Reviews - Slika Dorijana Greja

41.4k reviews for:

Slika Dorijana Greja

Oscar Wilde

4.07 AVERAGE

viviantrch's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

graceheller's review against another edition

Soooo trippy to read this while literally working backstage at The Importance of Being Earnest. I'm not saying he's not allowed to do this, but Oscar Wilde really do be out here recycling material left and right. I do think I would have struggled much more with the language and content if I had not already been 2 months deep into an Oscar Wilde crash course. I fear classic novels lack the amount of plot I tend to desire in a reading experience. Still, there's no doubt that Wilde is masterful with language and possessed a certain fearlessness in his writing that is to be admired.

finiank's review against another edition

5.0

This is a classic. I doubt that there is much, if anything, that I could say about this book that hasn’t been said already. It is an unsettling tale of a young man’s moral decline, full of Wilde’s signature wit.

adoswex's review against another edition

4.75

fast-paced

laulau__land's review against another edition

4.0

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

I love Oscar Wilde's witty writing.

astarions_bhaal_babe's review against another edition

3.0

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.

As I recently said in my latest status update, I decided to save my tbr books for 2021 and read mostly classics till the end of the year, starting with this one. Don't really know what came up to me, I just felt like giving classics a chance after receiving a copy of Jane Eyre from my mom as an early Christmas gift.

quick disclaimer
I don't think I'll be able to properly review classics, since when I write reviews, I mostly tend to write about how the book made me feel and what I liked/disliked about it, rather than presenting a full-on analysis about whatever the book and its origins/message mean, but I guess I'll try to apply my method to this and the books that will follow this one.
I also would like to clarify that I obviously recognize a significant amount of books we call classics are considered problematic when seen through a modern standard lens, and while I won't find myself endorsing the message these problematic themes seem to otherwise glorify or consider conventional to their time period, I won't let them spoil my objective judgement of the entire work, either.

Said, this, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a great book that makes you regret ever looking at yourself into a mirror and seeing only flaws. It clearly fights the events narrated by pushing the reader into disagreeing with every single behavior, choice and line of thought the characters (Dorian and Lord Henry, in particular) seem to partake in. It's like a reverse moral guide where you just gotta contradict each line of the content in order to do what's right.
It seems to say: see this? see what this narcissistic binch and his devil of a friend are doing? yeah, the complete opposite.

This wasn't just my first time in a very long time reading something not fantasy, mystery, or at least written in the last 15 year. It was also my first time reading Oscar Wilde.
I was completely captivated and love how contemporary some of the quotes I found are. I read a few out loud to my boyfriend because I was so pleasantly surprised that I couldn't not share, and he agreed that you could apply most of them to 21th century as well.
Talk about relatable, am I right?
The only thing I didn't completely felt enthralled by is how redundant the story was. I must say, though, that when I read books, the plot is one of the most important parts for me and I'm not really fond of character-driven novels, so it's probably my fault this didn't satisfy me completely.

Anyway, I completely loathed every single one of the characters and totally adored the writing, and this must mean it was an ac dycce.
As for the rest, I feel like it doesn'd hold back on self-critics, and that perfect ending made it all even more impactful.
I think it's clear what the author wanted to do with the outcome and what kind of open to interpretation yet somehow specific message it should leave its readers with.
I, for one, am more than ever going to appreciate every line and every crease my body isn't capable of hiding, and allow myself time and space to make mistakes.

Oh, and you also bet your sweet bippy, I won't let anyone paint a picture of me anytime soon.