Name: Matthew Jackson's review of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Item: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Rating: 1
Author: Matthew Jackson

Oscar Wilde

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. 1st World Library-Literary Society is a non-profit educational organization. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - [3] The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as usual, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-colored blossoms of the laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid jade-faced painters who, in an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with mono-tonous insistence round the black-crocketed spires of the early June hollyhocks, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive, and the dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel by Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890. A substantially revised and expanded edition was published in April 1891. For the new edition, Wilde revised the content of the novel's existing chapters, divided the final chapter into two chapters, and created six entirely new additional chapters. Whereas the original edition of the novel contains 13 chapters, the revised edition of the novel contains 20 chapters. The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Dorian is selected for his remarkable physical beauty, and Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode of art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new kind of hedonism, Lord Henry suggests that the only thing worth pursuing in life is beauty, and the fulfillment of the senses. Realising that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, wishing that the portrait Basil has painted of him would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, subsequently plunging him into a sequence of debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, each sin being displayed as a new sign of aging on the portrait. The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered one of the last works of classic gothic horror fiction with a strong Faustian theme. It deals with the artistic movement of the decadents, and homosexuality, both of which caused some controversy when the book was first published. However, in modern times, the book has been referred to as "one of the modern classics of Western literature.

Athena

‘I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. My God, Harry, how worship her!' 

A handsome, dissolute man who sells his soul for eternal youth is horrified to see the reflection of his degeneration in the distorted features of his portrait.

claire cheah

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintences for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. 

The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.

A fashionable young man sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty in Oscar Wilde's fascinating gothic tale. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel, is the enduringly eerie story of a naïve and irresistible young man lured by decadent Lord Henry Wotton into a life of depravity. Though Dorian is steeped in sin, his face remains perfect, unlined as years pass—while only his portrait, locked away, reveals the blackness of his soul. This timeless tale of Gothic horror and fable, reveling in the unabashed hedonism and cynical wit of its characters, epitomizes Wilde’s literary revolt against the proprieties of the Victorian era. Sharing this volume with The Picture of Dorian Gray are Wilde’s clever and sophisticated story “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” and two of his delicate fairy tales, “The Happy Prince” and “The Birthday of the Infanta.” With an Introduction by Gary Schnidgall and an Afterword by Peter Raby

The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories

morgan

Were they no better than chess-men, moved by an unseen power, vessels the potter fashions at his fancy, for honour or for shame? His reason revolted against it, and yet he felt that some tragedy was hanging over him, and that he had been suddenly called upon to bear an intolerable burden. Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

Were these children of sin and misery predestined to their end, as he to his? Were they, like him, merely puppets of a monstrous show?

And yet it was not the mystery, but the comedy of suffering that struck him; its absolute uselessness, its grotesque want of meaning. How incoherent everything seemed! How lacking in all harmony! He was amazed at the discord between the shallow optimism of the day and the real facts of existence. He was still very young.

"But surely that is tempting Providence, Gladys."

"My dear Duchess, surely Providence can resist temptation by this time."

But then one regrets the loss even of one's worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one's personality.

"Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful."

"All ways end at the same point, my dear Gladys."

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.

The next day he did not leave the house, and indeed, spent most of his time in his own room, sick with a wild terror of dying, and yet indifferent to life itself.

I have never searched for happiness. Who wants happiness? I have searched for pleasure.

"Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith."

For all sins, as theologians weary not of reminding us, are sins of disobedience. When that high spirit, that morning star of evil, fell from heaven, it was as a rebel that he fell.

Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.

...the whole of history was merely the record of his own life, not as he had lived it in act and circumstance, but as his imagination had created it for him, as it had been in his brain and in his passions. He felt that he had known them all, those strange terrible figures that had passed across the stage of the world and made sin so marvellous and evil so full of subtlety. It seemed to him that in some mysterious way their lives had been his own.

For the canons of good society are, or should be the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it. It should have the dignity of a ceremony, as well as its unreality, and should combine the insincere character of a romantic play with the wit and beauty that make such plays delightful to us. Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.

Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour--that is all. It often seems to me that art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him.

And you are awfully unjust, Basil. You come down here to console me. That is charming of you. You find me consoled, and you are furious. How like a sympathetic person!

Besides, nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all. 

I think [what killed that romance] was her proposing to sacrifice the whole world for me. That is always a dreadful moment. It fills one with the terror of eternity.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution. When Dorian had finished the letter, he felt that he had been forgiven.

Abigail Mills

“If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.”

“I shall stay with the real Dorian,” he said, sadly. 

“Is it the real Dorian?” cried the original of the portrait, strolling across to him. “Am I really like that?”

“You really must not say things like that before Dorian, Harry. “

“Before which Dorian? The one who is pouring out tea for us, or the one in the picture??”

Matthew Jackson

miraj

as E.M. Forster once wrote: "I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort."

Collector's Edition - unedited and unabridged with index of contents and numbered pages. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The magazine's editor feared the story was indecent, and without Wilde's knowledge, deleted roughly five hundred words before publication. Despite that censorship, The Picture of Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding the public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Collins Classics)

ivan

Reading this several years after and finally having a physical copy to annotate it—grade 8 me would be floored rn. The closest thing I could describe this book would be a slow burning fire, to which you can only observe and not lift a finger to extinguish or help fan the flames.

Between seeing Basil and Lord Henry being the friend equivalent of the angel and devil on Dorian's shoulder, and seeing them as the many follies of man, The Picture of Dorian Gray remains one of my favorite novels.

An exquisitely beautiful young man in Victorian England retains his youthful and innocent appearance over the years while his portrait reflects both his age and evil soul as he pursues a life of decadence and corruption.

#G584

I have a struggle when I read some form of classics, as no matter how short the book is, I manage to take quite a while to complete it. However, I believe Wilde has managed to keep my attention, and so whilst it did still take me a while to read, I did not lose my attention at any point. I have never read a book with such a unique plot, and I love all the different meanings you could interperate. I adored the ending. Absolutely adored it. You can imagine my absolute shock. 

I love the moral compass which Lord Henry manages to almost convince Dorian Gray to follow. And I love the confliction of Dorian Gray's mind. I love the way we see an obvious development of this sensitive and young man who has learned to discover a new world. The hedonistic traits we see him follow are the cherry on top, along with his "love" for Sibyl Vane; I love the confliction we experience about whether he does truly love her or not.

We see him experience his own mental conflict about what's right and what's wrong; and in some way we see him explore this via the painting which Basil gifts to him. 

We are also made to wonder how the story would work if Gray did not meet Lord Henry. How would the story lead? Surely there are more corrupt men with confusing and immoral beliefs? And is it not a wellknown idea that many people like to corrupt those who we view as pure and "naive"? So it was surely just a matter of time before someone else would corrupt the minds of young Dorian Gray? Honestly, its almost impossible to be firmly sure of how the story line would follow if there was a different event to occur.

The role of art is a prominent reoccuring topic which we see explored into a great bit of detail. The artwork of Basil, which he has produced a myriad of copies, has one particular developed piece. This piece of art essentially is used to convey the changes of Dorian Gray's morality. In essance, the changes in his mind rise to the surface and influence his face.

safiya surti

I have a struggle when I read some form of classics, as no matter how short the book is, I manage to take quite a while to complete it. However, I believe Wilde has managed to keep my attention, and so whilst it did still take me a while to read, I did not lose my attention at any point. I have never read a book with such a unique plot, and I love all the different meanings you could interperate. I adored the ending. Absolutely adored it. You can imagine my absolute shock. 

I love the moral compass which Lord Henry manages to almost convince Dorian Gray to follow. And I love the confliction of Dorian Gray's mind. I love the way we see an obvious development of this sensitive and young man who has learned to discover a new world. The hedonistic traits we see him follow are the cherry on top, along with his "love" for Sibyl Vane; I love the confliction we experience about whether he does truly love her or not.

We see him experience his own mental conflict about what's right and what's wrong; and in some way we see him explore this via the painting which Basil gifts to him. 

We are also made to wonder how the story would work if Gray did not meet Lord Henry. How would the story lead? Surely there are more corrupt men with confusing and immoral beliefs? And is it not a wellknown idea that many people like to corrupt those who we view as pure and "naive"? So it was surely just a matter of time before someone else would corrupt the minds of young Dorian Gray? Honestly, its almost impossible to be firmly sure of how the story line would follow if there was a different event to occur.

The role of art is a prominent reoccuring topic which we see explored into a great bit of detail. The artwork of Basil, which he has produced a myriad of copies, has one particular developed piece. This piece of art essentially is used to convey the changes of Dorian Gray's morality. In essance, the changes in his mind rise to the surface and influence his face.

Veronica 

3.9/5 ⭐️ 

Ive read classics (or at least tried) and never finished them. 

However the picture of dorian gray was a classic I understood very well, as well as enjoyed. If you are looking to start reading classics I believe you should start with this one. Not dense at all, language is pretty simple, and its short.

The story was amazing, and I was very intrigued by dorian and his mind and thoughts. there were some chapters that I will say lost my interest however all in all, a very great book. 

The ending was a little underwhelming for me, but I see why it was done that way.

Also, Basil and Poor Sybil deserved better 🙌

Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral experiences; all the while his portrait ages and records every soul-corrupting sin. This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)

Effie W

 🩰

Si fuera yo, nunca habría mirado el retrato en plan... rip dorian pero soy diferente

Robert Mighall

Coralie Bickford-smith

The handsome appearance of dissolute, young Dorian Gray remains unchanged while the features in his portrait become distorted as his degeneration progresses.

Elisa Benaggoune

absolutely speechless. one of my new favourite classics. gave it a 5 star as it will and has been staying in my mind after finishing it. it also feels like wilde’s writing is a time warp and incredibly modern. it is full of life lessons in such a dark reflective manner, so I definitely would re-read it.

Sarah Pino

The handsome appearance of dissolute young Dorian Gray remains unchanged while the features in his portrait become distorted as his degeneration progresses

Rhianna Jones

«Degeneramos en espantosas marionetas, obsesionados por el recuerdo de pasiones ante las que tuvimos demasiado miedo, y ante las exquisitas tentaciones a las que no tuvimos el coraje de ceder. ¡Juventud! ¡Juventud! ¡No hay absolutamente nada en el mundo más que la juventud!» Una piedra angular en los debates entre la ética y la estética, en las relaciones que mantienen el bien y el mal, el alma y el cuerpo, el arte y la vida.

El Retrato de Dorian Gray

Fernanda Zambrano La Torre

Una lectura fascinante de principio a fin, con puntos de vista diversos sobre distintos temas que conciernen a la vida misma, haciendo especial énfasis en el arte. Cada escenario y personaje está muy bien descrito, su personalidad y genio desarrollados de manera exquisita, con frases y opiniones que dejan a uno pensando, y con los que te ves identificándote de manera intelectual en algunas ocasiones. Su fuerte es justamente ese, la forma en la que los personajes cuentan con distintos puntos de vista sobre los temas que se plantean en la historia. Oscar Wilde era un genio total.

a beautiful book with faustian themes and romantic dialogue? i will remember this book for my whole life.

— lae

version i read came with three stories on top of dorian gray--the happy prince, the birthday of the infanta, and lord arthur savile's crime. 

wilde's writing is very elaborate and masterful (maybe the word is luxurious?) in dorian gray, but in comparison i got tired in lord arthur savile's crime very easily. i don't know the reason though.  i liked the happy prince, though i didn't care for the birthday of the infanta. savile was fine, probably i went in with the wrong mindset. didn't laugh and it was a bit hard to stomach, but i liked the ideas it played with. 

as for dorian gray, i thought it was wonderfully written: the sinister charm of henry, dorian's anguish, but particularly the narrative voice, if that makes sense. chapter 11 was probably my favourite and my least favourite simultaneously. i also liked henry and gladys' exchanges very much. 

i do not think i got the correct takeaway from this book, if there should be one.

version i read came with three stories on top of dorian gray--the happy prince, the birthday of the infanta, and lord arthur savile's crime. 

wilde's writing is very elaborate and masterful (maybe the word is luxurious?) in dorian gray, but in comparison i got tired in lord arthur savile's crime very easily. i don't know the reason though.  i liked the happy prince, though i didn't care for the birthday of the infanta. savile was fine, probably i went in with the wrong mindset. didn't laugh and it was a bit hard to stomach, but i liked the ideas it played with. 

as for dorian gray, i thought it was wonderfully written: the sinister charm of henry, dorian's anguish, but particularly the narrative voice, if that makes sense. chapter 11 was probably my favourite and my least favourite simultaneously. i also liked henry and gladys' exchanges very much. 

i do not think i got the correct takeaway from this book, if there should be one.

doux

Es definitivamente de mis libros favoritos.

Puede ser que fuese el momento en el que lo leí, pero realmente me ha calado. Hubo un personaje que se me hizo un poco tedioso y sus reflexiones me daban un poco igual pero aun si quería pasar de sus palabras, seguí leyéndolas igualmente. 
Es muy disfrutable y tiene demasiadas páginas en las que me encontraba fascinada con su forma de escribir, tengo muchas citas guardadas de mis partes favoritas o que más poéticas me han parecido.

Me gustaría releerlo en el futuro y volver a disfrutarlo de la misma forma. No sé si es un libro que todo el mundo podría leer pero sí que es cierto que muchos podrían disfrutarlo y reflexionar. !

Jamieson

“The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.” 


DO YOU KNOW how long I've been meaning to read/finish this book. Ever since the plot of this book was explained to me when I was 15 by a teacher I've been meaning to read it. (Shout out to Mr S. I finally did it man), but it got put on a back burner like so so so many books. 

And then I saw The Importance of Being Earnest and loved it and knew I had to read this asap. And then it got put on the back burner for a while again because, you know how it goes when you have 400 books on your TBR and like 20 minutes a month free time. 

So I'm mildly obsessed with Oscar Wilde himself. He's incredibly interesting and you should look into him if you have the chance. His life is riddled with scandal and drama and he's really extra and I live for it. Another reason why I wanted to read his most popular work. 

But I finally finally picked up and finished this book and I am so so glad because as expected, I adored it. This is one of the most readable classics I've ever read, so if you're just trying to get into classics this is ideal. 

Oscar Wilde's prose is beautiful and brilliant. This book is incredibly funny, which I wasn't expecting since it was written in 1980/81 but it really made me laugh out loud. Oscar Wilde, through Dorian Gray, is able to infuse so much clever wit and observations into this. I particularly enjoyed the part when Dorian mounts his defence for his "questionable activities" by pointing out that Shakespeare got up to the same activities, and no one ever went at him. (Hilariously, Oscar Wilde later recycled this defence in his own trial)


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


Okay I need to talk about the characters and their dynamics. Lord Henry Wotton, Lord Basil Hallward and, of course, Dorian Gray himself are the central characters of the story, although a host of other characters revolve around these main three. I seriously enjoyed all of these characters, Dorian especially. 

Dorian is one of those protagonists who are vapid and vain and not that great, but god they're entertaining to read about anyway. The depiction of his activities, his debauchery and slow descent into madness were all written wonderfully and I loved following him. Henry Wotton is cynical, but his relationship was Dorian was interesting and complex. The not-that-subtle-subtext that the two are involved was kind of my favourite thing about them and god it makes me happy there's Henry/Dorian fanfic out there (isn't the internet wonderful? It's truly what Oscar would have wanted). Basil is a little bit pathetic at times, but I genuinely felt sorry for him as well. 


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


And with that quote being said, lets talk about the themes, morals and subtexts. Oscar Wilde really did an excellent job at balancing an interesting and entertaining story with the theming and messages. The criticism of Victorian England, including the sexual repression and aesthetic ideals was really well done. One thing I did find really funny though was the super harsh contemporary criticisms (these were included in my edition which was cool!) people at the time HATED this book for that messaging. Anyway, I'm not going to go into a full analysis here because I don't think this site is the place for that, but the theming was done really well and you can tell Oscar Wilde had a lot to say about the time. The theme really gave this story the leg up that launched it from being entertaining to masterful and it's why it's endured for so long. 

There is also a really, not that subtle, subtext about Dorian being gay and being with other men (UM Henry and Dorian didn't just have a country house together so they could talk I'm just saying) and this made me both elated and sad. It's really nice to read queer classical literature because it reminds you we have always existed, but it's also upsetting that people didn't experience the (moderate) freedom we do today. Oscar Wilde was sentenced to jail for "gross indecency", a sentence that led him to die disgraced and impoverished and that's just awful and a real big shame. 



Anyway, I feel I could talk about this book for a long time but I won't. this is easily one of the best classics I've ever read and I would reread it. Also, if you're looking at buying classics, I highly recommend these Penguin editions. They come with full annotations to clarify language and references, an introductory essay, contemporary reviews and some other interesting tidbits I really appreciated.

Beatriz Aguiar

i loved this book. it's all about morality and immorality - does that change how good a book is? not according to Wilde. Art is separate from morality and immorality. Surface and depth shouldn't be separated and we should take art as a whole. an immoral book isn't a bad book. one can only judge a bad book by its writing, not its themes and content. the subtle but obviously there comments on queer in the victorian era leave the reader wondering and the corruption of DG upon the men he encounters throughout the novel is then a very suspicious thing.
Overall, Wilde is a great author and his novel is an amazing work of art in my opinion.

Jess Griffin

Ian Edginton

A handsome dissolute man who sells his soul for eternal youth is horrified to see the reflection of his degeneration in the distorted features of his portrait, in a text that is in graphic novel format.

A Graphic Novel

Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray

Midori Kobayashi

3/5 stars

One of my favourite books of all times, always fun to go back to rereading it. Especially the black and white creepy expressions of the characters.

Ruby

Everyone is pretty and petty and here for a good time

Enthralled by a portrait of himself, young Dorian Gray makes a Faustian bargain to exchange his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Thus he is able to indulge in his desires, as only the portrait bears the traces of his decadence and becomes a nightmarish picture of his soul. Edited with an Introduction by Robert Mighall Preface by Peter Ackroyd

‘All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to’ 

Dorian Gray, the morally gray man who not only captured my interest, but also my heart. This book was pure bliss to read, although in some parts it felt like it dragged, altogether it was a beautiful read.

natalie

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”


this book makes me love philosophy 🤍

Taylor Nuzzolo

A tragic tale of a wish gone wrong. I enjoyed this classic story very much. It is everything the dark academia instagrams claimed it to be! It was poetic and beautiful and tragic. Excellent read for anyone looking to glimpse into the life of an extraordinary man and his friends. I totally understand why it is deemed a classic!

Juliana Matias

I have mixed feelings about this book. I have this impression that The Picture of Dorian Gray is the unanimously loved classic, and I might be the exception but alas, let's move on with the review.

I feel the basic premise of Oscar Wilde's most famous novel is part of the collective consciousness. I only noticed how little I knew about it once actually listening to it. A beautiful young man poses for a portrait. Upon completion, he becomes obsessed with his beauty and makes a Faustian deal with the ether that his portrait might lose its beauty instead of him.

Under the wing of the devil himself Lord Henry, he loses an internal battle with his own innocence to be a good person and begins his pursuit of pleasure and beauty. If at first surprised and horrified, he later becomes happy when all the signs of his cruelty and ugliness are reflected in the portrait and not on himself. He hides and locks away the portrait, and moves through life without caring about anyone other than himself.

I am reviewing the Audible exclusive audiobook, narrated by Russell Tovey.

First of all, the narration was honestly wonderful. I adored his tone and the cadence and the way he read different characters. It sounded like honey to me; it was just delicious to hear.

I can also appreciate how beautiful the language was. Oscar Wilde was a poet when writing prose, and his prose feels like a love affair with the English language. It's beautiful, but never unnecessarily flowery, a difficult feat to manage. There are so many wonderful quotes in this book, and it'd be impossible to mark them all while reading.

I also understand the story he was trying to tell and can intellectually appreciate it. The scathing criticism he makes of art, and of society, and everything. His characters are alive, and there is development to Dorian as he becomes a worse and worse person as the years go by.

I see it all. It's just I really didn't enjoy reading it.

I didn't want to spend time with these characters. Is that a thing? I didn't enjoy Sybill's suicide over a conversation with a guy she didn't even know for that long. I didn't enjoy Lord Henry's devil-on-the-shoulder part and his endless aphorisms. I didn't enjoy Dorian's failed half-hearted attempts at being a better person.

I don't know. Maybe this was not the right time for me to listen to this, or maybe this book is not for me. Let's hope the next one makes me a bit happier.

Matthew Jackson &
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde