Reviews with content warning for Addiction - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Eu li mais pelo valor de estudo das ideias do livro e não pelo entretenimento. Isso porque eu sabia que a história mais cedo ou mais tarde ia me cansar e a chance ia ser que eu morresse na praia com esse. De qualquer jeito, eu amo esse livro e acho ele muito interessante, vejo um tiquinho da vontade de qualquer pessoa de ser muito má e egoísta se concretizar nele e é o bastante pra fazer ela passar. O dorian nunca soube quem era e aceitou ser qualquer um pra ser importante, o Henry dizia muito e fazia pouco, um covarde completo e o Basil, que homem de vida triste. Três exemplos de otarios mas eu gosto deles até uma certa medida.

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soupsswagreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

While some passages in this book were terribly dull to me, Wilde's dazzling language and audacious characters kept drawing my interest back in. I'm fortunate to have just read the works of a few of the philosophers referenced in this book for college, though I'm sure there were several references to other works of literature and ethics systems that went over my head. The edition of the book I had access to did not provide citations of other works Wilde referenced, but I imagine one that did would have only made my reading experience richer.

I'm sure that most of what I can say about this book in regards to its philosophy and history has already been said by someone more knowledgeable that me, so I won't go into my thoughts on those matters. As a horror story I think it still holds up well in the modern day. Dorian's descent into soullessness grows more chilling by the chapter, as his sins culminate and lead to his ultimate end. Wilde's wit and descriptive language made the scenery and characters come alive, and as the book went on I felt it less challenging to make sense of his dense paragraphs and philosophies. I would recommend this book to other readers. It remains a classic not only for Wilde's adept writing, but the controversy it caused at the time of publication.

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konstantina's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was definitely something different than what I expected before reading it. Although I understand how controversial it was for its time, and I enjoy the criticism of the author towards the British society and higher class, the endless misogyny -especially of the 10 first chapters- made it irritating to read. Once the story starts moving faster into Dorian's sins, it becomes more interesting. The ending was definitely poetic, but, overall, I expected more than I got from this book.

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simixfe's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful we quiver before it.

The quote is not from "The picture of Dorian Gray" but from "The secret history" but it fits regardless.
Anyways, Oscar Wilde and his characters have an interesting perspective on art and life and I enjoyed seeing things from a different perspective. The writing was beautiful, the plot haunting.
I love that the book is categorised as LGBTQ+ and I think Wilde would be even more excited!

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