The Picture of Dorian Gray
TW: Suicide, language describing POC/BIPOC, murder, and drugs
This is an interesting book. Oscar Wilde is an interesting author.
I’m not sure how I feel.
At the same time, I’m happy that I read the book.
To me, it starts slow and things begin to pick up in chapter 3.
The characters and their outlooks on life are interesting and make sense in how Wilde portrayed them. I felt kind of bored with Basil but felt he was needed to bring Dorian back to earth. At the same time, I think Lord Henry made the story interesting and moved it along.
There were definitely moments where I was surprised at the choices made and the kinds of conversations that people were having. Especially during the 1890s, things can be very uptight but hearing how the characters talked was a nice change of pace and gave more insight in their beliefs and the popular or not so popular ideas.
There were points where I was left with multiple questions that never got answered and the characters had a sense of mystery.
I saw two movie adaptations of Dorian Gray and it was then I had an interest in reading the book. I began to wonder how the book was and what I would think after reading and watching two adaptations.
On the other hand, I go back and forth with whether the book or the movies were better. I still don’t know.
In the middle of the book, it seemed as if things got stale and then all of a sudden picked up at warp speed. It was odd but also kind of cool. The book kept me on my toes and guessing on how people would react or what came next.
Oscar Wilde is a different kind of author than what we’re used to and even different than popular authors from the 1890s too.
His style was a bit distracting at times and it was hard to get through at first, but you end up getting used to it.
I enjoy Gothic literature and I thought that this would be added to my list of great Gothic literature to reread but I’m not sure if that is true for me. I think that this is one of the books that’s a classic and should be read at least once in your life.
The POV changes in a snap so beware of that too.
I rated it first as a 3.5. At the moment, I think that this book is more like 3.75 stars. What did you think about the book?