The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Right now I seem to be on a classics stint with my reading, so it was natural I would eventually come to this book. To be honest the only reason I decided to read it was because I really liked the name Dorian Gray. Here's the Goodreads summary:

Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “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.”

I have mixed feelings about Oscar Wilde- in a way I want to hate him, but at the same time I can't. You get the sense from reading his work that he's a very skilled writer, but he's well aware of that fact and so his arrogance leaks into his writing. It reminds me of something Holden Caulfield said in The Catcher In The Rye- I can't remember the exact quote but he says that he doesn't like actors because if they're good they know they're good, and then that detracts from their performance because it gets contrived...it seems the same with Oscar Wilde. Some things are subtle and well written, but most of the time he isn't even trying for subtlety and really just wants to get his points across and make sure the audience appreciates him. Nevertheless, I really did enjoy the book. The plot was really very interesting- the painting that would grow old and bear his sins whilst Dorian Gray would stay forever young and would be able to sin as much as he wanted. There were some parts that were really slow to get through (there's literally like ten pages describing different types of jewels and perfumes and musical instruments, where I was left wondering why) but reading some of the witty and fast-paced conversations between the characters was a lot of fun, and there was a plenitude of good quotes to take away. 

The book started to make a lot more sense after I read up a little bit on Oscar Wilde and the aestheticism movement: valuing beauty above all else. That was definitely the hugest focus of the book, but what's intriguing is that even though Wilde was a member of the movement, he almost seems to be condemning it in his book. The obsession with youth and beauty above all else ends in ruin for Dorian and the people around him, and Wilde portrays the decadence of the upper classes as a sin. The ringleader of all this hedonistic thought and persuasion, Lord Henry, is shown pretty clearly as the Devil himself, and yet I found that he was my favorite character in the book- his pithy observations about society and human nature were charming and clever and he was oddly charismatic despite not really being involved in anything or giving any of himself to the situations... he remained at a distance, simply influencing the other characters in the story, which corresponds pretty strongly with the role of the Devil, I suppose.

*Spoilers*

Although the ending was pretty easy to predict, I liked it a lot- that Dorian Gray still had that part of him that wanted to be good, and in the end he was able to purify his own soul by accepting his sins. 

*Spoilers over*

Although I didn't really connect to this book, and at some moments couldn't help rolling my eyes, there's no doubt it was masterfully written and that it's earned its place as a classic. I would definitely recommend that everyone read this.

Favorite Quotes:

"But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think."

"The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it."

"...there is no doubt that genius lasts longer than beauty."

"And the mind of a thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value."

"Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly--that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. The have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one's own self. Of course, they are charitable. They feed the hungry and clothe the beggar. But their own souls starve, and are naked. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion--these are the two things that govern us."

"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."

"The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test reality we must see it on the tight rope."

"I am too fond of reading books to care to write them."

"If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it in conversation."

"Nowadays, people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

"There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up."

"Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting people in what they are."

"And there was a terrible consumption of nuts going on."

"I love acting. It is so much more real than life."

"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us."

"I didn't say I liked it, Harry. I said it fascinated me. There is a great difference."

"Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil."

"She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness."

"Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity."

"Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it."

"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."

"I don't think there have been such lilacs since the year I met you."

First Chapter, First Paragraph

First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea , where you share the first paragraph of a book you are thinking of reading. This week I chose Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. I've had it sitting on my shelf for a long time and I've never gotten around to reading it, so maybe I will soon.

"Most illustrious lord father-

We are terribly saddened by the death of your cherished sister, our dear aunt; but our sorrow at losing her is as nothing compared to our concern for your sake, because your suffering will be all the greater, Sire, as truly you have no one else left in your world, now that she, who could not have been more precious to you, has departed, and therefore we can only imagine how you sustain the severity of such a sudden and completely unexpected blow. And while I tell you that we share deeply in your grief, you would do well to draw even greater comfort from contemplating the general state of human misery, since we are all of us here on Earth like strangers and wayfarers, who soon will be bound for our true homeland in Heaven, where there is perfect happiness, and where we must hope that your sister's blessed soul has already gone.Thus, for the love of God, we pray you Sire, to be consoled and to put yourself in His hands, for, as you know so well, that is what He wants of you; to do otherwise would be to injure yourself and to hurt us, too, because we lament grievously when we hear you are burdened and troubled, as we have no other source of goodness in this world but you. 

I will say no more, except with all our hearts we fervently pray the Lord to comfort you and be with you always, and we greet you dearly with our ardent love.

FROM SAN MATTEO, THE TENTH OF MAY 1623

Most affectionate daughter,

S. Maria Celeste

The day after his sister Virginia's funeral, the already world-renowned scientist Galileo Galilei received this, the first of 124 surviving letters from the once-voluminous correspondence he carried on with his elder daughter. She alone of Galileo's three children mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante."

What do you think? Do you want to keep reading? Have you read this book--did you like it? I'd love to hear!

How To Read Literature Like a Professor- by Thomas C. Foster

Finishing this book felt like saying au revoir to a friend after having had a particularly satisfying discussion with them; to an extent you wish you didn't have to go, but at the same time you feel mentally sated. Thomas Foster really does feel like a friend when you're reading through his book. He speaks straight to you, the reader, and he doesn't take himself too seriously, either. He's a professor yes, but he cedes multiple times throughout the book that being a professor does not mean his word is law, particularly in literature, since it can be interpreted so many ways. Instead, in How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster provides a comprehensive guide to approaching works of literature, outlining the checklist of things to consider when reading, and he goes about it all in a patient and entertaining manner.

How To Read Literature Like a Professor, is, basically, an extremely condensed college course in literature. Foster spends a few pages explaining topics ranging from interpretations of the seasons to the appearance of baptism in it's many forms. The first chapter is a nice, soft lead-in to the book, talking about how most trips are quests. I'm pretty sure that he started the book this way because you can immediately put identifying quests to use; they pop up everywhere. The night I started reading this book I watched Django Unchained, and almost immediately I jerked my pointer finger at the tv and shouted "THIS IS A QUEST FOSTER SAYS SO" But soon after Foster delves into less obvious interpretations and themes; one of his next chapters is about vampires in literature, and yet the examples he uses are not pulled from Stephanie Meyer or Anne Rice. Not even Bram Stoker. No, he references "Daisy Miller", about a young woman who is struggling in a romance with someone in a different social system than her, and although this might not sound like an ooky spooky vampire tale, as Foster explains further, you realize the clues are as plain as day- the older man who is sucking the life force from a younger woman, etc. Throughout the chapters, the reader is provided with an array of examples from literature, and the list of sources at the back of the book is a dozen pages long, and it helps to elucidate his points, as well as makes you want to read more than a few titles he mentions.

I've mentally dubbed this "The Reader's Textbook", and like math, or science, it's good to read the textbook before getting into quadratics or conducting an experiment. I promised myself that I wouldn't read any other books until I finished this one, because I feel like there's so much to understand that I didn't even pick up on before reading this. I really wish that I had been introduced to this book earlier; there are so many books that I'm absolutely certain I haven't appreciated to their full potential simply because so much of the subtlety went right over my head. I would say this book is a must-read, and is the newest addition to my list of favorites. But the message it really sends, at the end of the day, is that to be a good reader, as with anything, you have to practice. The more you read, the better a reader you will be.