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

4/5 ⭐️

Oscar Wilde is wild and blatantly gay for writing this. The homoerotic undertones were severe and despite its vagueness, it’s honestly a wonder how this ever got published in 1890 with how obviously gay it is.

Is it bad to say I almost hated every character in this book, and yet still really enjoyed it? No? Okay.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a fascinating examination of vanity, greed, and all those things that just make you hate people. The prose is mystical and keeps that feel about it that most gothic novels have, which I’ve learned is difficult to read more than a paragraph of when you’re running on four hours of sleep and the sheer force of will.

I could hardly put this book down despite finding it a difficult to read, which says a lot on how gripping and compelling it is. If I put it down for a second it was all I could think about and so I had to pick it back up. Oscar Wilde has wormed his way into my brain and will probably stay there for a solid while.

A lot of the discussions about aestheticism and philosophy do come off as a little preachy (especially bc Henry Wotton can’t help but spew a paragraph about how lovely youth is and other shit every two pages), and there is sexist and misogynistic commentary, but overall it is thought provoking and intriguing.

Oh, Dorian. Poor Dorian. You dumb, dumb boy.

Content Warnings

schivakumaran's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

Exquisite work. Very thought provoking on morality, religion, cynicism, the decay of rich people when they have all the choice and options in world yet chose to be depraved. Very sordid tale of what only living for your own pleasure can do you. It's almost introspective where I think every human would think what would I do if there was no consequence.

Content Warnings

drmblu's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

woahnelly's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

This used to be a 5* baby for me, but alas upon reading it the second time, I found a lot of it rather annoying. Well, more specifically, Lord Henry is an absolute knob and I find his paradoxical manner totally tosh - I know it's the point of his character though (to consistently utter sayings that sound meaningful, but in actual fact, are bloomin' balderdash). Wilde was a fan of aestheticism, and hence this character has reason for being in the novel, for the mere fact he has no reason at all (oh, would you look at that - I'm being a paradoxical piece of poop) - the novel doesn't intend to be moral, or immoral, or serve any purpose other than to exist as art, and certainly the poeticism and lyricism of the contents solidify it as such, but pfft it still grinds my gears! Anyways, I do recommend this and it is enjoyable - you've just got to put up with some complete trashtalk and middle-class poppycock. Wilde is undoubtedly a talented author, though (or "was", rather... RIP), and is quite probably one of my favourites - I think I've just grown more critical in my old age, but yeah, give it a go!
p.s. don't get me wrong, this book still slaps and touches on some very interesting and *mysterious* (ooo) topics of the Victorian era. Now that I think of it, I might've been a tad harsh
Oh....but if I remember rightly, there was some casual antisemitism in there so pfft suck it!
(Actually I've revised my review overall, boosting it from a 3.75 becauseeee I can't get it out of my mind - it's quite profound in its nothingness, but its being simply art).

Content Warnings

century's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

ambdocksey22's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.5

The only reason I am not giving this book 5 stars is because of the racially insensitive language throughout the book. I understand the time that it was written but I hated reading through every passage that contained a slur or some kind of racial hatred.

Content Warnings

fujo_cat's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad 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

4.25

Aaah, que livro bom!! Faz tempo que um clássico me satisfaz tanto, mas foi uma leitura extremamente interessante. Claro que houve certos capítulos mais aborrecidos e em certos momentos a leitura parecia mais difícil de avançar (leia-se: o ritmo era mais lento) mas, no geral, eu gostei muito c:
O final não me surpreendeu mas não deixou de ser satisfatório! 👀

Content Warnings

karen_1's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

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