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A review by roboxa
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
3.0
I have to say that I liked "The Importance of Being Earnest" much more than I did this book. There were areas that I enjoyed but for the most part I just got tired of the flowery language and the over abundance of description. At some point there was a whole chapter's worth of description that I just would have cut completely. It was basically a list of stuff that Dorian Gray likes. I had to skip through most of the chapter; and that's saying a lot since I tend to bask in pretty words.
The idea that people, when given the chance to live wickedly without showing the outward signs of their deeds was an interesting one. Also, the fact that those who had not been directly affected by Dorian's actions could not think ill of him because he looked so young and beautiful. It makes me think about how sometimes, even today, we assume that beauty is a manifestation of the beauty inside a person, when in reality, it's sometimes the most beautiful people that can be the most hideous.
Overall, I felt that this book had some interesting notions that is was exploring, but the writing put me off. I can see why he only wrote the one novel. He tends to go a little crazy on the descriptions, which is distracting and sometimes annoying. I did enjoy the dialogue however. The dialogue is where the majority of the ideas come through, so naturally I found that more interesting than the actual narrative. Because of this, I actually thought that this would work better as a play than a novel.
The idea that people, when given the chance to live wickedly without showing the outward signs of their deeds was an interesting one. Also, the fact that those who had not been directly affected by Dorian's actions could not think ill of him because he looked so young and beautiful. It makes me think about how sometimes, even today, we assume that beauty is a manifestation of the beauty inside a person, when in reality, it's sometimes the most beautiful people that can be the most hideous.
Overall, I felt that this book had some interesting notions that is was exploring, but the writing put me off. I can see why he only wrote the one novel. He tends to go a little crazy on the descriptions, which is distracting and sometimes annoying. I did enjoy the dialogue however. The dialogue is where the majority of the ideas come through, so naturally I found that more interesting than the actual narrative. Because of this, I actually thought that this would work better as a play than a novel.