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The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde


Purple Poppy

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  • 7 months later...
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  • 3 months later...

Must add my love and appreciation of Dorian Gray. I loved it so much so that I even wrote my uni dissertation on the book! (Not much point in elaborating on that here - suffice to say my aim was to show modern relevance to classics and that minimal modernisation of classic literature can make said novels meaningful and pertinent to today's societal expectations.)

 

I have the complete works of Oscar Wilde, falling to pieces now as I've leafed through it so often. It's probably the only anthology or "complete works" collection that I have actually read cover to cover. In fact, if I dig it out, I'm sure I'm holding parts of it together with Sellotape!

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  • 3 years later...

When I read it a few years ago I was surprised at how many familiar quotations I came across.  It's also very relevant today, I'd love to know what Oscar would have made of our celebrity obsessed media for example, and reality TV.

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Hello everyone😊. Nesa here. I just joined this group and this is my first post, so I hope I am doing this right.

When I first read 'Dorian Gray' I didn't think it had made much of an impact on me. But on a subconcious level it had, working away in the dark. To me, it is like the monster under the bed, if you know what I mean.

Perhaps it is because to me the story's unfolding events are so bizarre- it is not something I would have thought or envisioned.

I recently re-read the book- and the impression it leaves behind is still the same.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Admirers of this novel, please forgive me, but I trully don't see what you see. Whole point of the story is that beauty doesn't really matter. As for me, this thought is very simple and banal. And it wasn't actual yet at the time of writing. Also character that i liked is absent. All they're quite boring dudes. Story unfolds predictably and very slooowly.
P.S. Forgive me for possible errors since i'm not native speaker.

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  • 5 months later...

Corydon does say that he/she isn't a native speaker, so perhaps that's a factor; I wonder if he/she read it in their own language or the English - I did find it a bit wordy and long-winded at times, but did get the point, and yes beauty is of course superficial, which isn't an original point today, but maybe it was at the time the book was written?

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/5/2007 at 8:26 AM, Purple Poppy said:

Cont...

The story itself is interesting in that it illustrates that looks and beauty are only surface deep and superficial and to rely on them for a fulfilling life is fruitless and shallow.. Dorian trades his soul for his continuing beauty. He changes personality and becomes an evil calculating individual who uses others to satisfy his own needs. His friend Henry encourages him, with long lectures about the pleasures and advantages of a degenerate life, cleverly disguised just enough to convince the young man that what he is doing is right. At a very early stage I felt that Henry was actually the devil or evil personified and I remain of that opinion. At the beginning when Dorian and Henry meet you get a strong sense of black and white, evil and purity. As Dorian descends into wretchedness you feel that he would 

Hey there! I recently completed the book. And I must say, it really was a read. There were some parts where I really felt completely lost and confused but then again, I always try to complete a book so I did it and am I glad to have read the last chapter. The events happening in the book, at least some of them, were completely unexpected for me. Also, there were some things which were mentioned in the book, which could very well be quoted and engraved in our minds as our own fundamental but then when we think deeply about it, we would realize that deep down we had known of those things already. It was just that we needed something or someone to point out those latent facts to us. I could agree with many of the things that were said and I disagreed with many others. All in all, although it seemed a bit broken on the part of being a story as a whole, but it did have that flow in the later chapters so that worked. I had expected the ending to be on a more philosophical ground. But I can't say the actual ending was completely unexpected for me. 

 

Also, I read that you mentioned that Basil was married? Maybe I missed something but it would be great if you could point out or quote the part where it was mentioned or which pointed out towards it. Although it has been too long since you have commented on this so I don't really expect anything. But anyone up for a discussion would be appreciated.

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