A review by kmariek
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Before I read this, I was under the impression that the only reason the painting would change would be for aging, so the other ones were all thrilling. I liked comparing Dorian's relationship with Lord Henry and Basil, and the funny little details like a woman moving like a wild bird and leaving the room smelling of frangipani (a noun I've only heard used on Great British Bake Off). Some of the long discussions between groups of people were interesting and some were really hard to pay attention to, especially when Lord Henry was involved since he speaks almost entirely in extreme generalizations and seems like one of those people who thinks they understand everybody but is actually a bad judge of character. I can already feel it that the next time I realize I've done something shitty, I'll be imagining a picture of my face, but with a non-photogenic smile and visible snot up my nose.

Unrelated to the writing, I was enraged for awhile because even though I successfully avoided learning the ending of one of the most well known books of all time by age 30, just before starting it I read one sentence of the summary on the back cover to see

"this ends in a murder suicide!"

I was also enraged because when I was halfway through, I learned there's an abridged version, and the version I have doesn't say whether it is or not. I've never been happy to learn the book I'm reading has an abridged version. Oh got it, so this is the version somebody cut a bunch of details out of for some reason, nice.