The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Book Review

This book is about Dorian Gray (and also about two old friends of very different standings). Dorian Gray is the absolute picture of raw beauty. He’s the most beautiful man a certain painter has ever seen, and the painter decides to capture Dorian’s beauty in a painting.

Unbeknownst to him, he also captures Dorian’s essence in the painting. Instead of Dorian growing old or becoming ugly, the painting does instead. And while Dorian is a respectable young man, one of the two opposing aristocrats coaxes him into becoming evil, and while Dorian begins to do horribly disgusting and foul things that might turn an ordinary man ugly with shame, the picture changes instead.

The picture gets ugly and old and Dorian goes on living as the picture of youth and beauty. Of course, living a carefree life of vanity and evil cannot end particularly well for Dorian Gray.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of those classic books that tells such a compelling story, while at the same time probing deep into the human condition.

The story itself is great. It’s well written. There are huge pockets of descriptions that were typical back thenThe characters are fleshed well. Dorian Gray is evil and somehow still he retains his charm. You really feel bad when he stabs that poor man and hides his body with the painting.

But more, we get to see what happens when a person of prime beauty is allowed to do whatever they want without consequence. Most of us are ugly and don’t have this luxury. But it shows that even though someone is beautiful on the outside, they can be hideous and wretched on the inside.

It’s hard to say if Dorian ever learned his lesson in the end, but either way, it is a real thought piece and probably my very favorite book was ever written.