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A review by hazelgrace2411
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I think I read the book at the wrong time. I thought this was going to be my favorite and I hope I will love it more when I try reading it again in the future. This book is a great piece of literature and should be read like one. I read it wrong I know. I hope I can appreciate it as it deserves.
My Favorite Quotes~
'Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.' (pg 37)
'Most people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined one's self over poetry is an honour.' (pg 52-53)
'I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.' (pg 54)
'As it was, we always misunderstood ourselves, and rarely understood others.' (pg 57)
'When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.' (pg 76)
'There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.' (pg 82-83)
'There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.' (pg 94)
'The one charm of the past is that it is the past.' (pg 99)
'Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of the necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness for our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colours, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive, at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the remembrance even of joy having its bitterness and the memories of pleasure their pain.' (pg 127)
'When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck, men risk theirs.' (pg 170)
'Life is a great disappointment.' (pg 171)
'In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded.' (pg 191)
'Their strong passions must either bruise or bend. They either slay the man, or themselves die. Shallow sorrows and shallow loves live on. The loves and sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plenitude.' (pg 192)
My Favorite Quotes~
'Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.' (pg 37)
'Most people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined one's self over poetry is an honour.' (pg 52-53)
'I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.' (pg 54)
'As it was, we always misunderstood ourselves, and rarely understood others.' (pg 57)
'When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.' (pg 76)
'There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.' (pg 82-83)
'There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.' (pg 94)
'The one charm of the past is that it is the past.' (pg 99)
'Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of the necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness for our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colours, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive, at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the remembrance even of joy having its bitterness and the memories of pleasure their pain.' (pg 127)
'When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck, men risk theirs.' (pg 170)
'Life is a great disappointment.' (pg 171)
'In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded.' (pg 191)
'Their strong passions must either bruise or bend. They either slay the man, or themselves die. Shallow sorrows and shallow loves live on. The loves and sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plenitude.' (pg 192)