Reviews with content warning for Racism - El Retrato de Dorian Gray

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

El Retrato de Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

102 reviews

macliffe's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I have been wanting to read this book for so long and it did not disappoint! Fully lived up to the hype.
I was hesitant because I’m not a horror reader, but this book did a good job of being gothic without having unnecessary gore or uncomfortable scenes.
The characters were so well done, especially Dorian.
I love how the message of the book is stated subtly at the beginning with Lord Henry saying the world needed a “new hedonism”. Then the plot gives Dorian that new hedonism, but he comes to realize that it doesn’t satisfy and only leaves him miserable.

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eloiseyoung's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

genz_reads_classics's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The book itself may not be special but holy CRAP those last 8 chapters had me shook.

First off, the characters are brilliant! (I’m sorry if I’m bad at analyzing character, that’s one of my main weaknesses. This book is very based in human thought and reasoning and i have trouble understanding those sorts of ideas. Which is why Harry is such a riot lmao)

Basil Hallward is probably the best one, he’s just so caring! Lord Harry sure loves talking and holy shit his thoughts on women are problematic..

it’s so clear how his charm and cunning spread to Dorian and in turn corrupting everyone else Dorian ever met with. It’s so tragic how Alan and Sibyl ended up because of Dorian. James was also so compelling! His love and determination and the fact he DIED FROM SHOOTING AT A RABBIT OR SOMETHING AND DORIAN WAS HAPPY?!

I swear Dorian is the most eerie character I’ve ever seen. He was perfectly calm talking to Harry, as managed to influence him so horribly.

especially the fact he was calm after killing Basil (which is a such a pretty name btw) aswell as his friends/lovers committing suicide and similar.

And the second Basil started giving good advice and care for Dorian he gets mad!

Poor Basil gets a dozen stabs to the neck. And then gets referred to as « the thing » for the next several pages. Horrific.

The ending was very good. If the book has me giggling and kicking my feet like a little goblin it’s a good one!

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lybrarie's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the first adult classic I ever read and I have it to thank for all the classics I have read since. I absolutely fell in love with this book the first time I read it, and several years later I still love it just as much. In fact, I'd even go as far to say that I love it more.

On my journey of reading classics I have come to be used to and even greatly enjoy the style of writing that typically comes with classics, and I have adored a lot of the classics I have read. But I always find myself comparing the love I have for whatever classic I have recently finished to my love for this book. It has been a real joy to come back to.

Since first reading this book, I have read some more of Oscar Wilde's writing and I truly do love it. Coming back to this book I really got to appreciate Wilde's writing and the beauty of it. This is a great book and I really recommend it to everyone. For me it was the perfect gateway into reading classics - it is short and pretty easy to read (as far as classics go), and I love the plot and the message of the book.

I originally only gave this book 4 stars, but now I am increasing it to 5. This book is not perfect, but since I rate off of overall enjoyment I still want to give this 5 stars.

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warlockdorian's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bxnnny's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

i found this book to be incredibly dull. the first 60 pages or so consist entirely of two introductions to the story, giving context for the political climate of the time this was published and the fact that so much of the original story was altered or removed. this is supposed to be the original, unaltered, more "graphic" version. but it wasn't graphic at all and was in fact quite a boring and dense letdown. i struggled to get through this because the writing was so dense, the monologues were long, and i just wasn't absorbing much of the information, mainly when lord henry would go on his long, misogynistic rants or the entire chapter in which about a decade of dorian's life passes. i truly have little clue what all was said in that chapter because it was just nonsense! long paragraphs of nonsense. the homosexuality was tame and mildly alluded to and nowhere near as graphic as it was made out to be and if i could travel back in time, i would simply tell everyone to grow up.

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blackberryjambaby's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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thetallestbird's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It's a slow start, but once it picks up it hooks ya! The prose, while gorgeous, did make for a bit of a slog at times. Overall, I'm glad I read it.

Content Warnings

sagelikesscats's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I will definitely return to this book. Great writing, great characters, and an amazing ending. I did find that all of the rich people problems get annoying towards the end, but still a fantastic book about beauty, morality, and heathenism.

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kananineko's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved this! Great classic. Probably one of the most digestible bc of its relatively short length. My only complaint would be that some sections dragged in the middle to me (all the super long descriptions of what Dorian was learning)

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