Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Picture of Dorian Gray

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

46 reviews

seawarrior's review against another edition

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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premansh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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maddy_s's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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li_reading's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-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

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bestnarryever'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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

RATING: 4.5 (but also 5! why not? this book is a gem)

I read this book reading the two versions in parallel. First, I read the uncensored, then I read the "censored", which I would call “revised version”: AND I RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE DOES THIS!!

This is one of the best classics I've ever read, one of the most timeless classics, the discussion is still extremely up to date without being moralistic, which is impeccable. Oscar Wilde is also one of the best writers I've come across, with beautiful phrases (seriously, I used so many post it flags), paradoxes that make perfect sense and many painful truths that you accept because they are true. For those afraid to read classics: this book is a great starting point, the writing is simple, even though the book is from the 19th century.

ABOUT THE SPECIFIC VERSIONS
(There are no spoilers, but there are detailed comments, if you want to read the book 100% without knowing what's going on, the review ends here)

About the uncensored version: this was my favorite version, but not because there is content that has been deleted, but precisely because there is hidden content, which make this version better by not displaying everything firsthand. Oscar doesn’t direct your thoughts to a place, turning the protagonist into a victim of his time, which I think is exactly what happens when we discuss the subject of beauty.

Still, the character seems to regret it much faster, and the structure makes more sense, because we follow Dorian all the time. My only complaint, which can be overlooked, meaning it doesn't affect the quality of the book, is that I got lost a lot with the passage of time, but this may have been intentional because the character doesn't age. The rhythm is awkward, accumulating the best happenings at the end, but acceptable as it seems to reinforce Dorian's superficiality in a theatrical structure.

About the censored version: I would call this version revised because it only adds text and rewrites three sentences throughout the book.

This version has a change of point of view, which seems undocked (literally the only chapter of the censored version that could be erased). There is a more frequent presence of the character Harry, making Dorian look even more influenced, as the author intended.

However, Dorian also appears to be meaner in this version,

because there are more events that make him demonstrate his true nature. The “victim of his time” completely fades, and

some things seem to happen for much more superficial reasons.
I liked it, but I think not as much as the first one.

One of the best books of the year, wow!

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sherbertwells's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

“You and I are what we are, and will be what we will be. As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that…the books that the world calls immoral are books that snow the world its own shame” (206)

Only in a hypochondriac society could an “unclean” book like The Picture of Dorian Gray flourish. To middle-class Britons, the end of the century looked like the end of the world: the urban poor huddled in filthy slums, while the rich marinated in a hell of staunch nationalism and French perfume. Foreigners streamed in from every corner of the globe, while Her Majesty’s African and Asian subjects conspired to bite the hand that fed them. War loomed on every horizon.

In bookstores and magazines, tales of invasion and corruption began to appear alongside moralizing sermons and adventure stories. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shocked readers by presenting an upstanding doctor with a horrible dark side. Bram Stoker’s 1897 story Dracula revived Old World fears of parasitic aristocrats and repressed sexuality.

And just when things couldn’t get any worse, a poisonous novel appeared in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. The story was pure filth, declared critics. It was decadent! It flirted with unspeakable sins!

But The Picture of Dorian Gray demanded the public eye.

The worst fears of the Victorian Era—the poor, the rich, the French, and most of all the English —come alive in Oscar Wilde’s fin-de-siecle classic. But the title character, a callow dandy who descends into sin and depravity, is not the monster of his age. He is its apotheosis.

“The wonderful beauty that had so fascinated Basil Hallward, and many others besides him seemed never to leave [Dorian]. Even those who had heard the most evil things against him, and from time to time strange rumors about his mode of life crept through London and became the chatter of the clubs, could not believe anything to his dishonour when they saw him. He had the look of one who had kept himself unspotted from the world” (124)

He begins as an innocent, “a brainless, beautiful creature,” but soon falls under the poisonous influence of Lord Henry Wotton (7). He becomes a charmer, an imperialist, an addict and even a murderer. He apes France and steals from India. And once he has amassed his fortune, he begins to believe that his downfall is just around the corner. In short, he is the very essence of Late Victorian England.

But the characters that surround him also deserve analysis. Basil Hallward in particular is a lot more than meets the eye. Since I had absorbed the plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray long before picking up the book—it’s required reading this week for my online GSA—I thought I knew what to expect from the painter. Wasn’t he the fan favorite, the archetypical Victorian queer martyred for ‘the love that dare not speak its name?’

Yes and no. While it’s true that Hallward suffers in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he is also a full and rounded character. He has a career as an artist, filled with highs and lows that Gray, shallow as he is, declines to witness. He also maintains a very interesting friendship with Lord Henry, his philosophical rival. It’s not clear that these characters have much in common, aside from liking art, going to Oxford around the same time and being less-than-straight. In another story, they would be at each others’ throats. My hypothesis is that Lord Henry serves as Hallward’s confidant, and if the painter were to drop him like the dead weight he is, Hallward would be left utterly alone.

But Basil Hallward is just one aspect of a fascinating and colorful classic. The Picture of Dorian Gray is not just a queer story, nor is it merely an examination of a paranoid era. My own analysis of the book is probably just a reflection of my modern sensibilities. It will be a million different things to a million different readers. I suggest picking up the story and reading it yourself: who knows what you will discover between its pages?

“All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril” (4)

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