Reviews

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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idaabjornsson's review against another edition

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reflective 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? It's complicated

3.5

jovanas_cloud's review against another edition

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3.0

Before reading the book I was very optimistic and I thought this book would be the best book out of my exam batch. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I found the beginning and the characters very unlikable, Basil seemed too obsessed with Dorian, Lord Henry just appeared like he hated everyone in his life except Dorian because he was new and he found a new experiment in him. I didn't really agree with philosophies Lord Henry had to offer since he was really misogynistic and had this weird way of thinking, original but extremely messed up.

The structure of the book is very choppy, but it's understandable since it was released in newspapers per chapter. The story also went too fast, I did not mind the timeskips, I actually liked them, but the pacing was extremely fast. I'd rather Wilde took some time and had some fillers in between chapters to maybe slow down the pace and also make the book less choppy.

The way pacing was too fast in sense where Sybil and Dorian love story lasts maybe three chapters

Spoiler

until he realizes he only liked her acting and not her and insults her to that point she later kills herself that same night. He was perhaps too cruel to her considering she was younger than him. So to go back to pacing, he falls in love with her when he first sees her acting, and maybe a week later they're already both in love, kissing in the ally and engaged?

The ending too seems extremely rushed. It was obvious something major was about to happen in the last two chapters but that was an awesome time to make more drama and problems and not just end it so suddenly. I must admit I felt really sorry for Dorian Gray because if he had listened to Basil his life wouldn't have ended up the way it did. It's obvious that Basil and Harry play the role of angel and devil of his judgement, personality and life course.

Now this is not necessarily important, but since it's for my exam I must mention it. As it's visible for the tags it's supposed to have LGBT topics or characters and I was really trying to see what was happening but maybe I simply missed it or it wasn't present in this edition. At first I thought Basil had feelings for Dorian since he was so obsessed with him, then I thought it was Lord Henry that liked Dorian, then Dorian for Lord Henry, and in the end that Alan Campbell liked Dorian. However, I didn't see anything that could be regarded as LGBT in any of their relationships. Basil was inspired by Dorian because he had a fresh new boyish looks, Harry liked him because he was his new experiment, Dorian seemed to just look up to Harry and Alan seemed like to baddie besties.

Overall, I somewhat enjoyed the book, especially reading all those Lord Henry's sayings and philosophies but I would've preferred if the book was developed more, in terms of slowing down the pace and adding more filler chapters.