An exquisitely beautiful young man in Victorian England retains his youthful and innocent appearance over the years while his portrait reflects both his age and evil soul as he pursues a life of decadence and corruption.
The moral of this story is that if you have a friend who says deplorable things then you should shun them before they corrupt you or your other friends.
A very gay story of a very impressionable and stupid man.
The prose was very purple and also masterbatory at times, making me go cross-eyed trying to slog through those parts. There are racist descriptions, but luckily (hah) Oscar Wilde only discussed non‐white goy except in passing.
The book ends rather abruptly and unsatisfactorily.
Granted I'm sitting on a pretty small sample size, but what few ~Classics~ from Victorian England that I have read, I have enjoyed, and this was largely more of the same with an every so slight paranormal twist. Which is to say I got exactly what I wanted out of this book.
This was a book club read and two of us (including me) read the normal version with 20 chapters, whereas the other two read the Uncensored version which came out a year earlier and was much shorter. It was interesting comparing the differences in real time and the discussion added to my reading experience. Also the particular printing that I read had plenty of helpful footnotes explaining specific references Wilde was making and pointing out individual sentences or paragraphs that were revised/edited from the original uncensored version that also made the read more enjoyable for me; I …
Granted I'm sitting on a pretty small sample size, but what few ~Classics~ from Victorian England that I have read, I have enjoyed, and this was largely more of the same with an every so slight paranormal twist. Which is to say I got exactly what I wanted out of this book.
This was a book club read and two of us (including me) read the normal version with 20 chapters, whereas the other two read the Uncensored version which came out a year earlier and was much shorter. It was interesting comparing the differences in real time and the discussion added to my reading experience. Also the particular printing that I read had plenty of helpful footnotes explaining specific references Wilde was making and pointing out individual sentences or paragraphs that were revised/edited from the original uncensored version that also made the read more enjoyable for me; I don't know that I would have liked it as much without the extra context.
There is a lofty chapter right in the middle of the book that acts as a sort of time skip in the overall plot, but it is entirely too long and flowery and gothic where literally no dialogue or dramatic action is taking place. I absolutely would have enjoyed this read more without that substantial speed bump placed right in the middle, but the beginning and end of the story help lift the overall work up.
