, 褖芯 胁褋褟泻械 薪邪写褍卸懈胁邪薪薪褟, 褌邪泻 褋邪屑芯, 褟泻 褨 褋邪屑芯蟹褉械褔械薪薪褟, 褌械谐薪械 蟹邪 褋芯斜芯褞 锌芯泻邪褉褍". 袦芯褉邪谢褜薪懈泄 蟹谢芯褔懈薪 锌褉懈蟹胁芯写懈褌褜 写芯 泻芯谢邪锌褋褍 械褋褌械褌懈泻懈. 些械 芯写懈薪 褨, 屑芯卸谢懈胁芯, 薪邪泄谐芯谢芯胁薪褨褕懈泄 褍褉芯泻 褑褜芯谐芯 褉芯屑邪薪褍 锌芯谢褟谐邪褦 胁 褌芯屑褍, 褖芯 谢褞写懈薪邪 薪械 屑芯卸械 薪邪写屑褨褉褍 蟹邪谐邪褉胁邪褌懈 邪薪褨 蟹 屑懈褋褌械褑褌胁芯屑, 邪薪褨 蟹 卸懈褌褌褟屑.
袟邪 褋谢芯胁邪屑懈 褋邪屑芯谐芯 锌懈褋褜屑械薪薪懈泻邪, "褋锌褉邪胁卸薪褟 屑芯褉邪谢褜 褑褜芯谐芯 褌胁芯褉褍 锌芯谢褟谐邪褦 胁 褌芯屑褍, 褖芯 胁褋褟泻械 薪邪写褍卸懈胁邪薪薪褟, 褌邪泻 褋邪屑芯, 褟泻 褨 褋邪屑芯蟹褉械褔械薪薪褟, 褌械谐薪械 蟹邪 褋芯斜芯褞 锌芯泻邪褉褍". 袦芯褉邪谢褜薪懈泄 蟹谢芯褔懈薪 锌褉懈蟹胁芯写懈褌褜 写芯 泻芯谢邪锌褋褍 械褋褌械褌懈泻懈. 些械 芯写懈薪 褨, 屑芯卸谢懈胁芯, 薪邪泄谐芯谢芯胁薪褨褕懈泄 褍褉芯泻 褑褜芯谐芯 褉芯屑邪薪褍 锌芯谢褟谐邪褦 胁 褌芯屑褍, 褖芯 谢褞写懈薪邪 薪械 屑芯卸械 薪邪写屑褨褉褍 蟹邪谐邪褉胁邪褌懈 邪薪褨 蟹 屑懈褋褌械褑褌胁芯屑, 邪薪褨 蟹 卸懈褌褌褟屑.
326 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1890
115k people are currently reading
2m people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,435听books37.5k听followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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July 21, 2008
Oh Dorian. Oh Dorian.
When I first read this book in the fruitless years of my youth I was excited, overwhelmed and a blank slate (as Dorian is, upon his first encounter with Lord Henry) easily molded, persuaded, influenced, etc.
Certain Wildisms (Wildeisms?) would take my breath away. Would become my mottos to believe in. To follow. To live.
Lines like:
"It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
"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."
"If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat."
"Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place."
"You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know."
Re-reading this masterpiece and coming upon these highlighted lines was possibly more interesting than the book this time. Why had I highlighted these lines? Do they still mean the same thing to me, as they did when I first took note of them, enough to highlight them? I still love all of those lines. But no longer feel so strongly for them.
Now these are lines that stick out still to me. Or were newly underlined on the second pass through. New Wildisms to mold me.
"Oh, I can't explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one's life. I suppose you think me awfully foolish about it?"
"Yes; she is a peacock in everything but beauty."
"Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one."
"I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects."
"Ah! this Morning! You have lived since then."
"what brings you out so early? I thought you dandies never got up till two, and were not visible till five." --A new personal favorite. That I follow very seriously.
"She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm."
'He thought for a moment. "Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess?" he asked, looking at her across the table.
"A great many, I fear," she cried.
"Then commit them over again," he said, gravely. "To get back one's youth one has merely to repeat one's follies."
"A delightful theory!" she exclaimed. " I must put it into practice."
"Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion."
It turns out that all of these quotes occur in the first 45 pages, except that last one which is right near the end. And it seems most of my reviews end up being mostly quotes from the book itself, but I figure this is what shaped and informed my reading, so I want to share it with all of you. What do you think of it all?
That said, poor Sybil Vane! Poor James Vane! Poor Basil Hallward! Shit, even poor old Lord Henry Wotton! And Dorian! Oh Dorian! Lead the life you did and for what?
That's all I am going to say about the book. I don't think I shall read Against Nature, for fear of being seduced like Dorian.
If you're tired of this review or just tired in general, stop now and come back later. I am going to include two more quotes from the book that truly fucked me up. So much I had to read them at least 3 times in a row. And then transcribe them here for you. The last section, thats the one that did it. Beautiful.
Here goes:
"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral-immoral from the scientific point of view."
"Why?"
"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly-that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course they are charitable. They feed the hungry and cloth the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals; the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us. And yet-"
"And yet," continues Lord Henry, in his low, musical voice,"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream-I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal-to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man among us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sins, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame-"
"Stop!" faltered Dorian Gray, "stop! you bewilder me. I don't know what to say. There is some answer to you, but I cannot find it. Don't speak. Let me think, or, rather, let me try not to think."
Whew.
And:
"There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamored of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those who minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie. Gradually white fingers creep through the curtains, and they appear to tremble. In black, fantastic shapes, dumb shadows crawl into the corners of the room, and crouch there. Outside, there is the stirring of the birds among the leaves, or the sound of men going forth to their work, or the sigh and sob of the wind coming down from the hills and wandering round the silent house, as though it feared to wake the sleeper, and yet must needs call forth Sleep from her purple cave. Veil after veil of thin, dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colors of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern. The wan mirrors get back their mimic life. The flameless tapers stand where we had left them, and beside them lies the half-cut book that we had been studying, or the wired flower that we had worn at the ball, or the letter we had been afraid to read, or that we had read too often. Nothing seems to us changed. Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of the necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness for our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colors, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive, at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the remembrance even of joy having its bitterness, and the memories of pleasure their pain."
Yep.
When I first read this book in the fruitless years of my youth I was excited, overwhelmed and a blank slate (as Dorian is, upon his first encounter with Lord Henry) easily molded, persuaded, influenced, etc.
Certain Wildisms (Wildeisms?) would take my breath away. Would become my mottos to believe in. To follow. To live.
Lines like:
"It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
"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."
"If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat."
"Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place."
"You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know."
Re-reading this masterpiece and coming upon these highlighted lines was possibly more interesting than the book this time. Why had I highlighted these lines? Do they still mean the same thing to me, as they did when I first took note of them, enough to highlight them? I still love all of those lines. But no longer feel so strongly for them.
Now these are lines that stick out still to me. Or were newly underlined on the second pass through. New Wildisms to mold me.
"Oh, I can't explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one's life. I suppose you think me awfully foolish about it?"
"Yes; she is a peacock in everything but beauty."
"Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one."
"I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects."
"Ah! this Morning! You have lived since then."
"what brings you out so early? I thought you dandies never got up till two, and were not visible till five." --A new personal favorite. That I follow very seriously.
"She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm."
'He thought for a moment. "Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess?" he asked, looking at her across the table.
"A great many, I fear," she cried.
"Then commit them over again," he said, gravely. "To get back one's youth one has merely to repeat one's follies."
"A delightful theory!" she exclaimed. " I must put it into practice."
"Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion."
It turns out that all of these quotes occur in the first 45 pages, except that last one which is right near the end. And it seems most of my reviews end up being mostly quotes from the book itself, but I figure this is what shaped and informed my reading, so I want to share it with all of you. What do you think of it all?
That said, poor Sybil Vane! Poor James Vane! Poor Basil Hallward! Shit, even poor old Lord Henry Wotton! And Dorian! Oh Dorian! Lead the life you did and for what?
That's all I am going to say about the book. I don't think I shall read Against Nature, for fear of being seduced like Dorian.
If you're tired of this review or just tired in general, stop now and come back later. I am going to include two more quotes from the book that truly fucked me up. So much I had to read them at least 3 times in a row. And then transcribe them here for you. The last section, thats the one that did it. Beautiful.
Here goes:
"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral-immoral from the scientific point of view."
"Why?"
"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly-that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's self. Of course they are charitable. They feed the hungry and cloth the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals; the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us. And yet-"
"And yet," continues Lord Henry, in his low, musical voice,"I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream-I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal-to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man among us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sins, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame-"
"Stop!" faltered Dorian Gray, "stop! you bewilder me. I don't know what to say. There is some answer to you, but I cannot find it. Don't speak. Let me think, or, rather, let me try not to think."
Whew.
And:
"There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamored of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those who minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie. Gradually white fingers creep through the curtains, and they appear to tremble. In black, fantastic shapes, dumb shadows crawl into the corners of the room, and crouch there. Outside, there is the stirring of the birds among the leaves, or the sound of men going forth to their work, or the sigh and sob of the wind coming down from the hills and wandering round the silent house, as though it feared to wake the sleeper, and yet must needs call forth Sleep from her purple cave. Veil after veil of thin, dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colors of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern. The wan mirrors get back their mimic life. The flameless tapers stand where we had left them, and beside them lies the half-cut book that we had been studying, or the wired flower that we had worn at the ball, or the letter we had been afraid to read, or that we had read too often. Nothing seems to us changed. Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of the necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness for our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colors, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive, at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the remembrance even of joy having its bitterness, and the memories of pleasure their pain."
Yep.
March 14, 2022
I finished reading this last night, and afterwards I spent an entire hour staring into space so I could contemplate over the majesty of this work. It left me speechless. This book is exquisite; it is an investigation into the human soul, the power of vanity and the problems of living a life with not a single consequence for your actions. It鈥檚 truly powerful stuff.
It begins with a simple realisation, and perhaps an obvious one. But, for Dorian it is completely life changing. He realises that beauty is finite. It won鈥檛 last forever. It鈥檚 like a flower, temporary and splendid. So if you鈥檙e a young man whose appearance is your singular quality, then this is some damn scary news. People only want to be with you because you鈥檙e attractive and charming; they want to be near you, and with you, for your looks only.
So when that goes what do you have left?
Nothing.
No friends.
No love.
Only age.
So what do you do? How do you retain your singular quality? Well, the answer is simple, you copy Doctor Faustus (The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus) and sell your soul to the devil!
"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that -- for that -- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"
And this is where the real depravity begins. Dorian鈥檚 world has no consequences. Everything he does is attributed to the painting, everything. Any regret or malice leaves him quickly and is transferred to the canvas. So he can鈥檛 technically feel emotion for an extended period of time; thus, his attitude becomes one of nonchalance. He becomes a shell, an emotionless creature who can only seek his sin: vanity. He surrounds himself with beauty. His house is full of art, brilliant music and every luxury known to man. You name it. Dorian鈥檚 got it. Only through seeking new experiences, these pleasures, can Dorian鈥檚 being remain animated. I intentionally used the word 鈥渂eing鈥� for Dorian鈥檚 body no longer harbours his soul; it鈥檚 in the painting. Everything he does is for his own indulgence; he just doesn鈥檛 care what affect his presence has on others. The prefect moment is all he lives for.
鈥淚 don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.鈥�
The character of Dorian Gray is an interesting study because he is representative of many things. He shows how a seemingly pure soul can be corrupted if it鈥檚 left in a sense of privation and given terrible guidance. Also he is suggestive of the Victorian ideal of the perfect societal image. One must be respectable at all times, and have all the appropriate airs and graces. But behind closed doors, or perhaps even a curtain, anything goes. He is suggestive of the hidden evils of Victorian society as behind the mask was many dark things. For example, the Empire and colonialism to the Victorians was a wonderful thing; it built wealth and structure, but in reality it destroyed culture and subjected peoples to slavery. The same things can be said of child labour, the exploitation of women and terrible working conditions. Everything exists behind a veil of grandeur, and this is no less true for Dorian.
The homosexual suggestions are practically ground-breaking. Wilde wasn鈥檛 the only Victorian author to suggest such things. Robert Louis Stevenson鈥檚 The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde can be read in a similar vein, but Wilde was much more explicit. It鈥檚 not cryptic; it鈥檚 just plain homosexual lust for all to see on the part of Basil and (perhaps?) even Sir Henry later on. It鈥檚 still rather horrific that Wilde was actually arrested for homosexual acts. Silly Victorians. The novel also shows that despite being corrupted to such a degree, to commit murder in such a terrible sense, Dorian (the Victorian man?) isn鈥檛 beyond all redemption. He can still come back from his deeds and end it all. The ending was perfection. This has great allegorical meaning.
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It begins with a simple realisation, and perhaps an obvious one. But, for Dorian it is completely life changing. He realises that beauty is finite. It won鈥檛 last forever. It鈥檚 like a flower, temporary and splendid. So if you鈥檙e a young man whose appearance is your singular quality, then this is some damn scary news. People only want to be with you because you鈥檙e attractive and charming; they want to be near you, and with you, for your looks only.
So when that goes what do you have left?
Nothing.
No friends.
No love.
Only age.
So what do you do? How do you retain your singular quality? Well, the answer is simple, you copy Doctor Faustus (The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus) and sell your soul to the devil!
"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that -- for that -- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"
And this is where the real depravity begins. Dorian鈥檚 world has no consequences. Everything he does is attributed to the painting, everything. Any regret or malice leaves him quickly and is transferred to the canvas. So he can鈥檛 technically feel emotion for an extended period of time; thus, his attitude becomes one of nonchalance. He becomes a shell, an emotionless creature who can only seek his sin: vanity. He surrounds himself with beauty. His house is full of art, brilliant music and every luxury known to man. You name it. Dorian鈥檚 got it. Only through seeking new experiences, these pleasures, can Dorian鈥檚 being remain animated. I intentionally used the word 鈥渂eing鈥� for Dorian鈥檚 body no longer harbours his soul; it鈥檚 in the painting. Everything he does is for his own indulgence; he just doesn鈥檛 care what affect his presence has on others. The prefect moment is all he lives for.
鈥淚 don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.鈥�
The character of Dorian Gray is an interesting study because he is representative of many things. He shows how a seemingly pure soul can be corrupted if it鈥檚 left in a sense of privation and given terrible guidance. Also he is suggestive of the Victorian ideal of the perfect societal image. One must be respectable at all times, and have all the appropriate airs and graces. But behind closed doors, or perhaps even a curtain, anything goes. He is suggestive of the hidden evils of Victorian society as behind the mask was many dark things. For example, the Empire and colonialism to the Victorians was a wonderful thing; it built wealth and structure, but in reality it destroyed culture and subjected peoples to slavery. The same things can be said of child labour, the exploitation of women and terrible working conditions. Everything exists behind a veil of grandeur, and this is no less true for Dorian.
The homosexual suggestions are practically ground-breaking. Wilde wasn鈥檛 the only Victorian author to suggest such things. Robert Louis Stevenson鈥檚 The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde can be read in a similar vein, but Wilde was much more explicit. It鈥檚 not cryptic; it鈥檚 just plain homosexual lust for all to see on the part of Basil and (perhaps?) even Sir Henry later on. It鈥檚 still rather horrific that Wilde was actually arrested for homosexual acts. Silly Victorians. The novel also shows that despite being corrupted to such a degree, to commit murder in such a terrible sense, Dorian (the Victorian man?) isn鈥檛 beyond all redemption. He can still come back from his deeds and end it all. The ending was perfection. This has great allegorical meaning.
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December 4, 2013
Arguably literature's greatest study of shallowness, vanity, casual cruelty and hedonistic selfishness, Wilde lays it down here with ABSOLUTE PERFECTION!! This was my first experience in reading Oscar Wilde and the man鈥檚 gift for prose and dialogue is magical. This story read somewhat like a dark, corrupted Jane Austen in that the writing was snappy and pleasant on the ear, but the feeling it left you with was one of hopelessness and despair.
The level of cynicism and societal disregard that Wilde鈥檚 characters display towards humanity is simply staggering. Despite the dark (or more likely because of it) this is one of the most engaging, compelling and lyrical pieces of literature I have read. The quality of the prose is nothing short masterful.
I assume most people know the basic outline of the plot, but I will give you a few sentences on it. The three main characters are Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray. Basil Hallward is an artist who after painting a picture of Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with him because of his beauty (the homosexual vs. art object love Basil feels towards Dorian are left vague, likely because of the time it was written). Dorian then meets a friend Basil鈥檚, Lord Henry, and becomes enthralled with Lord Henry鈥檚 world view, which is a form of extreme hedonism that posits the only worthwhile life is one spent pursuing beauty and satisfaction for the senses.
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.Well at one point, Dorian utters the famous words quoted at the beginning of my review and the 鈥淔austian鈥� bargain is struck.
While this story is often mentioned among the classics of the Horror genre (which I do have a problem with) this is much more a study of the human monster than it is some boogeyman. My favorite parts of the story were the extensive dialogues between the characters, usually Dorian and Lord Henry. They were wonderfully perverse and display a level of casual cruelty and vileness towards humanity that make it hard to breathe while reading. Oh, and Lord Henry reserves particular offense for the female of the species, to wit:
My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals..
YES folks...he absolutely did.
One of the most intriguing quotes I have seen from Oscar Wilde regarding this book is his comparison of himself to the three main characters. He said that he wrote the three main characters as reflections of himself. Wilde said, 鈥淏asil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks me: Dorian is what I would like to be鈥攊n other ages, perhaps.鈥�
I was somewhat floored by this as I found Dorian to be a truly stark representation of evil and could not see how Wilde could find an idealized form within the character. When I say evil, I don't mean just misguided or weak-minded, someone bamboozled by the clever lectures of Lord Henry. I found Gray to be selfish, vain, inhumanly callous and sadistically cruel. I intend to try and learn more about Wilde鈥檚 outlook on this character as it truly escapes me.
Regardless, this is a towering piece of literature. Beautifully written and filled with memorable characters and a deeply moving story. A novel deserving of its status as a classic of English Literature. 5.0 stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!!
P.S. For of audiobooks. I listened to the audio version of this read by Michael Page who has become one of my favorite narrators. His performance here was amazing.
January 27, 2019
"The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."
And so begins this tale of art and sin.
I would highly recommend first watching the movie , a film which takes the audience on a journey through the life of the tormented writer, from the beginnings of his fame to his later incarceration for "gross indecency" - a charge used to imprison individuals when it was impossible to prove sodomy. Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labour and died not long after being freed due to health problems gained during those two years. Looking at Wilde's story from a twenty-first century perspective, it is sad and horrifying to realise this man was indirectly sentenced to death for being gay. The "hard labour" prescribed was carried out in various ways but one of the most common was the treadmill:
This machine made prisoners walk continuously uphill for hours on end and had many long-term effects on people's health.
Why do I think it's important to know this? Because, as Wilde claims, in every piece of art there is more of the artist than anything else. And I believe this is especially true of more than perhaps any other fictional work I've read. In this novel, Wilde explores the nature of sin, of morality and immorality. The homoerotic undertones between Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton are, I think, the author's little expression of his own secret "sins" within his work. Rarely does a work of fiction so deeply seem to mirror elements of the author's life.
By 1891, when was published, Oscar Wilde had met and fallen in love with Lord Alfred Douglas and they had begun a semi-secret affair. By which I mean that many were suspicious of the relationship but didn't argue with Wilde's claims that they shared a Socrates/Plato teacher/student kind of love. The idolisation of Dorian Gray's youth and beauty, his tendency to be mean at random... these characteristics all fit with the description and personality of Lord Alfred Douglas. For me, there is no real question as to whether part of Dorian is meant to be Mr Wilde's lover.
I think if you familiarise yourself with Oscar Wilde, this becomes a very personal novel, much more than just a disturbing horror story where a man sells his soul. But even without any additional information, I think this is a sad and haunting book that tells of the joyful naivete of youth and the sad wisdom of maturity.
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December 4, 2013
This book reminded me why I hate classics.
Like Frankenstein, it starts out with a great premise: what if a portrait bore the brunt of age and sin, while the person remained in the flush of youth? How would that person feel as they watched a constant reminder of their true nature develop? And like Frankenstein, it gets completely bogged down in uninteresting details and takes forever to get to the interesting bits. Seriously, in a 230-page novel, the portrait doesn't even start to change until 100 pages in.
And it's so damn flowery. Every time Lord Harry starts talking (and believe me, he likes to talk) he's so witty. Witty witty witty. Ahahaha, you're soooooooo worldly wise and charming. And entirely cynical! You just have a quip for everything, don't you? Look, reader, look. See Harry. See Harry corrupt Dorian. Corrupt, Harry, corrupt!
I actually ended up skimming most of the book. I really thought about stopping, but I hoped it would redeem itself by the end. It didn't. I should have just skipped to the last page. So to save you, dear reader, the same pain I went through, is the summary of Dorian Gray (spoilers, of course):
Dorian semi-consciously makes Faustian bargain to transfer all his sins and signs of age to his portrait. He sins and feels guilty about it, but keeps doing it anyway. He finally decides to get ride of the portrait/evidence and stabs the painting. Surprise, it breaks the spell, and he is left ugly, old and dead while his portrait returns to its original form. The end. You can thank me later.
UPDATE 9/3/12: Since this review is still around and kicking four years later, I thought I might point like-minded individuals to a new parody of classic literature to the tune of Call Me Maybe:
Like Frankenstein, it starts out with a great premise: what if a portrait bore the brunt of age and sin, while the person remained in the flush of youth? How would that person feel as they watched a constant reminder of their true nature develop? And like Frankenstein, it gets completely bogged down in uninteresting details and takes forever to get to the interesting bits. Seriously, in a 230-page novel, the portrait doesn't even start to change until 100 pages in.
And it's so damn flowery. Every time Lord Harry starts talking (and believe me, he likes to talk) he's so witty. Witty witty witty. Ahahaha, you're soooooooo worldly wise and charming. And entirely cynical! You just have a quip for everything, don't you? Look, reader, look. See Harry. See Harry corrupt Dorian. Corrupt, Harry, corrupt!
I actually ended up skimming most of the book. I really thought about stopping, but I hoped it would redeem itself by the end. It didn't. I should have just skipped to the last page. So to save you, dear reader, the same pain I went through, is the summary of Dorian Gray (spoilers, of course):
Dorian semi-consciously makes Faustian bargain to transfer all his sins and signs of age to his portrait. He sins and feels guilty about it, but keeps doing it anyway. He finally decides to get ride of the portrait/evidence and stabs the painting. Surprise, it breaks the spell, and he is left ugly, old and dead while his portrait returns to its original form. The end. You can thank me later.
UPDATE 9/3/12: Since this review is still around and kicking four years later, I thought I might point like-minded individuals to a new parody of classic literature to the tune of Call Me Maybe:
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2021
2021 - I re-read this for university and loved it even more the second time round... Lord Henry is a paradigmatic sophist and his epigrams are delightful (partly because it's easy to forget that he is more rhetoric than truth). The connection between youthful appearance and character is also so fascinating, especially since Wilde is writing at the end of the century where physiognomy is an outdated science. What does it mean to be young? And can innocence ever be restored?
2017 - If you haven't already, you HAVE TO read this! Wilde delves into the cartesian dualist debate, asking us to question where the self truly does reside (and contradicting the popular Victorian idea of physiognomy). In his personal Fall and descent into sinfulness I saw similarities with H.G. Wells's 'The Invisible Man' where sin thrives simply because the individual cannot be held accountable. Similarly, the debate about the value of art is intriguing and, after reading this, I recommend reading Poe's 'The Oval Mirror' because, again, there are definite similarities.
2017 - If you haven't already, you HAVE TO read this! Wilde delves into the cartesian dualist debate, asking us to question where the self truly does reside (and contradicting the popular Victorian idea of physiognomy). In his personal Fall and descent into sinfulness I saw similarities with H.G. Wells's 'The Invisible Man' where sin thrives simply because the individual cannot be held accountable. Similarly, the debate about the value of art is intriguing and, after reading this, I recommend reading Poe's 'The Oval Mirror' because, again, there are definite similarities.
April 21, 2024
Books like this are why I love classics. They may be old as hell, but in another, much more real way, they never get old.
We as a society will never outgrow the need for a beautifully written book about being hot and evil.
End review.
Bottom line: Valiantly resisting the urge to make this book my entire personality.
----------------------
pre-review
"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."
and who says the classics aren't relatable.
review to come / 4 stars
----------------------
currently-reading updates
nice eternal youth and beauty you got there. i sure hope you don't descend into mortal sin with it
We as a society will never outgrow the need for a beautifully written book about being hot and evil.
End review.
Bottom line: Valiantly resisting the urge to make this book my entire personality.
----------------------
pre-review
"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."
and who says the classics aren't relatable.
review to come / 4 stars
----------------------
currently-reading updates
nice eternal youth and beauty you got there. i sure hope you don't descend into mortal sin with it
August 8, 2022
Facts that I know for sure:
1. I got this edition because I'm a slave to the aesthetics and that's exactly the kind of motive the ghost of Oscar Wilde would approve of
2. It鈥檚 safe to assume that no matter what I鈥檓 doing, at any given moment in time, at least 20% of my brain capacity is perpetually dedicated to making sure I am clever enough, gay enough, and dramatic enough to earn the approval of the ghost of Oscar Wilde
1. I got this edition because I'm a slave to the aesthetics and that's exactly the kind of motive the ghost of Oscar Wilde would approve of
2. It鈥檚 safe to assume that no matter what I鈥檓 doing, at any given moment in time, at least 20% of my brain capacity is perpetually dedicated to making sure I am clever enough, gay enough, and dramatic enough to earn the approval of the ghost of Oscar Wilde
September 24, 2021
Some of u have never damned ur soul to remain forever young and it shows
April 17, 2023
RIP dorian gray you would've loved botox
June 25, 2023
*gay drama*
February 6, 2022
instantly a new all time favorite
June 29, 2015
So I read all of Wilde's plays a couple of years ago but for some reason I never read this at the time. This is probably the number one most requested book for me to read. So I read it. Are ya happy now!? ARE YA!?
I really rather enjoyed this. Well, obviously. I mean, did you honestly think I wasn't going to like The Picture of Dorian Gray? It's by Oscar Wilde for fuck's sake. His prose is like spilled honey flowing across a wooden table and waterfalling onto the floor beneath. The viscous liquid flowing slowly over the edge. His plot, perfectly paced, moves slowly as we wade deeper and deeper into Dorian Gray's maniacal life. Over the edge we go as everything goes wrong, there's death, there's pain, there's long conversations about art. We hit the floor as we finish and we see nothing but sweetness amassing around us as we escape from Wilde's prose. Putting the book down you see the light has hit the stream and it glows and it shines and it sparkles and you stand there mesmorised by what you're witnessing and you put the book back on your shelf and feel sorry for the book you read next.
So, yeah, it's good.
I really rather enjoyed this. Well, obviously. I mean, did you honestly think I wasn't going to like The Picture of Dorian Gray? It's by Oscar Wilde for fuck's sake. His prose is like spilled honey flowing across a wooden table and waterfalling onto the floor beneath. The viscous liquid flowing slowly over the edge. His plot, perfectly paced, moves slowly as we wade deeper and deeper into Dorian Gray's maniacal life. Over the edge we go as everything goes wrong, there's death, there's pain, there's long conversations about art. We hit the floor as we finish and we see nothing but sweetness amassing around us as we escape from Wilde's prose. Putting the book down you see the light has hit the stream and it glows and it shines and it sparkles and you stand there mesmorised by what you're witnessing and you put the book back on your shelf and feel sorry for the book you read next.
So, yeah, it's good.
May 25, 2019
鈥滺e grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul.鈥�
I think I must have been about fifteen when I read 鈥淭he Picture of Dorian Gray鈥� for the very first time and I was totally blown away by it. There was this book, written in such a beautiful way, using such colourful and flowery language and there were those three amazing characters that made me feel and wonder and question their lives and decisions!
You might say that up until I picked up 鈥淭he Picture of Dorian Gray鈥� I was as innocent as Dorian himself. I didn鈥檛 know that there were books like that out there, that there actually existed morally grey characters, corrupted characters, book characters that felt like real people and could make you question their behaviour. It was an entirely new world for me and I was totally fascinated by it.
So I read this book and I savoured every sentence, I devoured its wisdom and got lost in its pages! Looking at it in retrospective I think that Oscar Wilde actually was the first writer who didn鈥檛 only make me love classics but also the first author that ignited my undying love for villains and complex characters. And for that I鈥檒l always be grateful!
I don鈥檛 know how often I read this book by now (goodreads your count doesn鈥檛 even get close to the actual number *lol*), but no matter how often I already read it, I鈥檓 still captivated by it. My fifteen year old me loved it as much as my 31 year old me does and if you ask me that鈥檚 exactly what makes a good classic. ;-) I鈥檓 sure I鈥檒l never get tired of reading this book and I鈥檒l always discover new things about it. And I genuinely hope that many other people will read it as well. It鈥檚 definitely worth it! ;-)
The characters:
Warning: You are now entering the gallery of 鈥淪poilery Spoilers鈥� and since this is one of my all-time faves I鈥檒l probably end up writing an entire essay about it. If you prefer to stay innocent you better leave before my spoilers get to you and corrupt your soul! ;-P
Dorian Gray:
鈥滻t held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love his own beauty. Would it teach him to loathe his own soul?鈥�
Dorian Gray! I don鈥檛 even know where to start! I love his character to bits and pieces and he鈥檚 definitely one of the most intriguing book characters I ever had the pleasure to read about. At the beginning of the book he鈥檚 so innocent and na茂ve and I totally agree with Lord Henry when he says that this is charming. Dorian definitely is a charming character! He鈥檚 beautiful and pure and whenever I read the beginning of the book I get a sudden urge to protect him against everything that鈥檚 going to happen over the course of those 256 pages! He鈥檚 like a child that gets corrupted by the bad influence of others and when I write this I really mean it! Even at his worst he still seems to retain that innocent outlook at things. I mean he was corrupted and tainted by Lord Henry, and he ends up corrupting and tainting his friends but despite all of this he still wonders why they have become like that. He鈥檚 completely oblivious to his own role in their downfall and when Basil confronts him with it, he doesn鈥檛 believe him. He is convinced that his friends could have done the right thing and that his influence on them isn鈥檛 as strong as Basil claims it to be. What is even more intriguing is that Dorian actually wants to be good! There鈥檚 a part of him that鈥檚 still innocent and hopes that he can be redeemed, but there鈥檚 also that other side of him that whispers that he鈥檚 entitled to do whatever he wishes to do. It鈥檚 obvious that he鈥檚 fighting an inner struggle and that he seems to have lost his way. It鈥檚 the century old question every person has to ask her/himself. Do I want to be good? And even more important: Can I resist being bad? It鈥檚 so easy to do the wrong thing and it鈥檚 so tough to do what鈥檚 right. I mean that鈥檚 the main reason why actors and role-players love to be the baddies! Being bad is fun, it gives you a lot of freedom and if you鈥檙e good at it the consequences never catch up to you. ;-P So Dorian constantly finds himself at a crossroads. Will he do the right thing or is he going to give into his bad side? Is his bad side truly that bad? Is having a little fun with his friends and to indulge in pleasure wrong or is it just a part of being human? The fate of Dorian Gray makes you think and it involuntarily causes you to face your own demons and weaknesses. It ultimately causes you to acknowledge your own vices and fears. In short: It makes you pause and forces you to ponder your own life-choices! And this is nothing but awesome! XD
鈥滻 want to be good. I can鈥檛 bear the idea of my soul being hideous.鈥�
鈥滺e felt that the time had really come for making his choice. Or had his choice already been made? Yes, life had decided that for him 鈥� life, and his own infinite curiosity about life. Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins 鈥� he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all.鈥�
鈥滻 don鈥檛 want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them and to dominate them.鈥�
鈥滺e was prisoned in thought. Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away.鈥�
Lord Henry:
鈥漎ou seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing.鈥�
Ahh Lord Henry! How much I love that bastard! *lol* He鈥檚 quite literally the devil in this book. He鈥檚 the person that stirrs Dorian鈥檚 soul! He鈥檚 the man who leads him down that dark road and just like Dorian he is completely oblivious to the magnitude of his influence! Yes, he knows that he鈥檚 corrupting Dorian, he even finds pleasure and joy in it, but throughout the entire book he never truly realizes how much his words actually changed him! How much damage they did to his soul! Lord Henry is the kind of character you just got to love. Arrogant, intelligent, wise, self-confident, brutally honest and completely unapologetic about his inappropriate behaviour. It鈥檚 no wonder Dorian is so fascinated by him and isn鈥檛 only willing but also eager to spend his time in his company. Lord Henry is basically the embodiment of temptation and young and innocent Dorian wants to be seduced! And honestly, who wouldn鈥檛 be drawn towards a character like Lord Henry? I swear he says the wisest things and vocalizes the most accurate statements regarding society! He鈥檚 exactly the kind of devil you鈥檇 love to have on your shoulder! Plus there鈥檚 so much truth in his words that it hurts! XD
鈥滻 make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.鈥�
鈥滻 like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.鈥�
鈥漌e are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.鈥�
Basil Hallward:
鈥漌hen I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy.鈥�
If Lord Henry is the devil on Dorian鈥檚 shoulder then Basil certainly is the angel that sits on his other side. The painter functions as Dorian鈥檚 consciousness and as long as they know each other he always appeals to his good side and tries his best to sway him on a righteous path. He鈥檚 clearly the counterweight to Lord Henry鈥檚 corruption, but unfortunately he doesn鈥檛 have a lot of leverage. Well, at least not as much as Harry does! I mean the saying: 鈥淐ome to the dark side, we got cookies鈥� exists for a reason, right? ;-P In the end Dorian can鈥檛 stand his bad conscience any longer and does the only thing that鈥檚 seemingly able to liberate him. He kills Basil in order to silence his remorse and regrets, but what he didn鈥檛 expect is that this dark deed makes him feel even more tainted and guilty. So in the end Basil鈥檚 death only increased his sense of guilt and caused him to feel even more haunted. In my opinion the murder of Basil is the final nail in Dorian鈥檚 coffin and from that moment on he couldn鈥檛 be saved anymore.
鈥漎ou were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don鈥檛 know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you.鈥�
The relationships:
Dorian Gray & Basil Hallward:
鈥滺e won鈥檛 like you the better for keeping your promises. He always breaks his own. I beg you not to go.鈥� Dorian Gray laughed and shook his head.
鈥淚 entreat you.鈥�
The lad hesitated, and looked over at Lord Henry, who was watching them from the tea-table with an amused smile.
鈥淚 must go, Basil,鈥� he answered.
And this is the key moment! The very first time Dorian Gray finds himself at a crossroads and choses the wrong path. You gotta love Oscar Wilde for the subtle intensity of this scene! There鈥檚 nothing extraordinary or special about it, yet it鈥檚 still the first choice that leads Dorian down his dark descent. It鈥檚 unagitated, ordinary and so very powerful! It鈥檚 obvious Basil loved Dorian and when I talk about love here, I鈥檓 talking about true love and not just friendship. He鈥檚 infatuated with him and basically worships the young and innocent Dorian. After he realises what Dorian has become, it鈥檚 already too late for him though. Poor Basil, if he would have known what his picture would make of Dorian, if he would have known how much Lord Henry鈥檚 negative influence would change his innocent and pure friend鈥�.
鈥漁ne has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness, of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there.鈥�
鈥漈here was nothing evil in it, nothing shameful. You were to me such an ideal as I shall never meet again. This is the face of a satyr.鈥�
鈥淚t is the face of my soul.鈥�
鈥淐hrist! what a thing I must have worshipped! It has the eyes of a devil.鈥�
鈥淓ach of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil,鈥� cried Dorian, with a wild gesture of despair.
Dorian Gray & Lord Henry:
鈥漌ords! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them!鈥�
Okay, and here comes the moment when I say that Lord Henry and Dorian Gray are in love with each other. *lol* It鈥檚 so freaking obvious!! They are fascinated by each other, they are besotted with each other and they want to spend every free moment in each other鈥檚 company! So yeah, there鈥檚 that! I think their dynamic and their interactions are very interesting and to me it seems like Lord Henry is some sort of catalyst. He鈥檚 the impulse that changes Dorian鈥檚 soul, he鈥檚 the first person who opens Dorian鈥檚 eyes and tells him that he鈥檚 beautiful. Oscar Wilde uses him as his tool to initiate Dorian鈥檚 monumental change. Which is kind of interesting, if you consider that Oscar Wilde was gay. It feels like Dorian鈥檚 and Henry鈥檚 relationship is wrong and I鈥檓 not even sure if Wilde was aware of that? I mean yes, their friendship led Dorian into the abyss of his soul, which is pretty obvious if you ask me, but there鈥檚 some subtle note about their 鈥渞elationship鈥�. It鈥檚 like deep down Oscar Wilde thought that it was wrong to have intense feelings for another man. And if you consider the time in which this was written it鈥檚 not surprising that he might have felt that way. Lord Henry represents Oscar鈥檚 sins and vices and it becomes quite apparent that some small part of him might have bemoaned his sexual orientation. In contrast to Wilde no one holds Dorian Gray to account though. He gets away with all of his sins and in the end this eventually causes him to destroys himself! What a moral punchline! XD
鈥漈alking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow鈥︹€�
鈥漎es,鈥� continued Lord Henry, 鈥渢hat is one of the great secrets of life 鈥� to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul. You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.鈥�
鈥漈he moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are, of what you really might be. There was so much in you that charmed me that I felt I must tell you something about yourself. I thought how tragic it would be if you were wasted.
"You know how a voice can stir one. Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear them, and each of them says something different. I don't know which to follow."
鈥漈he soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect. There is a soul in each one of us. I know it.鈥�
Conclusion:
This book is a gem! It鈥檚 perfection and so quotable that I could probably highlight each and every single passage! No matter how often I read it, there is always something new I didn鈥檛 notice before! I still wonder and guess about certain characters and 鈥淭he Picture of Dorian Gray鈥� still causes me to think. The writing style is so beautiful I can鈥檛 help but fall in love with it. I fall in love with this book over and over again. Every time I read it I love it even more and I鈥檓 sure that I will adore this masterpiece until I鈥檓 wrinkled and old.
Oscar Wilde drags us into the dark depths of the human soul, and once you get there you don鈥檛 want to return to the surface anymore.
P.E.R.F.E.C.T.I.O.N!
That鈥檚 what this book is. <333
I think I must have been about fifteen when I read 鈥淭he Picture of Dorian Gray鈥� for the very first time and I was totally blown away by it. There was this book, written in such a beautiful way, using such colourful and flowery language and there were those three amazing characters that made me feel and wonder and question their lives and decisions!
You might say that up until I picked up 鈥淭he Picture of Dorian Gray鈥� I was as innocent as Dorian himself. I didn鈥檛 know that there were books like that out there, that there actually existed morally grey characters, corrupted characters, book characters that felt like real people and could make you question their behaviour. It was an entirely new world for me and I was totally fascinated by it.
So I read this book and I savoured every sentence, I devoured its wisdom and got lost in its pages! Looking at it in retrospective I think that Oscar Wilde actually was the first writer who didn鈥檛 only make me love classics but also the first author that ignited my undying love for villains and complex characters. And for that I鈥檒l always be grateful!
I don鈥檛 know how often I read this book by now (goodreads your count doesn鈥檛 even get close to the actual number *lol*), but no matter how often I already read it, I鈥檓 still captivated by it. My fifteen year old me loved it as much as my 31 year old me does and if you ask me that鈥檚 exactly what makes a good classic. ;-) I鈥檓 sure I鈥檒l never get tired of reading this book and I鈥檒l always discover new things about it. And I genuinely hope that many other people will read it as well. It鈥檚 definitely worth it! ;-)
The characters:
Warning: You are now entering the gallery of 鈥淪poilery Spoilers鈥� and since this is one of my all-time faves I鈥檒l probably end up writing an entire essay about it. If you prefer to stay innocent you better leave before my spoilers get to you and corrupt your soul! ;-P
Dorian Gray:
鈥滻t held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love his own beauty. Would it teach him to loathe his own soul?鈥�
Dorian Gray! I don鈥檛 even know where to start! I love his character to bits and pieces and he鈥檚 definitely one of the most intriguing book characters I ever had the pleasure to read about. At the beginning of the book he鈥檚 so innocent and na茂ve and I totally agree with Lord Henry when he says that this is charming. Dorian definitely is a charming character! He鈥檚 beautiful and pure and whenever I read the beginning of the book I get a sudden urge to protect him against everything that鈥檚 going to happen over the course of those 256 pages! He鈥檚 like a child that gets corrupted by the bad influence of others and when I write this I really mean it! Even at his worst he still seems to retain that innocent outlook at things. I mean he was corrupted and tainted by Lord Henry, and he ends up corrupting and tainting his friends but despite all of this he still wonders why they have become like that. He鈥檚 completely oblivious to his own role in their downfall and when Basil confronts him with it, he doesn鈥檛 believe him. He is convinced that his friends could have done the right thing and that his influence on them isn鈥檛 as strong as Basil claims it to be. What is even more intriguing is that Dorian actually wants to be good! There鈥檚 a part of him that鈥檚 still innocent and hopes that he can be redeemed, but there鈥檚 also that other side of him that whispers that he鈥檚 entitled to do whatever he wishes to do. It鈥檚 obvious that he鈥檚 fighting an inner struggle and that he seems to have lost his way. It鈥檚 the century old question every person has to ask her/himself. Do I want to be good? And even more important: Can I resist being bad? It鈥檚 so easy to do the wrong thing and it鈥檚 so tough to do what鈥檚 right. I mean that鈥檚 the main reason why actors and role-players love to be the baddies! Being bad is fun, it gives you a lot of freedom and if you鈥檙e good at it the consequences never catch up to you. ;-P So Dorian constantly finds himself at a crossroads. Will he do the right thing or is he going to give into his bad side? Is his bad side truly that bad? Is having a little fun with his friends and to indulge in pleasure wrong or is it just a part of being human? The fate of Dorian Gray makes you think and it involuntarily causes you to face your own demons and weaknesses. It ultimately causes you to acknowledge your own vices and fears. In short: It makes you pause and forces you to ponder your own life-choices! And this is nothing but awesome! XD
鈥滻 want to be good. I can鈥檛 bear the idea of my soul being hideous.鈥�
鈥滺e felt that the time had really come for making his choice. Or had his choice already been made? Yes, life had decided that for him 鈥� life, and his own infinite curiosity about life. Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins 鈥� he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all.鈥�
鈥滻 don鈥檛 want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them and to dominate them.鈥�
鈥滺e was prisoned in thought. Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away.鈥�
Lord Henry:
鈥漎ou seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing.鈥�
Ahh Lord Henry! How much I love that bastard! *lol* He鈥檚 quite literally the devil in this book. He鈥檚 the person that stirrs Dorian鈥檚 soul! He鈥檚 the man who leads him down that dark road and just like Dorian he is completely oblivious to the magnitude of his influence! Yes, he knows that he鈥檚 corrupting Dorian, he even finds pleasure and joy in it, but throughout the entire book he never truly realizes how much his words actually changed him! How much damage they did to his soul! Lord Henry is the kind of character you just got to love. Arrogant, intelligent, wise, self-confident, brutally honest and completely unapologetic about his inappropriate behaviour. It鈥檚 no wonder Dorian is so fascinated by him and isn鈥檛 only willing but also eager to spend his time in his company. Lord Henry is basically the embodiment of temptation and young and innocent Dorian wants to be seduced! And honestly, who wouldn鈥檛 be drawn towards a character like Lord Henry? I swear he says the wisest things and vocalizes the most accurate statements regarding society! He鈥檚 exactly the kind of devil you鈥檇 love to have on your shoulder! Plus there鈥檚 so much truth in his words that it hurts! XD
鈥滻 make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.鈥�
鈥滻 like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.鈥�
鈥漌e are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.鈥�
Basil Hallward:
鈥漌hen I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy.鈥�
If Lord Henry is the devil on Dorian鈥檚 shoulder then Basil certainly is the angel that sits on his other side. The painter functions as Dorian鈥檚 consciousness and as long as they know each other he always appeals to his good side and tries his best to sway him on a righteous path. He鈥檚 clearly the counterweight to Lord Henry鈥檚 corruption, but unfortunately he doesn鈥檛 have a lot of leverage. Well, at least not as much as Harry does! I mean the saying: 鈥淐ome to the dark side, we got cookies鈥� exists for a reason, right? ;-P In the end Dorian can鈥檛 stand his bad conscience any longer and does the only thing that鈥檚 seemingly able to liberate him. He kills Basil in order to silence his remorse and regrets, but what he didn鈥檛 expect is that this dark deed makes him feel even more tainted and guilty. So in the end Basil鈥檚 death only increased his sense of guilt and caused him to feel even more haunted. In my opinion the murder of Basil is the final nail in Dorian鈥檚 coffin and from that moment on he couldn鈥檛 be saved anymore.
鈥漎ou were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don鈥檛 know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you.鈥�
The relationships:
Dorian Gray & Basil Hallward:
鈥滺e won鈥檛 like you the better for keeping your promises. He always breaks his own. I beg you not to go.鈥� Dorian Gray laughed and shook his head.
鈥淚 entreat you.鈥�
The lad hesitated, and looked over at Lord Henry, who was watching them from the tea-table with an amused smile.
鈥淚 must go, Basil,鈥� he answered.
And this is the key moment! The very first time Dorian Gray finds himself at a crossroads and choses the wrong path. You gotta love Oscar Wilde for the subtle intensity of this scene! There鈥檚 nothing extraordinary or special about it, yet it鈥檚 still the first choice that leads Dorian down his dark descent. It鈥檚 unagitated, ordinary and so very powerful! It鈥檚 obvious Basil loved Dorian and when I talk about love here, I鈥檓 talking about true love and not just friendship. He鈥檚 infatuated with him and basically worships the young and innocent Dorian. After he realises what Dorian has become, it鈥檚 already too late for him though. Poor Basil, if he would have known what his picture would make of Dorian, if he would have known how much Lord Henry鈥檚 negative influence would change his innocent and pure friend鈥�.
鈥漁ne has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness, of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there.鈥�
鈥漈here was nothing evil in it, nothing shameful. You were to me such an ideal as I shall never meet again. This is the face of a satyr.鈥�
鈥淚t is the face of my soul.鈥�
鈥淐hrist! what a thing I must have worshipped! It has the eyes of a devil.鈥�
鈥淓ach of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil,鈥� cried Dorian, with a wild gesture of despair.
Dorian Gray & Lord Henry:
鈥漌ords! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them!鈥�
Okay, and here comes the moment when I say that Lord Henry and Dorian Gray are in love with each other. *lol* It鈥檚 so freaking obvious!! They are fascinated by each other, they are besotted with each other and they want to spend every free moment in each other鈥檚 company! So yeah, there鈥檚 that! I think their dynamic and their interactions are very interesting and to me it seems like Lord Henry is some sort of catalyst. He鈥檚 the impulse that changes Dorian鈥檚 soul, he鈥檚 the first person who opens Dorian鈥檚 eyes and tells him that he鈥檚 beautiful. Oscar Wilde uses him as his tool to initiate Dorian鈥檚 monumental change. Which is kind of interesting, if you consider that Oscar Wilde was gay. It feels like Dorian鈥檚 and Henry鈥檚 relationship is wrong and I鈥檓 not even sure if Wilde was aware of that? I mean yes, their friendship led Dorian into the abyss of his soul, which is pretty obvious if you ask me, but there鈥檚 some subtle note about their 鈥渞elationship鈥�. It鈥檚 like deep down Oscar Wilde thought that it was wrong to have intense feelings for another man. And if you consider the time in which this was written it鈥檚 not surprising that he might have felt that way. Lord Henry represents Oscar鈥檚 sins and vices and it becomes quite apparent that some small part of him might have bemoaned his sexual orientation. In contrast to Wilde no one holds Dorian Gray to account though. He gets away with all of his sins and in the end this eventually causes him to destroys himself! What a moral punchline! XD
鈥漈alking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow鈥︹€�
鈥漎es,鈥� continued Lord Henry, 鈥渢hat is one of the great secrets of life 鈥� to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul. You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.鈥�
鈥漈he moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are, of what you really might be. There was so much in you that charmed me that I felt I must tell you something about yourself. I thought how tragic it would be if you were wasted.
"You know how a voice can stir one. Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear them, and each of them says something different. I don't know which to follow."
鈥漈he soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect. There is a soul in each one of us. I know it.鈥�
Conclusion:
This book is a gem! It鈥檚 perfection and so quotable that I could probably highlight each and every single passage! No matter how often I read it, there is always something new I didn鈥檛 notice before! I still wonder and guess about certain characters and 鈥淭he Picture of Dorian Gray鈥� still causes me to think. The writing style is so beautiful I can鈥檛 help but fall in love with it. I fall in love with this book over and over again. Every time I read it I love it even more and I鈥檓 sure that I will adore this masterpiece until I鈥檓 wrinkled and old.
Oscar Wilde drags us into the dark depths of the human soul, and once you get there you don鈥檛 want to return to the surface anymore.
P.E.R.F.E.C.T.I.O.N!
That鈥檚 what this book is. <333
January 14, 2022
I should probably admit that most of what I thought I knew about Dorian Gray came from pop culture references. In my defense, I'm actively trying to branch out and read more than comics and trashy romance novels, but it's slow going and I've got a lot of catching up to do.
Shockingly, I didn't bother to read the blurb, and it turns out this was a bit more complex than I thought it would be.
Point is, I had no idea it was about gay dudes!
And I'm always thinking that the guys in classic novels seem kinda gay, but then everyone tells me no, men were just more sensitive back then, and I just sorta pretend to believe them and we all go on about our day.
But there's no way that's the case here.
Anyway, I said that to say this: this book was waaaay more interesting than I thought it was going to be when I first decided to read it.
I mean, having to hide that you're in love with someone is awful no matter what the reason, but potentially getting tossed in the clink and having your life ruined because people think it's wrong is a whole other level of horrible.
Poor Basil! My heart just went out to that guy! He was so decent and so sweet. And yet somehow his love for Dorian, so pure it created a painting that seemed to capture the essence of Dorian's soul, became twisted by Lord Henry's influencing Dorian to desire youth and beauty above all else.
Enter the wacky Crayola curse!
And the really sad thing was that Dorian wasn't evil in the beginning. Selfish and silly, yes. But not truly bad. Which made watching him slip slowly at first, then eventually plunge headlong into villainy, even more tragic. The longer you live the easier it is to see what a slippery slope life can be, and how one bad choice left uncorrected can lead to far worse things.
The only one who escaped relatively unscathed was the instigator, Henry.
And isn't that just the way it always goes?
There's always that fucking asshole who sets shit into motion and then steps aside to watch everyone else flail around in the mess they've created.
Albeit, this time around it was a bit of a supernatural mess...
This is one of the few classics that I've found to be meaty, interesting, and still has characters that ring true.
Loved it!
This is the cover of the audiobook I listened to which was published by Author's Republic and narrated by John Gonzalez. <--if you see this version, swerve to avoid!
I've had great luck in general with classic audiobooks, but this was the exception to the rule. It seemed to me as though the narrator almost stumbled over words sometimes, and beyond that, the reading was just sort of off.
Shockingly, I didn't bother to read the blurb, and it turns out this was a bit more complex than I thought it would be.
Point is, I had no idea it was about gay dudes!
And I'm always thinking that the guys in classic novels seem kinda gay, but then everyone tells me no, men were just more sensitive back then, and I just sorta pretend to believe them and we all go on about our day.
But there's no way that's the case here.
Anyway, I said that to say this: this book was waaaay more interesting than I thought it was going to be when I first decided to read it.
I mean, having to hide that you're in love with someone is awful no matter what the reason, but potentially getting tossed in the clink and having your life ruined because people think it's wrong is a whole other level of horrible.
Poor Basil! My heart just went out to that guy! He was so decent and so sweet. And yet somehow his love for Dorian, so pure it created a painting that seemed to capture the essence of Dorian's soul, became twisted by Lord Henry's influencing Dorian to desire youth and beauty above all else.
Enter the wacky Crayola curse!
And the really sad thing was that Dorian wasn't evil in the beginning. Selfish and silly, yes. But not truly bad. Which made watching him slip slowly at first, then eventually plunge headlong into villainy, even more tragic. The longer you live the easier it is to see what a slippery slope life can be, and how one bad choice left uncorrected can lead to far worse things.
The only one who escaped relatively unscathed was the instigator, Henry.
And isn't that just the way it always goes?
There's always that fucking asshole who sets shit into motion and then steps aside to watch everyone else flail around in the mess they've created.
Albeit, this time around it was a bit of a supernatural mess...
This is one of the few classics that I've found to be meaty, interesting, and still has characters that ring true.
Loved it!
This is the cover of the audiobook I listened to which was published by Author's Republic and narrated by John Gonzalez. <--if you see this version, swerve to avoid!
I've had great luck in general with classic audiobooks, but this was the exception to the rule. It seemed to me as though the narrator almost stumbled over words sometimes, and beyond that, the reading was just sort of off.
October 28, 2022
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賴賱 賵噩賵賴賳丕 鬲丨賲賱 丕孬丕賲賳丕責
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亘賲乇賵乇 丕賱夭賲賳..賳毓賲..賱賴匕丕 賰賱賳丕 賳禺丕賮 賲乇賵乇 丕賱夭賲賳..賵 亘氐賲丕鬲賴 丕賱鬲賷 賷鬲乇賰賴丕 丨賵賱 丕賱毓賷賵賳 丕賱賲亘鬲爻賲丞 丿賵賲丕..丕賵 丕賱噩亘丕賴 丕賱毓丕亘爻丞賱賱丕亘丿 ..賱賰賳 鬲馗賱 丕賱毓賷賵賳 賲乇丌丞 丕賱乇賵丨..賮賯胤 賱賲賳 兀噩丕丿 賯乇丕亍鬲賴丕
賴賳丕賰 賲賳 賷賱亘爻 賯賳丕毓賴 賮賵乇 丕爻鬲賷賯丕馗賴 賵 賷噩賷丿 廿禺賮丕亍 賵噩賴賴 丕賱丨賯賷賯賷 賱爻賳賵丕鬲..賵 賴賳丕賰 賲賳 賷囟毓 噩乇丕卅賲賴 賵 噩丨賵丿賴 賵 爻賮丕賱丕鬲賴 賮賷 丿賵賱丕亘 賲睾賱賯..賵 賱賰賳 賱丕亘丿 賵 爻賷兀鬲賷 賷賵賲 賵 賷鬲賲 賮鬲丨賴..賮賴賱 爻賷鬲丨賲賱 賲丕 爻賷乇丕賴責責
賯乇兀鬲賴丕 賮賷 爻賳 18 賵馗賱 丕賱噩丿賱 丕賱匕賷 丕孬丕乇鬲賴 賮賷 賳賮爻賷 丨丕囟乇丕 丨鬲賶 乇丕噩毓鬲賴丕 賮賷 爻賳 30
賲賳 丕賱賰賱丕爻賷賰賷丕鬲 丕賱賵丕噩亘 賯乇丕亍鬲賴丕 賮賷 爻賳 賲亘賰乇丞. .賮賷 爻賳 丕賱噩賲丕賱 賵丕賱卮亘丕亘..賵 賲賳 丕賮囟賱 賲丕卅丞 乇賵丕賷丞 亘丕賱賱睾丞 丕賱廿賳噩賱賷夭賷丞
賱丕 賷禺胤乇 毓賱賶 亘丕賱賰 賱賱丨馗丞 賵丕丨丿丞 丕賳 賰賱賳丕 丿賵乇賷丕賳 噩乇丕賷..丕亘丿丕 ..賳毓賲 賰賱 賲賳丕 賱丿賷賴 丿賵賱丕亘賴 丕賱賲睾賱賯 毓賱賶 賲丕 爻鬲乇賴 丕賱賱賴 毓賱賷賴 ..賱賰賳賳丕 賳丨賲賱 丕禺胤丕亍賳丕 賮賷 賯賱賵亘賳丕 賵 毓賯賵賱賳丕..賱丕 賲賴乇亘 賮賷 賵噩賵丿 丕賱囟賲賷乇
丕禺鬲賱賮 丕賳丕 賲毓 丕賵爻賰丕乇賵丕賷賱丿 賮賷 丨賷丕鬲賴 賵賲亘丕丿卅賴 賵丕爻賱賵亘賴 亘賱 賵賰孬賷乇 賲賳 丕毓賲丕賱賴 賵賱賰賳 賲毓 丿賵乇賷丕賳 丕賱丕賲乇 賷禺鬲賱賮.. 賮賴賷 賲乇丌丞 噩賷丿丞 賱賳賯丕胤 囟毓賮 賴丕賲丞 亘丕賱賳賮爻 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞..賵賱賲 鬲賰賳 賱鬲丨賵夭 賴匕丕 丕賱賯丿乇 賲賳 丕賱丕賴鬲賲丕賲 賱賵賰丕賳鬲 亘胤賱鬲賴丕 廿賲乇兀丞
賴匕丕 賵噩賴賴 爻賲丨 賵 賲賱丕賲丨賴 賵囟丕亍丞 鬲卮毓 賳賵乇
賵 賴匕丕 賵噩賴賴 賮馗 睾賱賷馗 禺卮賳 丨噩亘 賳賵乇賴
賴賱 賵噩賵賴賳丕 鬲丨賲賱 丕孬丕賲賳丕責
賴賱 鬲噩丕毓賷丿賳丕 =禺胤丕賷丕賳丕
亘丕賱胤亘毓 賱丕鈽� 賵 丕賱丕 賱賲丕 賰丕賳 賮賷 丕賱賱睾丞 鬲毓亘賷乇丕鬲 賲孬賱 賵 兀爻賮乇 毓賳 賵噩賴賴. .丕賵 丕賲丕胤 丕賱賱孬丕賲 毓賳 賲賱丕賲丨賴 丕賱丨賯丞.. 賮丕賱卮賷胤丕賳 噩賲賷賱 丿賵賲丕
賴賱 鬲毓亘乇 賲賱丕賲丨賳丕 毓賳 氐賮丕鬲賳丕 責
亘賲乇賵乇 丕賱夭賲賳..賳毓賲..賱賴匕丕 賰賱賳丕 賳禺丕賮 賲乇賵乇 丕賱夭賲賳..賵 亘氐賲丕鬲賴 丕賱鬲賷 賷鬲乇賰賴丕 丨賵賱 丕賱毓賷賵賳 丕賱賲亘鬲爻賲丞 丿賵賲丕..丕賵 丕賱噩亘丕賴 丕賱毓丕亘爻丞賱賱丕亘丿 ..賱賰賳 鬲馗賱 丕賱毓賷賵賳 賲乇丌丞 丕賱乇賵丨..賮賯胤 賱賲賳 兀噩丕丿 賯乇丕亍鬲賴丕
賴賳丕賰 賲賳 賷賱亘爻 賯賳丕毓賴 賮賵乇 丕爻鬲賷賯丕馗賴 賵 賷噩賷丿 廿禺賮丕亍 賵噩賴賴 丕賱丨賯賷賯賷 賱爻賳賵丕鬲..賵 賴賳丕賰 賲賳 賷囟毓 噩乇丕卅賲賴 賵 噩丨賵丿賴 賵 爻賮丕賱丕鬲賴 賮賷 丿賵賱丕亘 賲睾賱賯..賵 賱賰賳 賱丕亘丿 賵 爻賷兀鬲賷 賷賵賲 賵 賷鬲賲 賮鬲丨賴..賮賴賱 爻賷鬲丨賲賱 賲丕 爻賷乇丕賴責責
賯乇兀鬲賴丕 賮賷 爻賳 18 賵馗賱 丕賱噩丿賱 丕賱匕賷 丕孬丕乇鬲賴 賮賷 賳賮爻賷 丨丕囟乇丕 丨鬲賶 乇丕噩毓鬲賴丕 賮賷 爻賳 30
賲賳 丕賱賰賱丕爻賷賰賷丕鬲 丕賱賵丕噩亘 賯乇丕亍鬲賴丕 賮賷 爻賳 賲亘賰乇丞. .賮賷 爻賳 丕賱噩賲丕賱 賵丕賱卮亘丕亘..賵 賲賳 丕賮囟賱 賲丕卅丞 乇賵丕賷丞 亘丕賱賱睾丞 丕賱廿賳噩賱賷夭賷丞
賱丕 賷禺胤乇 毓賱賶 亘丕賱賰 賱賱丨馗丞 賵丕丨丿丞 丕賳 賰賱賳丕 丿賵乇賷丕賳 噩乇丕賷..丕亘丿丕 ..賳毓賲 賰賱 賲賳丕 賱丿賷賴 丿賵賱丕亘賴 丕賱賲睾賱賯 毓賱賶 賲丕 爻鬲乇賴 丕賱賱賴 毓賱賷賴 ..賱賰賳賳丕 賳丨賲賱 丕禺胤丕亍賳丕 賮賷 賯賱賵亘賳丕 賵 毓賯賵賱賳丕..賱丕 賲賴乇亘 賮賷 賵噩賵丿 丕賱囟賲賷乇
丕禺鬲賱賮 丕賳丕 賲毓 丕賵爻賰丕乇賵丕賷賱丿 賮賷 丨賷丕鬲賴 賵賲亘丕丿卅賴 賵丕爻賱賵亘賴 亘賱 賵賰孬賷乇 賲賳 丕毓賲丕賱賴 賵賱賰賳 賲毓 丿賵乇賷丕賳 丕賱丕賲乇 賷禺鬲賱賮.. 賮賴賷 賲乇丌丞 噩賷丿丞 賱賳賯丕胤 囟毓賮 賴丕賲丞 亘丕賱賳賮爻 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞..賵賱賲 鬲賰賳 賱鬲丨賵夭 賴匕丕 丕賱賯丿乇 賲賳 丕賱丕賴鬲賲丕賲 賱賵賰丕賳鬲 亘胤賱鬲賴丕 廿賲乇兀丞
August 12, 2024
鈥淚 loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art.鈥�
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Wow! This book can really mess with your head.
Let鈥檚 start off by my confession. Most people won鈥檛 describe this book in these terms, but it鈥檚 my review, and this is my take鈥�.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is about a young man named Dorian Gray. He is exquisitely good looking, and his friend, Basil Hallward, paints Dorian鈥檚 portrait. In walks, Lord Henry Wotton, Harry, who convinces Dorian that youth is everything, and Dorian wishes that his portrait would grow older while he could retain his youth.
Lord Henry is an extreme narcissist, and his conversations with Dorian are riveting. There are so many quotable quotes, and the discussion of his philosophy is highly intriguing. He essentially views anything honorable as horrible and boring.
Although the book is The Picture of Dorian Gray, the book really belongs to Lord Henry. He is far from a perfect character, but he is definitely not boring.
Tip: Audible has a version of this for free!
2025 Reading Schedule
Jan A Town Like Alice
Feb Birdsong
Mar Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
Apr War and Peace
May The Woman in White
Jun Atonement
Jul The Shadow of the Wind
Aug Jude the Obscure
Sep Ulysses
Oct Vanity Fair
Nov A Fine Balance
Dec Germinal
Connect With Me!
- The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Wow! This book can really mess with your head.
Let鈥檚 start off by my confession. Most people won鈥檛 describe this book in these terms, but it鈥檚 my review, and this is my take鈥�.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is about a young man named Dorian Gray. He is exquisitely good looking, and his friend, Basil Hallward, paints Dorian鈥檚 portrait. In walks, Lord Henry Wotton, Harry, who convinces Dorian that youth is everything, and Dorian wishes that his portrait would grow older while he could retain his youth.
Lord Henry is an extreme narcissist, and his conversations with Dorian are riveting. There are so many quotable quotes, and the discussion of his philosophy is highly intriguing. He essentially views anything honorable as horrible and boring.
Although the book is The Picture of Dorian Gray, the book really belongs to Lord Henry. He is far from a perfect character, but he is definitely not boring.
Tip: Audible has a version of this for free!
2025 Reading Schedule
Jan A Town Like Alice
Feb Birdsong
Mar Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
Apr War and Peace
May The Woman in White
Jun Atonement
Jul The Shadow of the Wind
Aug Jude the Obscure
Sep Ulysses
Oct Vanity Fair
Nov A Fine Balance
Dec Germinal
Connect With Me!
April 24, 2025
"A face without a heart", so said Shakespeare in Hamlet, but it applies to the portrait of Dorian Gray even better.... When the young gentleman Dorian Gray from a wealthy aristocratic family in Victorian England, has his picture completed something is missing, Basil Hallward, the painter senses it and insists that no one sees his greatest work, except a few people ... The witty Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian's soon to be best friend seems amused, a shy artist! All three are fascinated by the painting, discussing it at length in Mr. Hallward's house. The lord is a notorious man, with a well- deserved evil reputation, warned by many to stay away from him. Nevertheless Gray's a lonely orphan, needs excitement in his dreary life, Wotton tells Dorian to have fun while he is still young, it will not last long. Mr. Gray has good looks, and like a moth to a flame the boy can't resist. Dorian wishes that the portrait ages while he remains young, as time goes by, Dorian would give his soul for this, Lord Henry laughs at the oath, strangely his request is fulfilled shortly afterwards. Dorian meets a beautiful seventeen- year- old actress, both fall madly in love, later the nervous Sibyl Vane, gives a really bad performance in front of Gray , and his two friends, Wotton, Hallward, the young gentleman is crushed , and so disappointed he leaves her. Sibyl then kills herself, James her brother had pledged to destroy anyone who harms his sister, he will cause Mr. Gray much concern subsequently. The wicked lord tells the distraught youth to forget about it, "Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secrets, wild joy and wilder sins". All this and only the picture to show its evil, a great bargain Dorian feels. Rumors abound about Dorian, they the people look at his face and see only purity, Gray continues his hedonistic life, murder , another suicide and a killing results ... In a locked, quiet, dark room upstairs at his home, where the curious Mr. Gray keeps the painting, it Grotesquely Changes, whenever more wickedness is committed by the owner. The ugly side of Dorian, only he sees... Later into the shadows , Dorian goes to get opium, he wants salvation through drugs, blackout his memories but gloom is everywhere, a thick atmosphere of foreboding, intense desperation and immense helplessness, prevails. Reaching for something, that will save his poor soul, make him feel worthwhile that life has some meaning, is all lost? A mournful torrent rushes Dorian forward always forward, into the abyss, the darkness, the endless unknown regions, next oblivion? The light is going out, Dorian must face his destiny, he couldn't escape himself ...
March 4, 2023
Possessing eternal youth and beauty produces exactly the same effect as sentencing a man to life without the possibility of parole. Both have nothing to lose and morals disappear before the desire for immediate self-gratification in all things. And so it is with Dorian Gray. It's a moral story so eventually his evil catches up with him and he dies, as does the criminal.
Is Oscar Wilde saying that it is man's essential nature, to be so internally psychopathic and selfish that so long as he can keep his reputation he will wreak havoc on people's lives and not care in the process of enriching his own?
Oscar Wilde was a man who held some very nasty views and only cared when extremely similar ones were turned upon himself. (He was imprisoned for homosexuality, but felt it was ok for Dreyfus to be imprisoned on trumped-up crime of murder but really because he was Jewish. He chose the wrong side on that one and lost even his best friend and was out of step with almost the whole of Britain). I don't like the author, but I do love his prose.
I read this book years ago. But the psychological story of a man's realisation that there are no consequences to his actions, nothing is forbidden, everything is permitted, you never forget.
Is Oscar Wilde saying that it is man's essential nature, to be so internally psychopathic and selfish that so long as he can keep his reputation he will wreak havoc on people's lives and not care in the process of enriching his own?
Oscar Wilde was a man who held some very nasty views and only cared when extremely similar ones were turned upon himself. (He was imprisoned for homosexuality, but felt it was ok for Dreyfus to be imprisoned on trumped-up crime of murder but really because he was Jewish. He chose the wrong side on that one and lost even his best friend and was out of step with almost the whole of Britain). I don't like the author, but I do love his prose.
I read this book years ago. But the psychological story of a man's realisation that there are no consequences to his actions, nothing is forbidden, everything is permitted, you never forget.
June 1, 2019
Even if we haven鈥檛 read the book everyone knows the plot. A painter paints a portrait of a beautiful young man. The portrait ages while he keeps his beauty. But the portrait also reflects his evil, not just aging, but turning eventually into a portrait of a devil.
There are thousands of reviews so I鈥檒l just copy the next paragraph from the GR book blurb:
Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde鈥檚 story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author鈥檚 most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray鈥檚 moral disintegration caused a scandal when it 铿乺st appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel鈥檚 corrupting in铿倁ence, he responded that there is, in fact, 鈥渁 terrible moral in Dorian Gray.鈥�
The various nuggets of philosophy and thoughts and acerbic wit that the author intersperses throughout are a pleasure to read. Just a few examples:
On a painter鈥檚 reputation 鈥溾€s soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.鈥�
鈥淭he ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world.鈥�
About a hostess introducing her guests: 鈥淪he either explains them entirely away, or tells one everything about them except what one wants to know.鈥�
鈥淚 make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.鈥�
鈥淲ords! Mirror words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel!鈥� Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?鈥�
鈥淣othing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.鈥�
[She] is so dreadfully dowdy that she reminded one of a badly bound hymn-book.鈥�
[of an uncommunicative old man] 鈥溾€e had said everything that he had to say before he was 30.鈥�
鈥淗e was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.鈥�
鈥淢en marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.鈥�
鈥溾€is guardians, who were extremely old-fashioned people and did not realize that we lived in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities鈥︹€�
Here are three vicious descriptions just going around a single dinner table:
A woman with 鈥溾€he remains of a really remarkable ugliness.鈥�
A man who is 鈥溾€ne of those middle-aged mediocrities so common in London clubs who have no enemies, but are thoroughly disliked by their friends鈥︹€�
A man who 鈥溾€ike so many of his class, was under the impression that inordinate joviality can atone for an entire lack of ideas.鈥�
In his short life (1854-1900) Wilde was part of the movement called aestheticism 鈥� 鈥渁rt for art鈥檚 sake,鈥� not for its deeper meanings. Wilde鈥檚 brief preface give us his 鈥榤anifesto,鈥� bits of which are:
鈥淭o reveal art and conceal the artist is art鈥檚 aim鈥hose who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated鈥here is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all鈥ll art is at once surface and symbol鈥t is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors鈥ll art is quite useless.鈥�
I should also say that the edition I read, 2018 by Read Books Ltd., had two errors in dates on the cover blurb. Does it matter? Not really, but it makes you wonder what else is sloppy inside the text.
Top image from wikipedia
London street around 1900 from cloudfront.net
The author from thedailybeast.com
There are thousands of reviews so I鈥檒l just copy the next paragraph from the GR book blurb:
Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde鈥檚 story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author鈥檚 most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray鈥檚 moral disintegration caused a scandal when it 铿乺st appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel鈥檚 corrupting in铿倁ence, he responded that there is, in fact, 鈥渁 terrible moral in Dorian Gray.鈥�
The various nuggets of philosophy and thoughts and acerbic wit that the author intersperses throughout are a pleasure to read. Just a few examples:
On a painter鈥檚 reputation 鈥溾€s soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.鈥�
鈥淭he ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world.鈥�
About a hostess introducing her guests: 鈥淪he either explains them entirely away, or tells one everything about them except what one wants to know.鈥�
鈥淚 make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.鈥�
鈥淲ords! Mirror words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel!鈥� Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?鈥�
鈥淣othing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.鈥�
[She] is so dreadfully dowdy that she reminded one of a badly bound hymn-book.鈥�
[of an uncommunicative old man] 鈥溾€e had said everything that he had to say before he was 30.鈥�
鈥淗e was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.鈥�
鈥淢en marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.鈥�
鈥溾€is guardians, who were extremely old-fashioned people and did not realize that we lived in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities鈥︹€�
Here are three vicious descriptions just going around a single dinner table:
A woman with 鈥溾€he remains of a really remarkable ugliness.鈥�
A man who is 鈥溾€ne of those middle-aged mediocrities so common in London clubs who have no enemies, but are thoroughly disliked by their friends鈥︹€�
A man who 鈥溾€ike so many of his class, was under the impression that inordinate joviality can atone for an entire lack of ideas.鈥�
In his short life (1854-1900) Wilde was part of the movement called aestheticism 鈥� 鈥渁rt for art鈥檚 sake,鈥� not for its deeper meanings. Wilde鈥檚 brief preface give us his 鈥榤anifesto,鈥� bits of which are:
鈥淭o reveal art and conceal the artist is art鈥檚 aim鈥hose who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated鈥here is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all鈥ll art is at once surface and symbol鈥t is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors鈥ll art is quite useless.鈥�
I should also say that the edition I read, 2018 by Read Books Ltd., had two errors in dates on the cover blurb. Does it matter? Not really, but it makes you wonder what else is sloppy inside the text.
Top image from wikipedia
London street around 1900 from cloudfront.net
The author from thedailybeast.com
April 25, 2022
賲丕 賴賵 兀亘卮毓 賰丕亘賵爻 鬲禺賷賱鬲賴 賮賷 丨賷丕鬲賰責
賲丕 丕賱匕賷 鬲乇丕賴 兀氐毓亘 卮賷亍 賷賲賰賳 兀賳 鬲鬲毓乇囟 賱賴
賲丕匕丕 賱賵 丕爻鬲胤毓鬲 鬲噩賲賷毓 賰賱 禺胤丕賷丕賰 賵 鬲禺亘卅鬲賴丕 賮賷 賲賰丕賳 爻乇賷 賱丕 賷毓賱賲賴 鈥徹迟堌з�
賲丕匕丕 賱賵 丕爻鬲胤毓鬲 兀賳 鬲賳賮囟 賷丿賰 毓賳 兀賷 噩乇賷賲丞 丕乇鬲賰亘鬲鈥�
賵兀賷 卮乇 丕賯鬲乇賮鬲
賲丕匕丕 賱賵 丕爻鬲胤毓鬲 鬲丨賯賷賯 丕賱賲爻鬲丨賷賱
賵囟賲賳鬲 丕賱禺賱賵丿..責責
賵賲丕匕丕 賱賵 賰丕賳 匕賱賰 丕賱賲賰丕賳 丕賱爻乇賷 賴賵 賵噩賴賰 丕賱匕賷 賳丨鬲賴 賮賷賱爻賵賮 賮賳丕賳 鈥徹官勝� 丕賱賵乇賯..鈥�
賵賲丕匕丕 賱賵 賰丕賳 亘廿賲賰丕賳賰 乇丐賷丞 噩賲賷毓 賲賮丕爻丿賰 鬲鬲噩賱賶 賷賵賲丕 亘毓丿 賷賵賲 毓賱賶 鈥徺堌囐� 丕賱賰丕賲賱 丕賱噩賲丕賱 賮賷 毓賷賵賳 丕賱賰賱
爻賵丕賰..鈥�
:::::::::::
賲丕 乇兀賷賰 賷丕 丿賵乇賷丕賳 賮賷 賯賵賱 丕賱賲爻賷丨
賲丕匕丕 賷爻鬲賮賷丿 丕賱廿賳爻丕賳 賱賵 禺爻乇 乇賵丨賴 賵乇亘丨 丕賱毓丕賱賲 兀噩賲毓責
---------
鈥� 鈥�
賴匕丕 賴賵 賲賱禺氐 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賮賷 賳馗乇賷
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱賲毓鬲賯丞 亘丕賱賮賱爻賮丞
賵丕賱爻禺乇賷丞
賵丕賱賮丕賳鬲丕夭賷丕
鈥�
鈥� 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱賲丿賴卮丞 賵丕賱賲禺賷賮丞 賵賰丕卮賮丞 禺亘丕賷丕 丕賱賳賮爻 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞鈥忊€� 鈥�
賷毓乇賷 賮賷賴丕 賵丕賷賱丿 -賱丕 丕賱賳賮爻 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞 賮賯胤 亘賱 丕賱賲噩鬲賲毓 丕賱廿賳賰賱賷夭賷 亘兀賰賲賱賴
賵夭賷賮 賲賳 賰丕賳 賷胤賱賯 毓賱賷賴賲 丕賱胤亘賯丕鬲 丕賱賳亘賷賱丞
廿賳賴丕 賰丕卮賮丞 賱賰賱賱 賲丕 賴賵 禺丕賵賺 亘乇賷賯賴 禺丕丿毓
賮賵乇 賲丕 鬲賯鬲乇亘 賲賳賴 賷鬲賰卮賮 賱賰 丕賱禺賵丕亍 賵丕賱爻胤丨賷丞 鈥徺堌з勜Ｙ嗀з嗁娯�
....
賵丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 鬲鬲乇賰 賲賳亘賴乇丕
賮賲賰 賲賮鬲賵丨 毓賱賶 兀禺乇賴 賮賷 卮賴賯丞 賱丕 氐賵鬲 賱賴丕
鈥�
鈥�
:::::::::::
乇亘賲丕 賲賳 兀爻亘丕亘 毓卮賯賷 賱兀賵爻賰丕乇 賵丕賷賱丿 賴賷 賯丿乇鬲賴 丕賱賮匕丞 毓賱賶 丕賱禺賷丕賱
賵賯丿乇鬲賴 毓賱賶 丕賱廿鬲賷丕賳 亘兀賮囟賱 丕賱毓亘丕乇丕鬲 廿丿賴丕卮丕
賮賷 毓賲賯賴丕 賵賮賱爻賮鬲賴丕 賵爻禺乇賷鬲賴丕
兀賰孬乇 亘賰孬賷乇 賮賷 乇兀賷賷 賲賳 卮賵 兀賵 賲丕乇賰 鬲賵賷賳
丿賵乇賷丕賳 噩乇丕賷 賰丕賳 丕賱毓賲賱 丕賱兀賵賱 丕賱匕賷 兀賯乇丐賴 賱賴匕丕 丕賱毓賯賱 丕賱賱丕賲毓
賵賲賳 賷賵賲賴丕 兀丿賲賳鬲賴
October 1, 2022
Oscar Wilde tells us the story of Dorian Gray, who was obsessed with beauty and youth. His narcissistic obsession with beauty made him trade his soul for eternal youth.
I think this is one of those few novels that was the topic of many Psychological studies. The morality aspect of this novel has been a topic of discussion for more than a century now. This is a book that the celebrities of our generation should undeniably read. It shows the plight of unnecessary obsession that will destroy our soul and conscience.
The philosophy in this novel will make you contemplate for a long time. This is one of those novels that you should never miss.
"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."
January 17, 2020
This is the first time I've read this classic book....but I've loved Oscar Wilde for as long as I can remember.
There is much to take away from this book. Themes exploring shallowness, selfishness, superficiality, hedonism, morality, and flaws of life and being human.
The dialogue is witty and humorous.
Oscar Wilde had great insights on beauty....
I love this quote:
"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 learn professions. How perfectly hideous they are!
Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of 80 what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful".
Very reflective read....a little like looking into a mirror!
There is much to take away from this book. Themes exploring shallowness, selfishness, superficiality, hedonism, morality, and flaws of life and being human.
The dialogue is witty and humorous.
Oscar Wilde had great insights on beauty....
I love this quote:
"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 learn professions. How perfectly hideous they are!
Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of 80 what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful".
Very reflective read....a little like looking into a mirror!
October 6, 2010
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a hard book to review. After reading such eloquent, beautiful, and rich writing, I am at a loss for how to command my comparatively paltry ability to use words to express how I felt about this book.
Forgive me as I go back to AP English for a few moments. I asked myself what were the themes of this novel. Here is my list:
Identity
Experience
Beauty
The triumph on senses over reason
Accountability
I will attempt to build my review, in part, around the discussion of these themes.
Identity
Dorian Gray was a flawed man who was essentially empty inside. He was very young when this story began, seemingly full of potential. Sadly, he invested all his sense of worth in his external beauty, doing little to grow the inner man; unless you consider his descent into depravity, discovering more and more excesses for the meaningless value of those experiences (since his mentor Lord Henry taught him that experience has no value), yet he was strangely curious as to how they would affect the portrait of his soul. He was not quite a tragic figure, because I could not feel sorry for him. He had made this horrible decision (and I believe he had opportunities to repent of it, which he didn't take), but he chose never to take responsibility for himself. Which leads to the next theme.
Accountability
As I said above, I could feel no sympathy for Dorian Gray. Why? Because he never took responsibility for his actions. Being accountable for one's own actions is a crucial aspect of self-development, at least in my humble opinion. If a person cannot do that, they are doomed to eternal immaturity. This was Dorian's fate. It was Basil's fault for painting the picture. It was Sybil's fault for being a bad actress, and making him fall out of love with her. All the people he ruined in his relentless pursuit of pleasure and debauchery ruined themselves. He took no part in their ruination. Ultimately, he even blamed the picture, and sought to destroy it as the only true evidence of his black soul. I feel like this: If you're going to be a bad, selfish person, own up to it. Don't try to act like your sins should be laid at other people's feet. That was the route the Mr. Dorian Gray took.
Experience
Lord Henry was the man who opens Dorian's eyes to the fact that the only thing he has to his advantage is the beauty of his youth, that he should enjoy life while he is young enough to experience it fully. He states that experience is not a teacher, and that men don't learn from the mistakes they make as they live. Your experiences don't count for anything. It seemed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy for Dorian Gray. Instead of realizing how his selfish, shallow actions could hurt and destroy others, he never did do that. He merely went from one fixation to the other, marking the effects on the portrait that he guarded jealously. In the end, there was no value to what he experienced. He was just wasting time (in my opinion).
The triumph of sensation over reason
Dorian Gray became a voluptuary, lost in sensations. He didn't focus on becoming a learned person, only experiencing what he encountered in his pursuits, wallowing in those sensations; until he grew bored, and moved onto the next one. Lord Henry seemed like a good mentor. A man who appeared so intelligent, with a saying for everything. A witty, entertaining man, who had a reputation for saying utterly wicked things. But he wasn't a deep man. He didn't believe what he said. It was an image that he projected for lack of anything else to do as an aristocrat who had no need to work for a living. Dorian Gray took this as gospel, and took it to the next level. As a result, it made his life utterly meaningless. Sadly, his friend Basil, who was a fairly wise person, was dismissed, and made fun of by Lord Henry. I almost felt like Basil and Lord Henry were the warring aspects of Dorian's conscience, at times.
Beauty
What is beauty? I tend to think it's a double-edged sword. We are all attracted to things that are beautiful, that have a physical appeal. But, should we be content with merely a comely appearance, while the inside is rotted? Dorian Gray was a man of such unearthly beauty that people could not believe he was capable of the debauchery he had committed. Those who didn't heed the warnings given to them, came to rue it. Basil, who painted the young Dorian's fateful picture, couldn't accept that Dorian had become such a horrible person. What a sad fate that was for Basil.
I felt several things as I read this book: interest, curiosity, disgust, sadness, and ultimately, a sense that justice had been done, in a very strange, but fitting way.
One thing that became very apparent to me as I read this novel, was Oscar Wilde's considerable wit. I imagine he was quite entertaining to be around.
In the preface, Oscar Wilde says that all art is meaningless. What was he trying to say with this story? Nothing?
I have trouble believing that. This was a novel I couldn't dismiss and treat as mere brain candy. There was some message there that hammered away at my brain. I do believe that Mr. Wilde hints at the subjective nature of art (which includes literature). I think that we could all read the same story and take away different things from it. Our brains are so very different, and the pathways are nurtured and developed by our various experiences, and our own values. So, that we will all come away from viewing a picture or reading a story with a hand-tailored message. Maybe that's what he means by saying that an artist strives not to be present in his work. Instead, it is a mirror reflecting the viewer. That makes sense to me, actually.
What message did I come away with?
At the end of the day, I believe that Dorian Gray led a worthless life. His eternal youth counted for nothing. He never grew as a person, and he used the bounteous gifts he'd been given selfishly. He did horrible things that made it even worse. He was lucky in that he didn't live long enough to count the full cost of those actions. He allowed the portrait to take the weight of those sins intead of letting them rest where they belonged. If anything really bothers me as a person, it's the thought of my time on this earth being wasted. Never having accomplished anything of value. For that reason, I found Dorian Gray to be a very sad man, but I could not feel sorry for him.
So, is this a horror novel, you might ask?
I think this is a thinking person's horror novel. It is a study of how the sins we commit cannot be hidden, even if we lie to ourselves about that. Interestingly enough, Mr. Wilde does not elaborate on what vile acts Dorian committed. We are left to our own expansive imaginations to surmise the bulk of what he'd done. Some people don't believe in such a thing as sin. If you don't believe in sin, how could it have a cost? It didn't matter that Dorian Gray didn't acknowledge his sins. They caught up with him in the end. The horror is how he confronted the consequences of his sins, yet turned away from them, locking that manifestation away in the attic to view with a detached sort of curiosity. The horror is the lives he destroyed, but never felt more than a moment's remorse. Fundamentally, Dorian Gray was an angelically beautiful monster. The horror is that we can look upon beauty, and we can be fooled into never asking what lies beneath it.
Forgive me as I go back to AP English for a few moments. I asked myself what were the themes of this novel. Here is my list:
Identity
Experience
Beauty
The triumph on senses over reason
Accountability
I will attempt to build my review, in part, around the discussion of these themes.
Identity
Dorian Gray was a flawed man who was essentially empty inside. He was very young when this story began, seemingly full of potential. Sadly, he invested all his sense of worth in his external beauty, doing little to grow the inner man; unless you consider his descent into depravity, discovering more and more excesses for the meaningless value of those experiences (since his mentor Lord Henry taught him that experience has no value), yet he was strangely curious as to how they would affect the portrait of his soul. He was not quite a tragic figure, because I could not feel sorry for him. He had made this horrible decision (and I believe he had opportunities to repent of it, which he didn't take), but he chose never to take responsibility for himself. Which leads to the next theme.
Accountability
As I said above, I could feel no sympathy for Dorian Gray. Why? Because he never took responsibility for his actions. Being accountable for one's own actions is a crucial aspect of self-development, at least in my humble opinion. If a person cannot do that, they are doomed to eternal immaturity. This was Dorian's fate. It was Basil's fault for painting the picture. It was Sybil's fault for being a bad actress, and making him fall out of love with her. All the people he ruined in his relentless pursuit of pleasure and debauchery ruined themselves. He took no part in their ruination. Ultimately, he even blamed the picture, and sought to destroy it as the only true evidence of his black soul. I feel like this: If you're going to be a bad, selfish person, own up to it. Don't try to act like your sins should be laid at other people's feet. That was the route the Mr. Dorian Gray took.
Experience
Lord Henry was the man who opens Dorian's eyes to the fact that the only thing he has to his advantage is the beauty of his youth, that he should enjoy life while he is young enough to experience it fully. He states that experience is not a teacher, and that men don't learn from the mistakes they make as they live. Your experiences don't count for anything. It seemed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy for Dorian Gray. Instead of realizing how his selfish, shallow actions could hurt and destroy others, he never did do that. He merely went from one fixation to the other, marking the effects on the portrait that he guarded jealously. In the end, there was no value to what he experienced. He was just wasting time (in my opinion).
The triumph of sensation over reason
Dorian Gray became a voluptuary, lost in sensations. He didn't focus on becoming a learned person, only experiencing what he encountered in his pursuits, wallowing in those sensations; until he grew bored, and moved onto the next one. Lord Henry seemed like a good mentor. A man who appeared so intelligent, with a saying for everything. A witty, entertaining man, who had a reputation for saying utterly wicked things. But he wasn't a deep man. He didn't believe what he said. It was an image that he projected for lack of anything else to do as an aristocrat who had no need to work for a living. Dorian Gray took this as gospel, and took it to the next level. As a result, it made his life utterly meaningless. Sadly, his friend Basil, who was a fairly wise person, was dismissed, and made fun of by Lord Henry. I almost felt like Basil and Lord Henry were the warring aspects of Dorian's conscience, at times.
Beauty
What is beauty? I tend to think it's a double-edged sword. We are all attracted to things that are beautiful, that have a physical appeal. But, should we be content with merely a comely appearance, while the inside is rotted? Dorian Gray was a man of such unearthly beauty that people could not believe he was capable of the debauchery he had committed. Those who didn't heed the warnings given to them, came to rue it. Basil, who painted the young Dorian's fateful picture, couldn't accept that Dorian had become such a horrible person. What a sad fate that was for Basil.
I felt several things as I read this book: interest, curiosity, disgust, sadness, and ultimately, a sense that justice had been done, in a very strange, but fitting way.
One thing that became very apparent to me as I read this novel, was Oscar Wilde's considerable wit. I imagine he was quite entertaining to be around.
In the preface, Oscar Wilde says that all art is meaningless. What was he trying to say with this story? Nothing?
I have trouble believing that. This was a novel I couldn't dismiss and treat as mere brain candy. There was some message there that hammered away at my brain. I do believe that Mr. Wilde hints at the subjective nature of art (which includes literature). I think that we could all read the same story and take away different things from it. Our brains are so very different, and the pathways are nurtured and developed by our various experiences, and our own values. So, that we will all come away from viewing a picture or reading a story with a hand-tailored message. Maybe that's what he means by saying that an artist strives not to be present in his work. Instead, it is a mirror reflecting the viewer. That makes sense to me, actually.
What message did I come away with?
At the end of the day, I believe that Dorian Gray led a worthless life. His eternal youth counted for nothing. He never grew as a person, and he used the bounteous gifts he'd been given selfishly. He did horrible things that made it even worse. He was lucky in that he didn't live long enough to count the full cost of those actions. He allowed the portrait to take the weight of those sins intead of letting them rest where they belonged. If anything really bothers me as a person, it's the thought of my time on this earth being wasted. Never having accomplished anything of value. For that reason, I found Dorian Gray to be a very sad man, but I could not feel sorry for him.
So, is this a horror novel, you might ask?
I think this is a thinking person's horror novel. It is a study of how the sins we commit cannot be hidden, even if we lie to ourselves about that. Interestingly enough, Mr. Wilde does not elaborate on what vile acts Dorian committed. We are left to our own expansive imaginations to surmise the bulk of what he'd done. Some people don't believe in such a thing as sin. If you don't believe in sin, how could it have a cost? It didn't matter that Dorian Gray didn't acknowledge his sins. They caught up with him in the end. The horror is how he confronted the consequences of his sins, yet turned away from them, locking that manifestation away in the attic to view with a detached sort of curiosity. The horror is the lives he destroyed, but never felt more than a moment's remorse. Fundamentally, Dorian Gray was an angelically beautiful monster. The horror is that we can look upon beauty, and we can be fooled into never asking what lies beneath it.
November 29, 2018
鈥榖ehind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.鈥�
and boy, this story was an exquisite tragedy. wilde admits that the books which the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. and this is one of the most immoral books i have ever read.
this is a story about the loss of innocence, of revelling in sin and debauchery, and everything in between. but its also an examination of the human soul, its struggle with vanity, and a life lived without any sort of accountability. and whilst dorian realised that physical beauty is finite, the beauty of this story is not.
the complex characters, multifaceted plot, relevant messages, and elegant writing are what make this a powerful and timeless masterpiece.
so i will take an immoral story over a moral one any day. because its the exquisite tragedies that prompt the best introspection and show us the most accurate picture of ourselves.
鈫� 4.5 stars
and boy, this story was an exquisite tragedy. wilde admits that the books which the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. and this is one of the most immoral books i have ever read.
this is a story about the loss of innocence, of revelling in sin and debauchery, and everything in between. but its also an examination of the human soul, its struggle with vanity, and a life lived without any sort of accountability. and whilst dorian realised that physical beauty is finite, the beauty of this story is not.
the complex characters, multifaceted plot, relevant messages, and elegant writing are what make this a powerful and timeless masterpiece.
so i will take an immoral story over a moral one any day. because its the exquisite tragedies that prompt the best introspection and show us the most accurate picture of ourselves.
鈫� 4.5 stars
March 31, 2022
just might fuck around and start channeling my inner dorian gray by flinging myself dramatically on the nearest sofa and bursting into tears
June 4, 2023
I could spend the rest of my life reading this book OVER AND OVER AGAIN and it wouldn't be enough 馃挃馃挃
August 12, 2020
鈥淪ome day, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly.鈥�
So, I wanted 2018 to be the year that I try to get back into classics! In the past, I鈥檝e found some of them daunting to read, or just too boring to ever feel invested in. But I feel like The Picture of Dorian Gray was the perfect start.
Beautiful art by
I originally was going to give this three stars, because I enjoyed it enough, but was never too invested. I felt annoyed at how these characters were so obviously not straight. I mean, a vast majority of this book is about Dorian taking a wife. Meanwhile, every man in this book just has full page monologues telling Dorian how beautiful he is. And then I sat down to do my review, and I started doing my research.
It鈥檚 no secret that Oscar Wilde was a gay man. Hell, he was even jailed for his sexuality, and died soon after from all the inhumane injuries he endured while in prison. All three major male character in this book read very鈥� not straight. My friend, Destiny, told me that a lot of readers in the Horror circles make strong arguments that Dorian is in fact pansexual, which makes me happier than I can express with words. Yet, I can鈥檛 help but think about parallels with this book that Wilde crafted about 鈥渟ecret sin鈥� and how it mirrored his life and perhaps his sexuality that he ultimately died for.
You guys, I have no words. In the 1880s people thought homosexuality was some disease, something to be cured, something not okay to simply just be. Something that was a criminal act. Something that Oscar Wilde was jailed and forced to do hard labor for. And once you start seeing the similarities between Wilde鈥檚 life and the events that take place in this book, you will realize that like The Picture of Dorian Gray is so much more important that the surface value of just reading this story.
Okay, I do suppose I should tell you about the story now. This is a tale that centers around three men that live in an upper-class London society:
鉃� Basil Hallward - Artist who befriends Dorian because he is obsessed with his beauty and lives his life painting many portraits of him, but more importantly, he paints the portrait that this story surrounds.
鉃� Lord Henry Wotton - Basil's friend, which is how he meets Dorian. Henry is a manipulator that heavily influences Dorian with his views about what is important in life.
鉃� Dorian Gray - Our main character, who starts out so young, innocent, and impressionable. He later is harboring a major secret and will stop at nothing to hide this secret and the events that lead him to this secret.
鈥淭here are only two kinds of people who are fascinating - people who know absolutely everything and people who know absolutely nothing.鈥�
In this book, the value of appearance is heavily touched upon. Youth and beauty seem to be everyone鈥檚 priority. It鈥檚 scary and sad how much this also mirrors 2018. There is also a huge discussion to be had about good versus evil and how we view that grey area in-between. Yet, these discussions are held in this seamlessly woven story.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and it was able to evoke a lot of emotion from me. More importantly, I recommend you all to read My dear friend Navessa鈥檚 review, which ended up evoking even more emotion from me. She linked this article, which then made me weep. Again, this story is so much more than a paranormal painting, and a man trying to hide secrets. This is a masterpiece and my heart will forever break thinking about this story.
Trigger/content warnings: death, murder, suicide, and a ton of misogynistic comments.
| | | | |
Buddy read with Dani! 鉂�
July 7, 2023
Forever young. I want to be forever young
Warning, contains spoilers and bad anti aging tips that might ruin one's complexion
Do you really want to live forever?
Well, together with all the others, why not? Besides faith, similar weird pro death ideologies, and stuff, nobody wouldn麓t like to live until whatever comes after this edition of the universe with the big freeze, rip, bang, or rebirth by a black hole. But it can also be quite
Lonesome on the immortality front
For instance, if all the others would still age while one stays young. From a sociopathic or dark empath perspective, this wouldn麓t seem that bad. One should probably camouflage oneself with makeup to seemingly age, to not let others get too suspicious regarding bathing in the blood of virgins that wasn麓t extracted by harmless and consensual blood donations, selling one's soul to the devil, and sacrificing humans to the flying spaghetti monster or whatever one is into fetishizing to get kinky style aroused. Without proper aging style, this could lead to
Envious people ruining a show that could go on for a very long time
If this would be the only front, it could be easy to handle. But of course, poor, weak ephemeral flesh embedded, human minds, souls, and other questionable and theoretical constructs, just can麓t handle the pressure of seeing the manifestations of one's true age in a not so flattering painting. Then paranoia and other mental issues kick in and the whole thing tends to go
Towards psychological gothic horror
That combines the fear of death, evil forces, psychiatric disorders, and some historical fun facts about the society of the Victorian era. The snobby elites with all the decadence and superficiality are contrasted with Dorian slowly drifting towards insanity. While the aging Dandys (seemingly every age has to have a hilarious hipster equivalence for people addicted to manifesting their narcissistic personality disorders with second hand embarrassment creating styles) keep pimping hard, poor Dorian gets more and more problems with
Handling his OCD tendency to take a short glimpse
That might be a breach of contract. And if already human lawyers are a pain in some body regions, imagine what a literally hellish contract may include. All in all, together it麓s one of the best classic novels of all time, combining social satire with dark elements and the big questions of life and death and thereby immortalizing the ingenuity of Oscar Wilde.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
Warning, contains spoilers and bad anti aging tips that might ruin one's complexion
Do you really want to live forever?
Well, together with all the others, why not? Besides faith, similar weird pro death ideologies, and stuff, nobody wouldn麓t like to live until whatever comes after this edition of the universe with the big freeze, rip, bang, or rebirth by a black hole. But it can also be quite
Lonesome on the immortality front
For instance, if all the others would still age while one stays young. From a sociopathic or dark empath perspective, this wouldn麓t seem that bad. One should probably camouflage oneself with makeup to seemingly age, to not let others get too suspicious regarding bathing in the blood of virgins that wasn麓t extracted by harmless and consensual blood donations, selling one's soul to the devil, and sacrificing humans to the flying spaghetti monster or whatever one is into fetishizing to get kinky style aroused. Without proper aging style, this could lead to
Envious people ruining a show that could go on for a very long time
If this would be the only front, it could be easy to handle. But of course, poor, weak ephemeral flesh embedded, human minds, souls, and other questionable and theoretical constructs, just can麓t handle the pressure of seeing the manifestations of one's true age in a not so flattering painting. Then paranoia and other mental issues kick in and the whole thing tends to go
Towards psychological gothic horror
That combines the fear of death, evil forces, psychiatric disorders, and some historical fun facts about the society of the Victorian era. The snobby elites with all the decadence and superficiality are contrasted with Dorian slowly drifting towards insanity. While the aging Dandys (seemingly every age has to have a hilarious hipster equivalence for people addicted to manifesting their narcissistic personality disorders with second hand embarrassment creating styles) keep pimping hard, poor Dorian gets more and more problems with
Handling his OCD tendency to take a short glimpse
That might be a breach of contract. And if already human lawyers are a pain in some body regions, imagine what a literally hellish contract may include. All in all, together it麓s one of the best classic novels of all time, combining social satire with dark elements and the big questions of life and death and thereby immortalizing the ingenuity of Oscar Wilde.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
January 12, 2013
I don't know what I was quite expecting here. It's a psychological horror story with a lot of comic relief, in the form of the endless witty paradoxes. After page 30 you are thinking that if Lord Henry makes just one more crack you're going to knock his monocle off his family crest and grind it underfoot. Oscar often clearly thinks he's being hilarious with his wit with a capital W 鈥� and maybe it's me, but Oscar Wilde often sounds like a parody of Oscar Wilde, like in the Monty Python sketch
WHISTLER: Your Majesty is like a stream of bat's piss.
(gasps)
THE PRINCE OF WALES: What?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's.
OSCAR WILDE: I, um, I, ah, I merely meant, Your Majesty, that, ah, you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
THE PRINCE OF WALES:
Oh, ho-ho, very good.
But of course, some of it is very good stuff :
The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces.
The fact was, one of her married daughters had come up quite suddenly to stay with her, and to make matters worse, had actually brought her husband.
One of those middle-aged mediocrities so common in London clubs who have no enemies but are thoroughly disliked by their friends.
But his character Lord Henry goes on and on with the wit and the aphorisms
She is a peacock in everything but beauty鈥he tried to found a salon and only succeeded in opening a restaurant鈥�. One can't stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.
And you get a lot of guff about women
No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
As for conversation, there are only five women in London worth talking to, and two of these can't be admitted into decent society.
(that last one reminds me of the weird quote from Captain Beefheart 鈥� "There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers". Oh, how rude of me 鈥� Oscar, allow me to introduce Captain Beefheart.
Captain Beefheart, may I present Mr Oscar Wilde 鈥� I believe you may have heard the name.
)
Then there's the necessarily undeclared but pretty open gayness. How the two older men worship this young Adonis Dorian 鈥� they openly salivate! - and how he reciprocates too. He says to Lord Henry 30 minutes after meeting him :
I feel I must come with you. Do let me. And you will promise to talk to me all the time? No one talks so wonderfully as you do.
What a flirt. I don't think boys talk to each other like this anymore. They're a little more discreet these days.
So as the story saunters along, and at a couple of points you think there never will be a story, the banter and the brittle conversations die away and Dorian, his portrait miraculously ageing instead of him, realises he can "sin" without consequence. He turns into a vicious voluptuary, a promiscuous profligate, an effulgent epicurean and a licentious libertine. In time the word gets round, and society reacts with the strongest possible disapproval :
He was very nearly blackballed at a West End club鈥� and it was said that on one occasion when he was brought by a friend into the smoking-room of the Churchill, the Duke of Berwick and another gentleman got up in a marked manner and went out.
That would cut a fellow to the very quick, though, wouldn't it. What would be the modern equivalent? There isn't one.
Both Dorian and the novel turn strange. You might think that the life of a young handsome sensualist would consist of orgies and opium, roofies and deflorations, and maybe a black mass thrown in for kicks, with goats and orphans, but you would be wrong. Dorian plunges into a life of strange obsessions 鈥� for ten pages we get elaborate lists of a) perfumes, b) jewels, c) tapestries, and d) world music 鈥� yes, that came as a surprise to me too :
He used to give curious concerts in which mad gypsies tore wild music from little zithers or grave yellow-shawled Tunisians plucked at the strained strings of monstrous lutes
So WOMAD then.
Dorian collects instruments like the furuparis, human bone flutes, sonorous green jaspers, the clarin, the teponazali, some yotl-bells and a Stratocaster made from the skulls of Tibetan lamas. No, I made up the last one. But this is a real quote : "he had a special passion, also, for ecclesiastical vestments". I was kind of disappointed. Is this really debauchery? I don't think Ozzy Osbourne would recognise it as such.
With the change of gear in the book, we find that Oscar can come out with some quite extraordinary sentences. Here is a favourite :
There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie.
Oscar's solitary novel is a gothic tale of a man who came to think that he could commit sin without consequence. And he couldn't. It's either curiously conservative 鈥� God will smite you down, there's no escape, and nor should there be 鈥� or it's a coded message of revolution : the idle rich have got it coming to them. I think Oscar became a convert to some form of socialism round about the time he wrote his novel, so I'm going with the latter interpretation. It suits me. I think there are fifty shades of Dorian Gray even now cashing in their half million dollar bonuses and thinking that they'll be young and invulnerable forever. But vengeance will come like a thief in the night.
WHISTLER: Your Majesty is like a stream of bat's piss.
(gasps)
THE PRINCE OF WALES: What?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's.
OSCAR WILDE: I, um, I, ah, I merely meant, Your Majesty, that, ah, you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
THE PRINCE OF WALES:
Oh, ho-ho, very good.
But of course, some of it is very good stuff :
The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces.
The fact was, one of her married daughters had come up quite suddenly to stay with her, and to make matters worse, had actually brought her husband.
One of those middle-aged mediocrities so common in London clubs who have no enemies but are thoroughly disliked by their friends.
But his character Lord Henry goes on and on with the wit and the aphorisms
She is a peacock in everything but beauty鈥he tried to found a salon and only succeeded in opening a restaurant鈥�. One can't stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.
And you get a lot of guff about women
No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
As for conversation, there are only five women in London worth talking to, and two of these can't be admitted into decent society.
(that last one reminds me of the weird quote from Captain Beefheart 鈥� "There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers". Oh, how rude of me 鈥� Oscar, allow me to introduce Captain Beefheart.
Captain Beefheart, may I present Mr Oscar Wilde 鈥� I believe you may have heard the name.
)Then there's the necessarily undeclared but pretty open gayness. How the two older men worship this young Adonis Dorian 鈥� they openly salivate! - and how he reciprocates too. He says to Lord Henry 30 minutes after meeting him :
I feel I must come with you. Do let me. And you will promise to talk to me all the time? No one talks so wonderfully as you do.
What a flirt. I don't think boys talk to each other like this anymore. They're a little more discreet these days.
So as the story saunters along, and at a couple of points you think there never will be a story, the banter and the brittle conversations die away and Dorian, his portrait miraculously ageing instead of him, realises he can "sin" without consequence. He turns into a vicious voluptuary, a promiscuous profligate, an effulgent epicurean and a licentious libertine. In time the word gets round, and society reacts with the strongest possible disapproval :
He was very nearly blackballed at a West End club鈥� and it was said that on one occasion when he was brought by a friend into the smoking-room of the Churchill, the Duke of Berwick and another gentleman got up in a marked manner and went out.
That would cut a fellow to the very quick, though, wouldn't it. What would be the modern equivalent? There isn't one.
Both Dorian and the novel turn strange. You might think that the life of a young handsome sensualist would consist of orgies and opium, roofies and deflorations, and maybe a black mass thrown in for kicks, with goats and orphans, but you would be wrong. Dorian plunges into a life of strange obsessions 鈥� for ten pages we get elaborate lists of a) perfumes, b) jewels, c) tapestries, and d) world music 鈥� yes, that came as a surprise to me too :
He used to give curious concerts in which mad gypsies tore wild music from little zithers or grave yellow-shawled Tunisians plucked at the strained strings of monstrous lutes
So WOMAD then.
Dorian collects instruments like the furuparis, human bone flutes, sonorous green jaspers, the clarin, the teponazali, some yotl-bells and a Stratocaster made from the skulls of Tibetan lamas. No, I made up the last one. But this is a real quote : "he had a special passion, also, for ecclesiastical vestments". I was kind of disappointed. Is this really debauchery? I don't think Ozzy Osbourne would recognise it as such.
With the change of gear in the book, we find that Oscar can come out with some quite extraordinary sentences. Here is a favourite :
There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie.
Oscar's solitary novel is a gothic tale of a man who came to think that he could commit sin without consequence. And he couldn't. It's either curiously conservative 鈥� God will smite you down, there's no escape, and nor should there be 鈥� or it's a coded message of revolution : the idle rich have got it coming to them. I think Oscar became a convert to some form of socialism round about the time he wrote his novel, so I'm going with the latter interpretation. It suits me. I think there are fifty shades of Dorian Gray even now cashing in their half million dollar bonuses and thinking that they'll be young and invulnerable forever. But vengeance will come like a thief in the night.
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