Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Il ritratto di Dorian Gray

It was great to witness Dorian's descent into madness. Boy, he went from innocent, pure and youthful to batshit evil and horrendous.

Now, did I enjoy reading it? Absolutely not - I cannot bear witnessing characters make foolish decisions, or worse, entice others to be foolish (I am looking at you,
Henry, you vile ENTP and misogynist
) - but that also was not the point of this novel at all. In fact,

Dorian

was meant to be a fool. We as readers, I dare say, were meant to witness the consequences, and/or lack thereof, of ignorance, abuse of power (or beauty, or "pretty privilege") and the absence of utterly needed reflection.

"There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful."

Dorian became hideous, and was unwilling to

atone for his crimes and sins, even until his end

. Unfortunately, Dorian chose to turn a blind eye towards

his actions and his overall behaviour

. Instead, he attempted to

escape and indulge in pleasantries and addiction, even hyper-fixation

simply to forget, until he was forced to remember all of it again.

I find this classic to be very marvellous, written with great attention to detail and prose. Maybe a little long-winding and challenging for some. Still, Oscar Wilde, what an astounding piece of art you have written! With that being said, what better way is there than to close it off with a quote of his on art itself?

"We can forgice a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless."

Content Warnings

marianasreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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

3.5

Content Warnings

luseaj's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense 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

5.0

First book of the year </3 reread but a total banger,hopefully the essag that i turned in for it gets a good grade

Content Warnings

olive_lol's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

3.5

Content Warnings

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0

DISCLAIMER - I read this text as a set text for university meaning I did not pick this up for myself. It does not necessarily fit my usual reading selection so my review may be rather biased.

Really poetic and interesting reflection. Got a little slow towards the middle but picked up again and was a dark but good read.

Content Warnings

bookishmagpie's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

Content Warnings

cognitivebelligerence's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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

5.0

Content Warnings

heisiiri's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

5.0

A classic that fully deserves its status as such. This is the sort of book I could write fifteen essays on, but I struggle to put my thoughts into one simple review. So let's go with this: I would recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray to almost anyone. It isn't the sort of book that will have you entertained every single moment - some of the long conversations and narrations get quite tedious, in fact - but the richness of its themes and symbolism easily earn it the full five stars. The downfall and corruption of the protagonist is fascinating to follow. You could analyze this book through a hundred different lenses and still find new, fascinating things about it.

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