ah, I now get the hype around Wilde!!!

I started out liking The Picture of Dorian Gray and then gradually I fell out of like and into apathy. I will say I generally struggle with the classics, but I’m always going to keep reading them until I find one that speaks to me.

The Picture of Dorian Gray has a great premise and the cast of characters is super interesting! Mid way through I got tired of Wilde’s long winded philosophical prose and just wanted more of the eerie portrait.

My interest was piqued near the end, even though it was rather abrupt.

Overall this was not bad, definitely easier to digest than some other classics I’ve recently read, but also not my favorite.

He did that

The Picture of Dorian Gray- 2 stars (not my cuppa)
The Happy Prince- 3.5 stars
The Birthday of the Infanta- 0 stars (pisses me off to no end)
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime- 2.5 stars

Avg 2 (The Picture of Dorian Gray is by far most of the book so it makes sense to me. I had wanted to give stuff a better rating because "beloved classic" but...these are my feels so *shrugs*)

I'll follow the example of fellow reviewers and break up the stars:

Dorian Gray: 5 stars (more like 5 million stars)
The Happy Prince: 4 stars
Birthday of the Infanta: 3 stars
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime: 3.5 stars

So on average, roughly 4 stars for the whole book.


******

Spoilers:

The Happy Prince is a fable about the importance of compassion and the sacrifice that usually comes with it. I loved the moral!

The Birthday of the Infanta was a sort of uncharacteristic work of Wilde's. I tried to read between the lines and I guess he was trying to say that an unbecoming face may hide a beautiful heart, and a lovely face may only be a mask that hides cruel souls. Now that I think about it, it does ring a bell (I'm talking about you, Dorian

I am mesmerized at, how a fiction can be such heavy read. Plot is wonderful. More than that, the ways art is used in the story, the ways in which art has impacted so many lives, is praiseworthy.

Book demands attention. Slower we read, more enjoyable it becomes.
The depth of art, of human emotions, of influence, of manipulation, is a lot. And, the impact of all of it is vast, sometimes destructing.

It seems like a Psychology reading. Though it is a fiction but Oscar Wilde has made us believe it to be very much real.

“‘[Dorian], you have everything in the world that a man can want. There is no one who would not be delighted to change places with you’ ‘There is no one with whom I would not change places, Harry. Don’t laugh like that. I am telling you the truth. The wretched peasant who has just died is better off than I am. I have no terror of death. It is the coming of death that terrifies me. Its monstrous wings seem to wheel in the leaden air around me. Good heavens! Don’t you see the man moving behind the trees there, watching me, waiting for me?’” (Pg 202)

Fire.

Just further proves that the people everyone loves always are a little bit off. I do not fw Dorian Gray. RIP Basil the goat.

n  all art is at once surface and symbol. it is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.n

the picture of dorian gray wrecked my brain. that’s the only sentence sitting in my draft review for like, a month. i keep thinking how to best describe this book knowing full well it’s a classic aged more than 100 years old and i obviously do not have the capacity to say anything meaningful about it nor anything new because well, it’s a 100 year old book. i believe everything that should (must?) be said about this book has been said already.

despite those things, here we are. why? i don’t know. maybe because i am a dumbass surviving with two brain cells on daily basis so this is really like some silly notes so that if one day someone asks me have i read this book i can say yes and if they ask me what do i think about it, well, here it is:

the writing is exquisite. please note i only know the blurry meaning of the word ‘exquisite’ and i’m not sure i have ever used that word to describe any other writing. but while i am reading the book and being constantly in awe i was like, this is it. this is what ‘exquisite’ means. at times it is even sharp, while remains haunting in its all grotesque-y narratives. i don’t know what i’m saying. the writing just—perpetually sending shivers down my spine. it is also, layered? i feel like one line can be interpreted in many ways, or have multiple meanings, depends on which context it is used. which can be confusing, i felt like the ghost of oscar wilde was staring at me in my room with my eyebrows tied to each other, my eyes glued to the same line for like 10 minutes and he was shaking his head, look at this doofus trying to be relevant. give up, you’ll never get it.

and maybe i didn’t. doesn’t make this story less terrifying, by the way. a handsome young man, upon the devastating realization of how short-lived youth is, wishing his portrait getting older instead of him and somehow his wish came true? some witchcraft, i might say. the portrait hides not only the gradual change of his physical condition, but also reflects his soul. everytime dorian commits some horrendous act, something about his portrait turns horrid and eerie. however, his actual face and body remains the same, carving his youth forever.

there is something so horror in watching how dorian changes throughout the book. i say watching because reading the book did feel like watching a movie. there are two important characters in this book, just as fascinating as dorian, called lord henry and basil. basil is the artist who created dorian’s portrait, to whom dorian was originally friend with. basil worshiped dorian, to him he was not only his greatest muse, but the representation of art itself and of himself. basil serves as the ‘good influence’ an honest person with pure thoughts, shy demeanor, closed-off behavior. lord henry, on the contrary, is—to oversimplify it—the ‘bad influence’. he is so, undeniably charming in his ways, in the way he speaks, in the way he brings himself. everytime he speaks, it feels like there is something so evil and off about it but you just can’t help to listen, and even, agrees. people like that, characters like that, terrifies the hell out of me. because honestly, i can’t say to you that i won’t listen. reading lord henry’s words and thoughts made me wonder that they really should not let a person like that roaming around the city unsupervised.

but then again, lord henry is somewhat the representation of england high society, or, high society in general. his views on beauty and art, the way he said, i only want to look at life. only look. not improve, not even participate. how easy everything seemed for him, contrary to, say, basil. how he can stand unaffected, unbothered, in his bubble while going around saying whatever he thinks assured that everything about it is right, or even if it is wrong, he just couldn’t care less about it. what is right and wrong anyway? dorian easily leaned, adapted, and developed similar views and upbringing because he too, came from the same class. everything lord henry said makes more sense to him than basil’s.

there is also a lot, well not a lot actually, more than that. a huge part of the book centralizes on philosophy of pleasure, including but not limited to beauty and art. there is this sentiment on how life tragedy itself is an art, some magnum opus, that the more devastating it is, the better. it is a dark, twisted concept, but bewitching nonetheless in the way it is written in the book.

oh, and that ending made my jaw drop. the irony of it all, truly.

bottom line, a scary book with no ghost that can make you feel so evil just by reading it.

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pre-review

3.8 stars. exquisite writing, terrifying story, fascinating characters. the ending made my jaw drop. rtc

thank god for that ending

Definitely need to reread this masterpiece!! One of my favorite classics for sure

I've always loved the plays and short fiction of Oscar Wilde, but for whatever reason I've never been able to finish this book. I guess it's one of those books you just have to be ready to read. I always knew once I got through the book I would love it, and I can now safely say I was right. I have to admit I was bored out of my mind for maybe two chapters, mainly as all 9000 of Dorian's hobbies were being described. Aside from those few and far between moments i found the book charming. I just love Wilde's sensibilities and his razor sharp wit. Probably the most quotable man in history in my humble opinion. "The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history."

aunque me hizo sufrir y me quede jato multiples veces, que bueeeeeeen libro. está escrito hermoso y tiene quotes bien filin