The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

This was a good book, but the content was too short and simple to make me enthralled and the subject outside of my interest. Dorian Gray is a naive aristocratic young man in Victorian England that is first empty, then vain and then becomes callous, cynical, hedonistic and selfish.

His emptiness of spirit I think it could be attributed to a typical noble upbringing for the time, that resulted in an indifference to the world and no interest for intellectual or artistic pursuits. He would be a typical millennial these days, someone that never had to endure any real hardships, only cares about social events and dreads how boring life is.

This is not elaborated in the book, I'm just assuming that how he was before he met Basil Hallward. This is when he is told that because he is beautiful, nothing else matters. Basil encourages his vanity, but Dorian is still unaware of what all his youth and good looks can get him in the world if he would just learn how to use these qualities to “explore” others.

That's where Lord Henry comes in. He is the personification of everything that is rotten in the world. Well, I don't really think that, but that is how he is portrayed, as an alluring bad influence to young impressionable minds.

Dorian cannot help but to be attracted by this individual that is so interesting and confident. Someone who seems to know everything about life. All of his friends were probably mindless drones that just went with the flow, and suddenly comes into his life this magnetic personality that defies all common reason.

Lord Henry preaches a life of self pleasure, one that does not care for the interest of others as long as you do what is right for you. As times passes by, Dorian's plunges in more deeply into the corruption originated by this hedonistic lifestyle. And the ugliness of his soul is reflected in a portrait that his artist friend Basil has made for him.

Again, this was a good book, with a good message told in an interesting way. But it was not enough for me to like it too much. I'm giving it +1 star because it made a subject I don't care about (aesthetic) into a palatable short story.