The Picture of Dorian Gray

Buddy read with Tessy

n  There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.n

The Picture of Dorian Gray (tPoDG) is now my favourite classic, it tops Gone with the Wind which was my number one favourite classic. What made this better was the writing, it was so easy to understand for a book published in 1870, it also features lots of relatable situations.

There are lots of pop culture reference of this book and it's author Oscar Wilde, I never thought it was like this, I thought it'd be a normal classic but instead I got a dark paranormal and I love it.

n  I wonder who it was defined man as a rational animal. It was the most premature definition ever given. Man is many things, but he is not rational.n

The book is about Dorian Gray, he was twenty when the book started and 38 when it ended, he was beautiful, innocent and outgoing before he turned into a bitter, narcissistic and extremely vain, he was only interested in getting pleasures no matter the cost.

n  “Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different.”n

I love the way his character was portrayed, it was indepth, I love that Oscar Wilde started the book from where he was still a good person.

Henry Watton is the worst person ever, he all but ruined Dorian, this book thought me that yes, friends can affect our character and behaviour more than we think.

n  “Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.”n

Basil was a good person with bad friends, that didn't end well for him. He knew that Henry was bad and Dorian innocent, still he told Henry about Dorian.

On a whim, Dorian made a deal for his potrait to age while he remains forever young, somehow it happened, but whatever entity made that deal with him also made him bitter.

”He grew more and more enamoured of his own beauty, more and more interested in the corruption of his own soul.”

I think I must have been about fifteen when I read “The Picture of Dorian Gray” for the very first time and I was totally blown away by it. There was this book, written in such a beautiful way, using such colourful and flowery language and there were those three amazing characters that made me feel and wonder and question their lives and decisions!

You might say that up until I picked up “The Picture of Dorian Gray” I was as innocent as Dorian himself. I didn’t know that there were books like that out there, that there actually existed morally grey characters, corrupted characters, book characters that felt like real people and could make you question their behaviour. It was an entirely new world for me and I was totally fascinated by it.

So I read this book and I savoured every sentence, I devoured its wisdom and got lost in its pages! Looking at it in retrospective I think that Oscar Wilde actually was the first writer who didn’t only make me love classics but also the first author that ignited my undying love for villains and complex characters. And for that I’ll always be grateful!

I don’t know how often I read this book by now (goodreads your count doesn’t even get close to the actual number *lol*), but no matter how often I already read it, I’m still captivated by it. My fifteen year old me loved it as much as my 31 year old me does and if you ask me that’s exactly what makes a good classic. ;-) I’m sure I’ll never get tired of reading this book and I’ll always discover new things about it. And I genuinely hope that many other people will read it as well. It’s definitely worth it! ;-)

The characters:

n  Warning: You are now entering the gallery of “Spoilery Spoilers” and since this is one of my all-time faves I’ll probably end up writing an entire essay about it. If you prefer to stay innocent you better leave before my spoilers get to you and corrupt your soul! ;-Pn

Dorian Gray:

”It held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love his own beauty. Would it teach him to loathe his own soul?”

Dorian Gray! I don’t even know where to start! I love his character to bits and pieces and he’s definitely one of the most intriguing book characters I ever had the pleasure to read about. At the beginning of the book he’s so innocent and naïve and I totally agree with Lord Henry when he says that this is charming. Dorian definitely is a charming character! He’s beautiful and pure and whenever I read the beginning of the book I get a sudden urge to protect him against everything that’s going to happen over the course of those 256 pages! He’s like a child that gets corrupted by the bad influence of others and when I write this I really mean it! Even at his worst he still seems to retain that innocent outlook at things. I mean he was corrupted and tainted by Lord Henry, and he ends up corrupting and tainting his friends but despite all of this he still wonders why they have become like that. He’s completely oblivious to his own role in their downfall and when Basil confronts him with it, he doesn’t believe him. He is convinced that his friends could have done the right thing and that his influence on them isn’t as strong as Basil claims it to be. What is even more intriguing is that Dorian actually wants to be good! There’s a part of him that’s still innocent and hopes that he can be redeemed, but there’s also that other side of him that whispers that he’s entitled to do whatever he wishes to do. It’s obvious that he’s fighting an inner struggle and that he seems to have lost his way. It’s the century old question every person has to ask her/himself. Do I want to be good? And even more important: Can I resist being bad? It’s so easy to do the wrong thing and it’s so tough to do what’s right. I mean that’s the main reason why actors and role-players love to be the baddies! Being bad is fun, it gives you a lot of freedom and if you’re good at it the consequences never catch up to you. ;-P So Dorian constantly finds himself at a crossroads. Will he do the right thing or is he going to give into his bad side? Is his bad side truly that bad? Is having a little fun with his friends and to indulge in pleasure wrong or is it just a part of being human? The fate of Dorian Gray makes you think and it involuntarily causes you to face your own demons and weaknesses. It ultimately causes you to acknowledge your own vices and fears. In short: It makes you pause and forces you to ponder your own life-choices! And this is nothing but awesome! XD

”I want to be good. I can’t bear the idea of my soul being hideous.”

”He felt that the time had really come for making his choice. Or had his choice already been made? Yes, life had decided that for him – life, and his own infinite curiosity about life. Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins – he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all.”

”I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them and to dominate them.”

”He was prisoned in thought. Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away.”

Lord Henry:

”You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing.”

Ahh Lord Henry! How much I love that bastard! *lol* He’s quite literally the devil in this book. He’s the person that stirrs Dorian’s soul! He’s the man who leads him down that dark road and just like Dorian he is completely oblivious to the magnitude of his influence! Yes, he knows that he’s corrupting Dorian, he even finds pleasure and joy in it, but throughout the entire book he never truly realizes how much his words actually changed him! How much damage they did to his soul! Lord Henry is the kind of character you just got to love. Arrogant, intelligent, wise, self-confident, brutally honest and completely unapologetic about his inappropriate behaviour. It’s no wonder Dorian is so fascinated by him and isn’t only willing but also eager to spend his time in his company. Lord Henry is basically the embodiment of temptation and young and innocent Dorian wants to be seduced! And honestly, who wouldn’t be drawn towards a character like Lord Henry? I swear he says the wisest things and vocalizes the most accurate statements regarding society! He’s exactly the kind of devil you’d love to have on your shoulder! Plus there’s so much truth in his words that it hurts! XD

”I make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”

”I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.”

”We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”

Basil Hallward:

”When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy.”

If Lord Henry is the devil on Dorian’s shoulder then Basil certainly is the angel that sits on his other side. The painter functions as Dorian’s consciousness and as long as they know each other he always appeals to his good side and tries his best to sway him on a righteous path. He’s clearly the counterweight to Lord Henry’s corruption, but unfortunately he doesn’t have a lot of leverage. Well, at least not as much as Harry does! I mean the saying: “Come to the dark side, we got cookies” exists for a reason, right? ;-P In the end Dorian can’t stand his bad conscience any longer and does the only thing that’s seemingly able to liberate him. He kills Basil in order to silence his remorse and regrets, but what he didn’t expect is that this dark deed makes him feel even more tainted and guilty. So in the end Basil’s death only increased his sense of guilt and caused him to feel even more haunted. In my opinion the murder of Basil is the final nail in Dorian’s coffin and from that moment on he couldn’t be saved anymore.

”You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don’t know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you.”

The relationships:

Dorian Gray & Basil Hallward:

”He won’t like you the better for keeping your promises. He always breaks his own. I beg you not to go.” Dorian Gray laughed and shook his head.
“I entreat you.”
The lad hesitated, and looked over at Lord Henry, who was watching them from the tea-table with an amused smile.
“I must go, Basil,” he answered.

And this is the key moment! The very first time Dorian Gray finds himself at a crossroads and choses the wrong path. You gotta love Oscar Wilde for the subtle intensity of this scene! There’s nothing extraordinary or special about it, yet it’s still the first choice that leads Dorian down his dark descent. It’s unagitated, ordinary and so very powerful! It’s obvious Basil loved Dorian and when I talk about love here, I’m talking about true love and not just friendship. He’s infatuated with him and basically worships the young and innocent Dorian. After he realises what Dorian has become, it’s already too late for him though. Poor Basil, if he would have known what his picture would make of Dorian, if he would have known how much Lord Henry’s negative influence would change his innocent and pure friend….

”One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness, of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there.”

”There was nothing evil in it, nothing shameful. You were to me such an ideal as I shall never meet again. This is the face of a satyr.”
“It is the face of my soul.”
“Christ! what a thing I must have worshipped! It has the eyes of a devil.”
“Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil,” cried Dorian, with a wild gesture of despair.

Dorian Gray & Lord Henry:

”Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them!”

Okay, and here comes the moment when I say that Lord Henry and Dorian Gray are in love with each other. *lol* It’s so freaking obvious!! They are fascinated by each other, they are besotted with each other and they want to spend every free moment in each other’s company! So yeah, there’s that! I think their dynamic and their interactions are very interesting and to me it seems like Lord Henry is some sort of catalyst. He’s the impulse that changes Dorian’s soul, he’s the first person who opens Dorian’s eyes and tells him that he’s beautiful. Oscar Wilde uses him as his tool to initiate Dorian’s monumental change. Which is kind of interesting, if you consider that Oscar Wilde was gay. It feels like Dorian’s and Henry’s relationship is wrong and I’m not even sure if Wilde was aware of that? I mean yes, their friendship led Dorian into the abyss of his soul, which is pretty obvious if you ask me, but there’s some subtle note about their “relationship”. It’s like deep down Oscar Wilde thought that it was wrong to have intense feelings for another man. And if you consider the time in which this was written it’s not surprising that he might have felt that way. Lord Henry represents Oscar’s sins and vices and it becomes quite apparent that some small part of him might have bemoaned his sexual orientation. In contrast to Wilde no one holds Dorian Gray to account though. He gets away with all of his sins and in the end this eventually causes him to destroys himself! What a moral punchline! XD

”Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow…”

”Yes,” continued Lord Henry, “that is one of the great secrets of life – to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul. You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.”

”The moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are, of what you really might be. There was so much in you that charmed me that I felt I must tell you something about yourself. I thought how tragic it would be if you were wasted.

"You know how a voice can stir one. Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear them, and each of them says something different. I don't know which to follow."

”The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect. There is a soul in each one of us. I know it.”

Conclusion:

This book is a gem! It’s perfection and so quotable that I could probably highlight each and every single passage! No matter how often I read it, there is always something new I didn’t notice before! I still wonder and guess about certain characters and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” still causes me to think. The writing style is so beautiful I can’t help but fall in love with it. I fall in love with this book over and over again. Every time I read it I love it even more and I’m sure that I will adore this masterpiece until I’m wrinkled and old.

Oscar Wilde drags us into the dark depths of the human soul, and once you get there you don’t want to return to the surface anymore.

P.E.R.F.E.C.T.I.O.N!
That’s what this book is. <333

Fascinante estudio sobre la hipocresía, el mal mayor de toda sociedad. Asimismo, es una oda hedonista a la belleza física y a su enorme importancia, mal que les pese a algunos.
Somos lo que parecemos.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Genre: Classic


“Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.”

Synopsis:
A beautiful young man named Dorian Gray has his portrait painted by a painter (Basil). What happens next is crazy. It is actually a wish that Dorian has thought in his mind. What happens if he remains young forever and the portrait ages instead? Well, this is what is going to happen. Many years later Gray will have the good and bad forces fighting inside him. Each trying to drag him to the other side.


“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

Book Structure:
This beautiful Penguin English Library edition has 241 pages. The story is told from a third-person narration. There are twenty chapters in total.


“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”

My Thoughts:
It is a wicked story! As it says on the cover, this is a story of evil, debauchery, and scandal! The characters had depth to them even though it is not a long book. The dialogue between them was witty without going too overboard.

This is the only full novel for Oscar Wilde and they say that some of the characters in the book were actually inspired by real persons. The painter Mr. Basil Hallward might be a painter called Frank Miles that Wilde met at Oxford and became a friend with. And through Miles, he met Lord Ronald Gower who possibly is Lord Henry in the story!


“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”

Reading this book sometimes you feel there is a discussion going on between the different characters that can be philosophical a bit. Those possibly could reflect Wilde's own view on subjects like marriage, love, and beauty. Through the middle of the story sometimes I felt that some of that dialogue was dragging the suspense of the story but still all that remained an interesting experience to read.


“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

This is a beautifully written classic that should not be missed. It has the fight between the good and the bad, which is something we do fight every day within ourselves. I am giving The Picture of Dorian Gray 4.0 shinning stars out of 5.0

I'm not really sure if it is possible to add anything new and of value to this book, as it has been analysed down to the letter in the hundred+ years it has been published for, but I'll try.

The themes in this book seem to be even more important today than its initial release, which is both terrifying and strangely comforting. It shows that no matter how far we progress as a society, we are fundamentally the same as a species.

In a society that seems to value beauty and youth above all else, it is important to get some perspective on the possible repercussions. The story includes fantastical and dramatised elements, but instead of making it less grounded fanciful, it somehow adds to the realism.

The Picture of Dorian Gray served as an important reminder to me to not get caught up in outward appearances and beauty, after all- you should not judge a book by its cover, and similarly a person's exterior does not necessarily reflect their character. While you may think you can see lines of sin in someone's face, many of the most corrupt figures concealed their transgressions behind a lovely smile
*cough* Ted Bundy, Dorian Gray *cough*

This is one of the most quotable books I have ever read, (my copy has more underlines and notes than actual words) and I found myself drawn to so many lines, at times after reading a particularly powerful and thought provoking passage I had to sit in silence and ponder life for a few minutes before I could continue. I feel as though I have only just begun to skim the surface of this book, and to truly understand its message I must reread it, probably multiple times. And I look forward to it.


I am now completely devastated learning that this is Oscar Wilde's only full length novel, so if anyone has recommendations of any further reading of his, or a similar author please let me know!

"Last couple of years have been a mad trip
how'd you look so perfect?
you must have some portraits in the attic."
- Doom Days by Bastille


___________________________________
What was this book?
to define is to limit


review to come when I can attempt to answer that question

Another my all time favorite classic is great choice for my flashback Saturday reads!

After finishing the story of Dorian Gray: Four words just appear on your head just like a light bulb’s going on: hedonism, shallowness, vanity, selfishness!

I think it’s more than that: it’s too intense, sad also moving and horrifying story shows how far you go to preserve the infinite beauty. That’s the only quality Dorian has, only value he can define himself with! Dorian’s beauty can be raw, pure and true inspiration for the portraits: even though he already guaranteed to be immortal by being part of this passionate drawing which truly reflects his outer beauty and made Basil Hayward fall for him, he is so adamant to make bargain with the devil not to get aged as his reflection at the portrait gets older at each year.

Incredibly witty dialogues dances with visionary world building, criticism of morality, casual cruelty! This book is real literature feast!

There are tons of passages and quotes I adore.
Here are my favorite ones:

“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”

“What of Art?
-It is a malady.
--Love?
-An Illusion.
--Religion?
-The fashionable substitute for Belief.
--You are a sceptic.
-Never! Scepticism is the beginning of Faith.
--What are you?
-To define is to limit.”

“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.”

“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her”

“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”

“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.”

Even if we haven’t read the book everyone knows the plot. A painter paints a portrait of a beautiful young man. The portrait ages while he keeps his beauty. But the portrait also reflects his evil, not just aging, but turning eventually into a portrait of a devil.

There are thousands of reviews so I’ll just copy the next paragraph from the GR book blurb:

Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.”




The various nuggets of philosophy and thoughts and acerbic wit that the author intersperses throughout are a pleasure to read. Just a few examples:

On a painter’s reputation “…as soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

“The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world.”

About a hostess introducing her guests: “She either explains them entirely away, or tells one everything about them except what one wants to know.”

“I make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.”

“Words! Mirror words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel!… Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?”



“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”

[She] is so dreadfully dowdy that she reminded one of a badly bound hymn-book.”

[of an uncommunicative old man] “…he had said everything that he had to say before he was 30.”

“He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”

“Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.”

“…his guardians, who were extremely old-fashioned people and did not realize that we lived in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities…”

Here are three vicious descriptions just going around a single dinner table:

A woman with “…the remains of a really remarkable ugliness.”

A man who is “…one of those middle-aged mediocrities so common in London clubs who have no enemies, but are thoroughly disliked by their friends…”

A man who “…like so many of his class, was under the impression that inordinate joviality can atone for an entire lack of ideas.”




In his short life (1854-1900) Wilde was part of the movement called aestheticism – “art for art’s sake,” not for its deeper meanings. Wilde’s brief preface give us his ‘manifesto,’ bits of which are:

“To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim…Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated…There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all…All art is at once surface and symbol…It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors…All art is quite useless.”

I should also say that the edition I read, 2018 by Read Books Ltd., had two errors in dates on the cover blurb. Does it matter? Not really, but it makes you wonder what else is sloppy inside the text.

Top image from wikipedia
London street around 1900 from cloudfront.net
The author from thedailybeast.com

Forever young. I want to be forever young

Warning, contains spoilers and bad anti aging tips that might ruin one's complexion

Do you really want to live forever?
Well, together with all the others, why not? Besides faith, similar weird pro death ideologies, and stuff, nobody wouldn´t like to live until whatever comes after this edition of the universe with the big freeze, rip, bang, or rebirth by a black hole. But it can also be quite

Lonesome on the immortality front
For instance, if all the others would still age while one stays young. From a sociopathic or dark empath perspective, this wouldn´t seem that bad. One should probably camouflage oneself with makeup to seemingly age, to not let others get too suspicious regarding bathing in the blood of virgins that wasn´t extracted by harmless and consensual blood donations, selling one's soul to the devil, and sacrificing humans to the flying spaghetti monster or whatever one is into fetishizing to get kinky style aroused. Without proper aging style, this could lead to

Envious people ruining a show that could go on for a very long time
If this would be the only front, it could be easy to handle. But of course, poor, weak ephemeral flesh embedded, human minds, souls, and other questionable and theoretical constructs, just can´t handle the pressure of seeing the manifestations of one's true age in a not so flattering painting. Then paranoia and other mental issues kick in and the whole thing tends to go

Towards psychological gothic horror
That combines the fear of death, evil forces, psychiatric disorders, and some historical fun facts about the society of the Victorian era. The snobby elites with all the decadence and superficiality are contrasted with Dorian slowly drifting towards insanity. While the aging Dandys (seemingly every age has to have a hilarious hipster equivalence for people addicted to manifesting their narcissistic personality disorders with second hand embarrassment creating styles) keep pimping hard, poor Dorian gets more and more problems with

Handling his OCD tendency to take a short glimpse
That might be a breach of contract. And if already human lawyers are a pain in some body regions, imagine what a literally hellish contract may include. All in all, together it´s one of the best classic novels of all time, combining social satire with dark elements and the big questions of life and death and thereby immortalizing the ingenuity of Oscar Wilde.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...