like this are why I love classics, They may be old as hell, but in another, much more real way, they never get old,
We as a society will never outgrow the need for a beautifully written book about being hot and evil,
End review.
Bottom line: Valiantly resisting the urge to make this book my entire personality,
prereview
"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
"
and who says the classics aren't relatable,
review to come /
currentlyreading updates
nice eternal youth and beauty you got there, i sure hope you don't descend into mortal sin with it
clear ur shit prompt: a book people talk about
follow my progress sitelinkhere I finished reading this last night, and afterwards I spent an entire hour staring into space so I could contemplate over the majesty of this work.
It left me speechless. This book is exquisite it is an investigation into the human soul, the power of vanity and the problems of living a life with not a single consequence for your actions.
Its truly powerful stuff.
It begins with a simple realisation, and perhaps an obvious one, But, for Dorian it is completely life changing, He realises that beauty is finite, It wont last forever. Its like a flower, temporary and splendid, So if youre a young man whose appearance is your singular quality, then this is some damn scary news, People only want to be with you because youre attractive and charming they want to be near you, and with you, for your looks only.
So when that goes what do you have left
Nothing,
No friends.
No love.
Only age.
So what do you do How do you retain your singular quality Well, the answer is simple, you copy Doctor Faustus sitelinkThe Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus and sell your soul to the devil!
"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait.
"How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful, But this picture will remain always young, It will never be older than this particular day of June, If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that for that I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"
And this is where the real depravity begins.
Dorians world has no consequences, Everything he does is attributed to the painting, everything, Any regret or malice leaves him quickly and is transferred to the canvas, So he cant technically feel emotion for an extended period of time thus, his attitude becomes one of nonchalance, He becomes a shell, an emotionless creature who can only seek his sin: vanity, He surrounds himself with beauty, His house is full of art, brilliant music and every luxury known to man, You name it. Dorians got it. Only through seeking new experiences, these pleasures, can Dorians being remain animated, I intentionally used the word “being” for Dorians body no longer harbours his soul its in the painting, Everything he does is for his own indulgence he just doesnt care what affect his presence has on others, The prefect moment is all he lives for,
“I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions, I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them, ”
The character of Dorian Gray is an interesting study because he is representative of many things, He shows how a seemingly pure soul can be corrupted if its left in a sense of privation and given terrible guidance, Also he is suggestive of the Victorian ideal of the perfect societal image, One must be respectable at all times, and have all the appropriate airs and graces, But behind closed doors, or perhaps even a curtain, anything goes, He is suggestive of the hidden evils of Victorian society as behind the mask was many dark things, For example, the Empire and colonialism to the Victorians was a wonderful thing it built wealth and structure, but in reality it destroyed culture and subjected peoples to slavery.
The same things can be said of child labour, the exploitation of women and terrible working conditions, Everything exists behind a veil of grandeur, and this is no less true for Dorian,
The homosexual suggestions are practically groundbreaking, Wilde wasnt the only Victorian author to suggest such things, Robert Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde can be read in a similar vein, but Wilde was much more explicit.
Its not cryptic its just plain homosexual lust for all to see on the part of Basil and perhaps even Sir Henry later on, Its still rather horrific that Wilde was actually arrested for homosexual acts, Silly Victorians. The novel also shows that despite being corrupted to such a degree, to commit murder in such a terrible sense, Dorian the Victorian man isnt beyond all redemption.
He can still come back from his deeds and end it all, The ending was perfection. This has great allegorical meaning,
You can connect with me on social media via sitelinkMy Linktree,
Some of u have never damned ur soul to remain forever young and it showsI reread this for university and loved it even more the second time round.
. . Lord Henry is a paradigmatic sophist and his epigrams are delightful partly because it's easy to forget that he is more rhetoric than truth, The connection between youthful appearance and character is also so fascinating, especially since Wilde is writing at the end of the century where physiognomy is an outdated science.
What does it mean to be young And can innocence ever be restored
If you haven't already, you HAVE TO read this! Wilde delves into the cartesian dualist debate, asking us to question where the self truly does reside and contradicting the popular Victorian idea of physiognomy.
In his personal Fall and descent into sinfulness I saw similarities with H, G. Wells's 'The Invisible Man' where sin thrives simply because the individual cannot be held accountable, Similarly, the debate about the value of art is intriguing and, after reading this, I recommend reading Poe's 'The Oval Mirror' because, again, there are definite
similarities.
sitelink
Arguably literature's greatest study of shallowness, vanity, casual cruelty and hedonistic selfishness, Wilde lays it down here with ABSOLUTE PERFECTION!! This was my first experience in reading Oscar Wilde and the mans gift for prose and dialogue is magical.
This story read somewhat like a dark, corrupted Jane Austen in that the writing was snappy and pleasant on the ear, but the feeling it left you with was one of hopelessness and despair.
The level of cynicism and societal disregard that Wildes characters display towards humanity is simply staggering, Despite the dark or more likely because of it this is one of the most engaging, compelling and lyrical pieces of literature I have read.
The quality of the prose is nothing short masterful,
I assume most people know the basic outline of the plot, but I will give you a few sentences on it, The three main characters are Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton and Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward is an artist who after painting a picture of Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with him because of his beauty the homosexual vs, art object love Basil feels towards Dorian are left vague, likely because of the time it was written, Dorian then meets a friend Basils, Lord Henry, and becomes enthralled with Lord Henrys world view, which is a form of extreme hedonism that posits the only worthwhile life is one spent pursuing beauty and satisfaction for the senses.
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.Well at one point, Dorian utters the famous words quoted at the beginning of my review and the “Faustian” bargain is struck,
While this story is often mentioned among the classics of the Horror genre which I do have a problem with this is much more a study of the human monster than it is some boogeyman.
My favorite parts of the story were the extensive dialogues between the characters, usually Dorian and Lord Henry, They were wonderfully perverse and display a level of casual cruelty and vileness towards humanity that make it hard to breathe while reading, Oh, and Lord Henry reserves particular offense for the female of the species, to wit:
My dear boy, no woman is a genius.. sitelink
Women are a decorative sex, They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly, Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals,
YES folks, . . he absolutely did.
One of the most intriguing quotes I have seen from Oscar Wilde regarding this book is his comparison of himself to the three main characters.
He said that he wrote the three main characters as reflections of himself, Wilde said, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks me: Dorian is what I would like to bein other ages, perhaps.
”
I was somewhat floored by this as I found Dorian to be a truly stark representation of evil and could not see how Wilde could find an idealized form within the character.
When I say evil, I don't mean just misguided or weakminded, someone bamboozled by the clever lectures of Lord Henry, I found Gray to be selfish, vain, inhumanly callous and sadistically cruel, I intend to try and learn more about Wildes outlook on this character as it truly escapes me,
Regardless, this is a towering piece of literature, Beautifully written and filled with memorable characters and a deeply moving story, A novel deserving of its status as a classic of English Literature,.stars. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!!!
P, S. For of audiobooks. I listened to the audio version of this read by Michael Page who has become one of my favorite narrators, His performance here was amazing,
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