O Retrato de Dorian Gray (1890)

interesting enough to finish, boring enough to give three stars. i think this is another case of wuthering heights—i love the story but the way it’s written just bores me. absolutely loved the chilling ending, though.

completed for the 2021 popsugar reading challenge; prompt #5—a dark academia book. ( )

The story of Dorian Gray may be one of the most interesting in the English literary canon, but damn is OScar Wilde kind of a pretentious twit. I mean, he's writing during the Victorian era about a bunch of priviledged rich men who have nothing better to do with their time but paint portraits, visit the opera, and get themselves into scandals, but that doesn't exactly make Dorian and co. very likeable... Most of the modern adaptations of the story give us quite a bit more back story and character development, but the original novel is far more focused on the men sitting around ruminating with each other (or on their own in Dorian's case) about moral ineptitude and debating the failings of "polite society." At the time I'm sure Wilde's contemporaries were outraged by the novel simply because it's a pretty solid condemnation of their frivolous attitudes - overtly gay themes coming as a later criticism of course. And yet Wilde lived successfully for a long time within the social constructs he's attempting to lambast, echoing the fact that his protagonist is the only character who sees a negative consequence for his behaviour. Even Dorian's final death scene is one which WIlde seems to have romanticized, though, as we see Doriam weild the blade to destroy his soul painting after realizing the error of his way, making the scene a melo-dramatic suicide rather than seeing societal justice served. The concept of corruption (and separation from it through an intermediary) is one which remains a fascinating theme none the less, so even for its failings this novel remains a worthwhile one. ( )

Date approximate ( )

"[D]on’t deceive yourself. Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibres, and slowly-built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams. You may fancy yourself safe, and think yourself strong. But a chance tone of color in a room or a morning sky, a particular perfume that you had once loved and that brings strange memories with it, a line from a forgotten poem that you had come across again, a cadence from a piece of music that you had ceased to play,— I tell you, Dorian, that it is on things like these that our lives depend."

-Lord Henry Wotton

Wilde, Oscar (2016-06-30). Oscar Wilde: The Complete Collection (Kindle Locations 10578-10582). Kindle Edition. ( )

Got kind of tired of the oh so clever quips but overall a terrific story. Great fall read. ( )