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Wilde Readings

Title     :    The Picture of Dorian Gray

Author    :    Oscar Wilde

Goodreads :    4.1 / 5

Mine      :    2.1 / 5

Classic. ' A book which people praise and don't read. - Mark Twain

 


Considered one of the classics of English literature, the book definitely has a wonderful story. 


Dorian Gray, a twenty year old lad is friends with a painter Basil Hollaward who is enamoured by Dorian's exceptional beauty. Basil has a friend named Lord Henry Wotton who is a cynical and tends to have powerful influence over all his acquintances. Dorian and Henry meet while Basil is painting a portrait of Dorian, his best work according to the painter. Dorian gets influenced, over a few meetings and many long monologues, by Lord Henry and starts to seek pleasures in every aspect of life. First this Dorian does is gets obsessed over his own paiting and good looks. He claims to envy his own portrait and prays that it should age instead of him. 


Next, he fells in love with a young acress Cybil Vane while watching her play Juliet. Soon they get engaged to be married and Dorian invites his friends Basil and Henry to see Cybil. On this fateful day, she performs horribly and Dorian gets disenchanted. He claims that his heart is broken and breaks off the engagement. Cybil commits suicide the next day. During this time, Dorian finds that the smile in his portrait has changed and a cruel expression has come up on it. He gets an epiphany that his prayers are answered. 


Many years go by while Dorian gets involved in the life of debauchery, ends up killing Basil and his picture gets older and uglier while he remains youthful as ever. In the end, Dorian tries to stab the painting but ends up killing himself.


Yes, there are other characters like Cybil's brother, James and Dorian's friend Alan and many more. But to be honest, they play no part in the story telling. They are merely there to fill the pages it seems. There are descriptions of diamonds, clothes, musical instruments that you could skip over as I did. The concept is unique but it is slooooowwwww. It shows the life of British upperclasses, fussing over coats and hats and having endless dinner parties. One phraise stayed with me "Traiditional aristrocratic profession of doing absolutely nothing".


It is said to be the only novel written by Oscar Wilde, thankfully. If you think I am too harsh while rating the book at 2.1 out of 5, please read 'A Study in Scarlet' by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was published three years before "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and has rating of 4.2 only. But the writing is so fluid and story moves along at speed which even a modern reader can enjoy. My point is you don't have to bore your readers to death just to prove yourself a genius.


I would recommend, if anyone still wants to experience this book, to go to YouTube and listen to audiobook at 1.5X speed. Saves time...

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