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A review by the_gandy_man
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
3.5
I enjoyed this book. The plot's pretty good and the message and philosophy and all that is good. I don't really have any more advanced positive thoughts, although my overall opinion is positive. Anyway here are all my negatives:
I would have liked it more if it got more intoDorian's transformation. At the beginning, he isn't especially good. He's not a bad dude but he doesn't save any cats or anything. And then after Sibyl dies he just starts being a bad guy. It doesn't feel like a natural transformation, it just feels like "oh I don't really know much about this Dorian guy" and then he's a dick and I'm like "guess he's a dick". It doesn't really feel as caused by the painting or Lord Henry as much as the book wants.
Speaking of Lord Henry, he is unbearable. I understand that he's meant to be unbearable, but way too much of the book is Lord Henry babbling on about his annoying philosophies and saying shit like "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul" and "All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime". More generally, I think too much of the book consists of characters talking about stuff I don't care about. I didn't really like any of the characters, which I think is on purpose but it still makes the book less enjoyable to read.
I would have liked it more if it got more into
Speaking of Lord Henry, he is unbearable. I understand that he's meant to be unbearable, but way too much of the book is Lord Henry babbling on about his annoying philosophies and saying shit like "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul" and "All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime". More generally, I think too much of the book consists of characters talking about stuff I don't care about. I didn't really like any of the characters, which I think is on purpose but it still makes the book less enjoyable to read.