glabnob
A wonderful interplay between a lot of great themes: society's spectators and their objects of fascination, an artist and their art, an artist and their muse, naivete and cynicism, moralism and hedonism, the way we change through that which we consume and those with which we associate, one's pleasures and one's conscience, all that good stuff. The topics and their treatment were both engaging, and Wilde's writing was certainly lovely even if it did not pull me in the same way that others sometimes do. The half-star off of perfect is only for that. Some of my favorite moments would have to be our ever-quotable Lord Henry's "a saying for everything" manner of engaging with the world and Dorian's private moments of crisis. My least favorite would probably be some of the lengthy, indulgent descriptions of things (gems, flowers, etc.) found in the later portions; they may have illustrated well the extent to which Dorian was captured by these but did not capture me in the same way, and they were the only moments that I truly glazed over while reading.
A wonderful interplay between a lot of great themes: society's spectators and their objects of fascination, an artist and their art, an artist and their muse, naivete and cynicism, moralism and hedonism, the way we change through that which we consume and those with which we associate, one's pleasures and one's conscience, all that good stuff. The topics and their treatment were both engaging, and Wilde's writing was certainly lovely even if it did not pull me in the same way that others sometimes do. The half-star off of perfect is only for that. Some of my favorite moments would have to be our ever-quotable Lord Henry's "a saying for everything" manner of engaging with the world and Dorian's private moments of crisis. My least favorite would probably be some of the lengthy, indulgent descriptions of things (gems, flowers, etc.) found in the later portions; they may have illustrated well the extent to which Dorian was captured by these but did not capture me in the same way, and they were the only moments that I truly glazed over while reading.