The picture of Dorian Gray

I am embarrassed to admit that there are many pieces of classic literature I have not read. Despite having always been a voracious reader, many things escaped me, probably because I am always too busy reading fantasy novels, occult books and manga. So I've decided to make a list of some classics I skipped over and finally read them (I want to read 40 books this year to fulfill my challenge on Goodreads, and this seems like a good way to do it.) Beginning with 'The picture of Dorian Gray'.

I recently got a small book of Oscar Wilde quotes, many of which came from this book. I thought it was very interesting, and it's also interesting to me that it was so controversial at the time it was written. I expected it to have smut or more than just homoerotic subtext, the romantic ideas one of the men held towards Dorian were actually very beautifully written. The entire book is really beautiful to read, however I will admit that when Henry begins a long speech about the nature of humankind, supposing that his own views on life, women, marriage, morality etc represent humans as a whole, my eyes start gradually unfocusing and I skimmed over a lot of them.

The ending of the book was really interesting and while I know that many people might find novels from this era very boring to read, this book was really cool and I would recommend it. I don't believe that a book being influential makes it automatically good, it can still be dull for modern readers, but I liked it primarily because I prefer stories that have a supernatural or magical element and the idea of a portrait that takes on the sins of the person or ages in place of them is very magical.