While I loathed Dorian Gray, I absolutely loved The Picture of Dorian Gray. I found it absolutely delicious! It's elegant on its surface and then ruthlessly dark underneath.

What This Book Does Well What fascinated me most was how Wilde constructs the novel almost as a moral experiment. Dorian was not designed for sympathy - he was designed for observation. We are invited to watch what happens when beauty, vanity, privilege, and influence are left entirely unchecked.

There is a cold clarity to his descent into an almost mathematically inevitable demise. I felt like every choice Wilde made was deliberate, and for such a short novel, he didn't rush the unravelling.

I loved the triangle of characters, and to be honest, I think I would have to do another read through to fully formulate my thoughts, but it was clear that each man represented different moral and philosophical postures.

As a symbolism girlie, the symbolism here is masterful! I'm excited to do another read through in the future to track down all of the symbolism woven in and what I think it means.

Where It Could Short For Some The prose is stylistically dense and some of the dialogue does not have tags, which can make it a bit confusing at points.

The only other slight limitation could be the emotional inaccessibility of the characters. At no point did I really find myself sympathetic to Dorian, but personally, I don't think we were meant to.

Writing Quality & Craft To me, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a gothic psychological study in the form of a moral allegory. The writing itself is exquisite. I think what makes this book still relevant today is its clarity of moral architecture. It does not soften or excuse Dorain. It does not invite the reader to rationalize his self-worship. Instead, it allows us to view all of Dorian's choices until the ending feels morally satisfying.

Final Thoughts While I don't have a good thesis at this point, I was intellectually riveted throughout the book, and I'm excited to go back through it and formulate my own thoughts on the symbolism and philosophical aspects of the novel.

Who I Would Recommend This To Readers who enjoy symbolic, allegorical fiction, appreciate philosophical/psychological studies, and, of course, anyone who loves gothic literature!

Scoring Breakdown 5's all the way down (Personal Enjoyment, Execution (did the book do what it set out to do?), writing & craft quality, characters, plot

All I’m gonna say, the hairy vagina thing is a natural DNF point. Perhaps research female parts before writing them into your story?

The whole book feels so annoying and juvenile with all the not funny sassiness from FMC in the first half of the book. I have no words, I should have stopped earlier.