The Picture of Dorian Gray in Rolling with the lgbt

Mar 09, 2023 Drew (Taylor's version)✨ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: wonderful-because-you-look-bonita, queer, kindle-unlimited

That ending tho

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Aug 08, 2021 Eva B. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: queer-leads, adult, favorite-characters, metaphorical-tears-were-shed, eat-his-heart-in-the-marketplace, poe-party-authors

The first time I tried to read THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, I made the mistake of starting it in bed after a long day of hiking that left me tired and therefore emotional. Due to what I’d like to think was my body being in pain after going up an ungodly amount of stairs to see waterfalls and my still-fresh knee injury, I was fighting back tears while reading the introduction. (It was definitely the introduction’s doing.) This introduction…surprised me. I started the book before my Oscar Wilde pha The first time I tried to read THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, I made the mistake of starting it in bed after a long day of hiking that left me tired and therefore emotional. Due to what I’d like to think was my body being in pain after going up an ungodly amount of stairs to see waterfalls and my still-fresh knee injury, I was fighting back tears while reading the introduction. (It was definitely the introduction’s doing.) This introduction…surprised me. I started the book before my Oscar Wilde phase really kicked in (started the book in August, became truly fascinated with the man in September, due in part to Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party) but I had the vague general knowledge of his trial. And to read that this book was used as evidence in his trial hit me like a hammer to the gut because—as a queer person, as a writer, as a person who writes stories with queer characters—the thought of something as personal as a novel being turned into a weapon against me is truly the stuff of nightmares. The thought that a thing you spend so much of your life on being thrown in your face and used to put you in prison is horrifying beyond words for me.
So, as I am not a fan of crying, I elected to put the book down for a bit.
And then this year I decided to finish it.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is a novel that’s true intent has been relayed through subtleties. It’s a story where each word has been chosen with a surgeon’s precision and slicked with at least a semblance of a “no homo bro” glaze, but with the censored intent juuuust underneath. Or sometimes just in plain sight. And I’m sure someone who’s smarter, more eloquent, and less sleep deprived than me has written some essay or review on that topic so read theirs instead. Dorian and his corruption was compelling to follow, his slow shift from a wide-eyed young man with a streak of vanity to a man who commits murder and blackmails another man into destroying the evidence is like a boulder picking up speed as it rolls down a hill. Henry had a unique charisma that made me hang onto his every word, no matter how paradoxical or vile. And Basil…Basil, who clearly loves Dorian with a love that dare not speak its name…
I adored this book and now have the strong urge to order a copy of the uncensored edition to see how they compare. ...more

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