Reviews

“𝑨𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕. 𝑨𝒓𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒊𝒏ﬂ𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒖𝒑𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑰𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒕. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒆.”

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌. 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏, 𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍.”

“ ‘𝑫𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆.’
‘𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒓𝒕?’ 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅.
‘𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒚.’
‘𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆?’
‘𝑨𝒏 𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏.’
‘𝑹𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏?’
‘𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒇.’
‘𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒄.’
‘𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓! 𝑺𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝑭𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉.’ ‘𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖?’
‘𝑻𝒐 𝒅𝒆ﬁ𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕.’
‘𝑮𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒆.’
‘𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒔𝒏𝒂𝒑. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒉.’ ”

The book revolves around Dorian Gray and his 2 friends: Basil Hallward and Lord Henry.All 3 characters in a way are opposite to each other, Dorian is innocent but vulnerable and finally succumbs to the influence of evil, Basil is morally upright and Lord Henry is morally corrupt. There is an intresting dynamic between all 3 of them. Although most of people consider the relationship b/w Basil and Dorian as homoerectic however i find Dorian's and Lord Henry's relationship more on that side.
The book in a way reminded me of The Fall by Albert Camus. It's quite similar how the Dorian gray's characters falls down from the path of morality amd succumbs to immoral ways.

Quotes i liked:

✧“When I like people immensely I never tell their
names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them.”

✧“But beauty, real beauty,
ends where an intellectual expression begins.”

✧“I had a strange feeling that Fate had in store for me exquisite
joys and exquisite sorrows.”

✧“I like persons
better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than
anything else in the world.”

✧“You might see nothing in him. I see
everything in him.”

✧“Those who are
faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know
love’s tragedies.”

✧“There is no such thing as a good inﬂuence, Mr Gray. All inﬂuence
is immoral – immoral from the scientiﬁc point of view.”

✧“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic”

✧“You will always be loved, and you will
always be in love with love.”

✧“My dear boy, the people who love only once in their lives are really
the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their ﬁdelity, I
call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination.”

✧“When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and
one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a
romance.”

✧“To have ruined one’s self over poetry is an honour”

✧“I want
to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear
our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their
dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.”

✧“Yes, Dorian, you will
always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never
had the courage to commit.”

✧“To become the spectator of one’s own life, as Harry says, is to
escape the suffering of life.”

✧“He grew more and more
enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the
corruption of his own soul”

✧“I worshipped you too much. I am
punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both
punished.”

✧“Each man lived his own life, and
paid his own price for living it. The only pity was one had to pay so
often for a single fault.”

✧“That a burnt child loves the ﬁre.”

✧“Actual life was chaos, but there was something terribly logical in the
imagination.”

✧“All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime.”

✧“The 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. ”