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alice94's review against another edition
2.0
There was a lot of build up in the story together with the thriller and the mystery around the murder of Dorian Gray or rather caused by Dorian Gray (I'm sorry if you believe this is a spoiler but this is just a minor aspect of the story).
It was written in older English and the story had a lot of lose endings. I personally did not like the story until the end, mainly because it wasn't until the end that you realise that the story is written with a lot of psychological background and leaves you analysing yourself.
It was written in older English and the story had a lot of lose endings. I personally did not like the story until the end, mainly because it wasn't until the end that you realise that the story is written with a lot of psychological background and leaves you analysing yourself.
goodbyeisabella's review against another edition
i’m sorry but i just actually could not get into this book. i would read a chapter, take a break to do something, then go back to it and have literally no memory of what happened before. i’m not invested in this story or these characters. i feel like im just wasting time on something that i’m not gonna enjoy
annboooksss02's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mariyavd's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
biolexicon's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve come across this book at the right time. (So get ready for a long review)
I remember reading The Importance of Being Earnest in high school and being put off by Wilde’s style. At the time it seemed to me to be stilted and unnatural. I didn’t care for how endlessly quippy the dialogue was and how it made each character feel indistinguishable. Nobody seemed to really believe what they’re saying and they seemed to be only superficially interested in anything. The lack of authenticity drove me away from reading anything else by Wilde.
Time has passed and it’s been long enough for me to pick up The Picture of Dorian Gray and give Wilde a second go. All of my impressions from my first encounter with Wilde still hold true this time around, but now I appreciate the elements that initially drove me away.
Currently, I spend most of my day in an office. Office culture is stilted, unnatural, and filled with quotable snippets that replace actual authentic dialogue (“Happy hump day!”). It’s easy to pile negativity onto corporate office culture, because to some degree it’s low hanging fruit. But the sanitized, inauthentic environment can be a great comfort. When your “authentic” life is filled with a lot of unknowns and a lot of stress, the thought of being asked “how are you?” and replying authentically is exhausting. I wouldn’t even know where to start. But office culture gives me an easy answer, I can reply “Great! How are you?” and then move on with my life. Additionally, I’m only required to be superficially interested in anything around me. In my office, if I choose to invest more deeply in an issue or person, I am making that choice and not automatically forced into it. To be able to choose allows me to consciously spend my emotional reserves rather than having them automatically depleted by default every day.
As I was reading, I was struck by a lot of similarities between my office experience and the experience the book presents. Both are stilted, unnatural, and littered with quotable snippets. Both can be (and have been by me) dismissed as superficial and not worth investigating or sinking time into. But I don’t think the time in my office or the book can be written off like that. After giving the book room for investigation, I found an insightful story of lessons learned in the character’s public lives. The book leaves out the character’s inner lives and puts the focus on the character’s public and relational selves. All of us have inner lives and public lives, and beauty can exist in either space independent of one another. This story is about public beauty and the stock we place in it.
From someone who has historically been more focused on inner life beauty, it’s easy to pooh-pooh the importance people can place in public beauty. But how much of my focus on inner beauty stems from my personality alone, making it solely lucky that I focus on the beauty that is more resistant to fading? How much of that is due to my beauty stock being more inward than outward? How much comes from my livelihood and relationships being independent of any changes in outward beauty? With this in mind, thinking about Dorian’s gift of awe-inspiring outward beauty and his knowledge that it will fade, the crisis becomes understandable. If I thought my inner beauty assets (kindness, thoughtfulness, etc.) would fade, I would be desperate too. Through dementia or the trials life can present, maybe they will. How much of me would I feel would be left if my beauty faded? Probably very little. Maybe I’d make the same desperate decision that Dorian makes to preserve the beauty that I have.
His decision comes with a cost and leads to a tragic end in a very public fashion. His outer beauty was an asset he thought he could control, but it proved too unwieldy. I believe that there are parts of Dorian outside of his beauty that were sacrificed in his pursuit. The novel’s focus on public beauty alone leaves me wondering what parts of Dorian’s true self were pushed aside (and eventually destroyed) by his relentless quest for perpetual beauty. What did we as readers not get to experience due to Dorian’s single-mindedness? The exclusive focus on one kind of beauty makes me wonder if I’m doing the same. I turn 30 in a few months and it’s time to reflect on the role public beauty plays in my life as I start to acutely experience the fade.
I remember reading The Importance of Being Earnest in high school and being put off by Wilde’s style. At the time it seemed to me to be stilted and unnatural. I didn’t care for how endlessly quippy the dialogue was and how it made each character feel indistinguishable. Nobody seemed to really believe what they’re saying and they seemed to be only superficially interested in anything. The lack of authenticity drove me away from reading anything else by Wilde.
Time has passed and it’s been long enough for me to pick up The Picture of Dorian Gray and give Wilde a second go. All of my impressions from my first encounter with Wilde still hold true this time around, but now I appreciate the elements that initially drove me away.
Currently, I spend most of my day in an office. Office culture is stilted, unnatural, and filled with quotable snippets that replace actual authentic dialogue (“Happy hump day!”). It’s easy to pile negativity onto corporate office culture, because to some degree it’s low hanging fruit. But the sanitized, inauthentic environment can be a great comfort. When your “authentic” life is filled with a lot of unknowns and a lot of stress, the thought of being asked “how are you?” and replying authentically is exhausting. I wouldn’t even know where to start. But office culture gives me an easy answer, I can reply “Great! How are you?” and then move on with my life. Additionally, I’m only required to be superficially interested in anything around me. In my office, if I choose to invest more deeply in an issue or person, I am making that choice and not automatically forced into it. To be able to choose allows me to consciously spend my emotional reserves rather than having them automatically depleted by default every day.
As I was reading, I was struck by a lot of similarities between my office experience and the experience the book presents. Both are stilted, unnatural, and littered with quotable snippets. Both can be (and have been by me) dismissed as superficial and not worth investigating or sinking time into. But I don’t think the time in my office or the book can be written off like that. After giving the book room for investigation, I found an insightful story of lessons learned in the character’s public lives. The book leaves out the character’s inner lives and puts the focus on the character’s public and relational selves. All of us have inner lives and public lives, and beauty can exist in either space independent of one another. This story is about public beauty and the stock we place in it.
From someone who has historically been more focused on inner life beauty, it’s easy to pooh-pooh the importance people can place in public beauty. But how much of my focus on inner beauty stems from my personality alone, making it solely lucky that I focus on the beauty that is more resistant to fading? How much of that is due to my beauty stock being more inward than outward? How much comes from my livelihood and relationships being independent of any changes in outward beauty? With this in mind, thinking about Dorian’s gift of awe-inspiring outward beauty and his knowledge that it will fade, the crisis becomes understandable. If I thought my inner beauty assets (kindness, thoughtfulness, etc.) would fade, I would be desperate too. Through dementia or the trials life can present, maybe they will. How much of me would I feel would be left if my beauty faded? Probably very little. Maybe I’d make the same desperate decision that Dorian makes to preserve the beauty that I have.
His decision comes with a cost and leads to a tragic end in a very public fashion. His outer beauty was an asset he thought he could control, but it proved too unwieldy. I believe that there are parts of Dorian outside of his beauty that were sacrificed in his pursuit. The novel’s focus on public beauty alone leaves me wondering what parts of Dorian’s true self were pushed aside (and eventually destroyed) by his relentless quest for perpetual beauty. What did we as readers not get to experience due to Dorian’s single-mindedness? The exclusive focus on one kind of beauty makes me wonder if I’m doing the same. I turn 30 in a few months and it’s time to reflect on the role public beauty plays in my life as I start to acutely experience the fade.
boredguy's review against another edition
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
amechanuwu's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Idk. Got bored
youk0101's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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