Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

El Retrato de Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

65 reviews

willow1113's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Antisemitism, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Suicide and Toxic relationship

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Knowing about Oscar Wilde's past is crucial to reading this novel. It's not just that his gayness was an open secret, but that his targets weren't just men, but also boys. As in actual teenage children. Wilde was also openly Antisemitic and misogynistic in his real life and throughout the novel. What his three main characters do, say, think, and feel very closely mirrors Wilde's own. Much like the titular Dorian, it is clear that Wilde suffered from an inflated ego, was bloated with pride, and had a conscience that weighed him down...but not enough to change, grow, or do better. Trigger warnings abound throughout this novel as we watch Dorian explore the world of vice and sin, leaving a body count in his wake.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

exceptionallyrainytuesdaynight's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Racial slurs, and Antisemitism

starryknightace's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

1.5

Such an interesting concept but didn't age well into the 21st century. With controversial anti-Semitism and misogyny dotted throughout the story it made it easy to dislike the characters and made for an interesting read. I personally struggle with the classic English writing style and found at times struggling to understand what I was reading, Wilde uses a lot of flowery descriptive paragraphs, which were quite honestly, boring. I found myself 70 pages in and gritting my teeth to get through the rest. Admittedly the action did somewhat pick up and I found myself enthralled to see the confliction in Dorian Gray's moral come to blows. A bit of a lackluster climax but definitely can see the appeal and why the novel is still considered a classic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Antisemitism

doriandelioncourt's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

cowardlyteaman's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

While the focus here isn't primarily anyone's sexuality (though it is mentioned), but Dorian's own relation with himself and the not traditionally masculine way this was written. I can see how this is an important piece in LGBT history.

I really enjoyed this read, and I love how varied the characters personalities are. On the question «Is the cast diverse?» I said no only because they're all white and in connection to the upper class, and that's what I assume the question is about, not the personality of the characters themselves.

This was wonderfully written, and entertaining as well, but the little thing I'm missing is a personal relation to them. I liked Basil, I liked Dorian, but neither evoked any stronger feeling than that.

Also, I must say that I got nervous for a while there, but am glad it ended with some death and tragedy.

Definitely worth a read! It's not very long, and has a limited set of important characters, so it's not hard to keep up with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Suicide, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Antisemitism

neali's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Racial slurs

bxnnny's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism

keelia_swafford1's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

thequeercaseofmarius's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

Dark, bewitching, and so very gay. 

‘Why is your friendship so fateful to young men?’ 

In The Picture of Dorian Gray; Oscar Wilde crafts a narrative of Queer love, desire, vanity, and fear, embodied in a twink who wishes to remain young and beautiful forever. Wilde’s only novel is one that is both frighteningly fantastical, but also harrowingly personal. In Dorian we see the picture of the dark version of ourselves; the Hyde to our Jekyll, and it is his ability to transform with each reader that makes The Picture of Dorian Gray so enduring as a staple of Queer Literature, and one of the bestselling titles in Penguin’s Classics series.

Wilde’s writing and descriptions are breathtakingly beautiful, so much so that I would find myself rereading the same sentences over and over again. Wilde’s genius and intellect is also evident in the text, and his use of Queercoding through historical and art references is very clever.

Our main cast of characters are so very gay, and it’s crazy because it’s almost like Wilde met my gay friends and acquaintances and wrote a book about us (I like to think that I am Basil). But I also see each character as a different side to the Queer experience; Basil being the Queer artist who represents the beauty and tenderness of love between men, Lord Henry as the witty sass Queen that gay men are often viewed as from the outside, and Dorian represents Queer fears and anxieties that most of us have experienced some point in our life. The result is one of the most ingenious Queer horror stories ever written. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray should be a (not-so) straight five-stars, however it does contain some racism and anti-semitism that I can’t ignore. It is a book of it’s time, but I’m also aware of writers and people from Wilde’s time who tried their best at not being racist. I think it’s important to appreciate this novel for everything good about it, but also to recognise it’s faults rather than excuse them, so that we as the readers can grow as people. 

‘Each man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray’s sins are no one knows. He who finds them has brought them.’

-Oscar Wilde 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Antisemitism, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny and Sexism

This novel is VERY dark as it covers a lot of internalised homophobia and fear of your own Queerness.