From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

Start date: December 1, 2024

Finish date: January 1, 2025

Discussion: Current Monthly Group Read

Why we're reading this: December 2024 group read
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What Members Thought

Aug 05, 2021 Cari rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle-read, popsugar-2021

I honestly don't know what I think of this book. I read it with only the vaguest of preconceived notions - a man that sold his soul to the devil? What I got was classic Oscar Wilde - quips and paradoxes, a dark comedy of manners, a treatise on the the meaning (the virtue? the downfall?) of physical appearance and beauty? My mind keeps returning to it, so clearly it was captivating, but what did it mean? [[SPOILER]]] I think I'm the only person in the universe who somehow didn't pick up from popu ...more

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Oct 03, 2022 Beth Given rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

The artist Basil is enamored with the beauty of Dorian Gray, and proclaims his portrait of Dorian as his best work. Dorian vainly agrees, and in a Faustian bargain, exchanges his soul if he could always be as young and handsome as his portrait. He soon discovers that his own countenance retains its innocence in spite of his sins, while his portrait becomes uglier and older over time.

This classic Gothic novel was such a great read for October. I keep thinking about the themes and have explained t ...more

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Apr 11, 2019 Amy Ellis rated it did not like it

This is a re-read for me for book club, and I disliked it even more than the first time I read it. The last paragraph of the book is the best part of the whole book, both for its shock value and for the fact that it meant I am finally done with this piece of trash. I don’t even care if there is a deeper meaning about aesthetics, vanity and morality here—I seriously want to erase this book from my memory. Yuck.

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Jan 31, 2019 Ketutar Jensen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1000-soleils

“Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.”
Yes... I got that. The way Oscar talks about beauty and art and... the passage about the jewels and textiles... *sigh* Reminds me of C.S.Lewis' Surprised by Joy. Funny... but there is the same awe and wonder and helpless devotion there.
And how Basil got killed. I think Oscar knew his young beautiful beaus had the upper hand in their relationships...

I just kept think ...more

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