I’ve been writing reviews for the past 12 books, which gets quite boring after a first few books. So starting this one, I’ll be writing a short summary and just give my rating.
This book revolves around 3 characters, Lord Henry, Basil the painter and obviously Dorian Gray. It begins with Basil painting a portrait of Dorian, who at the beginning of the book was a nice/pure hearted person, and Lord Henry introducing himself to Dorian, against the will of Basil. Basil didn’t want Henry to be known to Dorian as he was sure that Henry’s influence would corrupt Dorian. Which is exactly what happened.
Dorian’s behaviour started changing drastically when he met Henry. Henry’s lines were just so quotable and so so wrong. Sometimes I had to read the lines again to make sure that he didn’t mean the opposite. This is probably my most highlighted book till now, but the wrongness of those lines started getting so so funny after some time. Out of all the characters in the book, Henry is the one who fascinated me the most.
Getting back to the story, Dorian made a wish that he never ages and his wish actually comes true (which he didn’t realize till after some time). He fell in love with a girl who was an up-n-coming actress performing in a local theatre. He never told her his actual name and was known as Prince Charming (cringe). He proposes and she accepts. The next day, he brings Basil and Henry along with him to show them what he sees in her, and to his shock & dismay, her acting was nothing like it was before. It was quite the opposite and everything seemed to be wrong. He confronted her after the other two left, and found the reason for this change. Before meeting Dorian, she didn’t have anything else. She just fully portrayed the character she was meant to play that day, which changed after she met him. She finally found love. This explanation didn’t make sense to Dorian and he broke up with her in a really bad way. This caused her to kill herself.
Dorian got this news the next morning by Lord Henry. For the first 2 minutes, he was really shocked. He felt incredibly sad and responsible, which he should obviously. This all changed when Lord Henry spoke to him, and made him understand how he should not feel responsible (again an example of Henry’s wrong teachings). At this point, Dorian’s attitude changed and he became sort of a test subject for Henry’s philosophy in life. This was the first time Dorian looked at the portrait again, and saw that an evil/cruel look was upon the picture’s face now and not actually on his face. This was the moment he realized his wish had come true. He hid the picture in one of his rooms anddidn’t allow even Basil to see it again.
Several years passed and he was 38 now. He had a really bad rep in town. Anyone who seemed to be close to him seemed to fall from grace. He consumed opium and was in general a really bad person. The portrait and a really bad look now, yet his actual face was the same as the day the portrait was drawn. He accidentally ran into Basil one day. They went to Dorian’s house, where Basil started questioning him on the rumors which were being spread about Dorian. Dorian lost his mind and invited Basil upstairs to see the reason for all this. That’s when he showed the portrait to the artist who was shocked on looking at it. Dorian saw a knife, and struct it in Basil’s head. He died. Dorian didn’t feel anything even at that point. He blackmailed one of his past friends and made him dispose of the body (that friend also killed himself).
Dorian was still as normal as possible considering his behavior. This all changed when the brother of the girl he once loved found him, and tried to kill him. This was the turning point for him attitude towards life. He was actually scared to die. The brother of that girl got killed accidentally and a sigh of relief came to Dorian’s mind.
He thought why not actually be good now. He thought his portrait might be getting better now since he’s on the path of good now. But, when he came to the room in which the portrait was hidden, he was shocked to see that the picture had an even worse look. That’s when he lost his mind again and took a knife and stabbed the picture in the heart.
Dorain Gray was dead and the picture of Dorain Gray was back to the way it looked the day it was painted.
Rating: 8/10
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