📚 The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” These profound words penned by Oscar Wilde effortlessly encapsulate the timeless allure of his magnum opus, “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” A literary masterpiece that challenges societal norms and delves into the depths of human nature, this novel remains as relevant today as it was when first published in 1890. As we delve into the dark depths of Dorian Gray’s story, we are confronted with profound questions about the true value of life and the pursuit of self-development.

About the book

Author:	Oscar Wilde
Year of release:	1890
Genre:	Classics, Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Gothic, Literature, Novels, Philosophy
Pages:	230
Average WPM:	354
Date Started/Finished:	24-Apr-2022 to 29-Apr-2022
Time took:	3.81 Hours

What I Liked About It and What I didn’t

• What I liked
  • The author does a great job at describing stuff
  • Good writing (but old style)
  • The side-character’s dialogues were great
• What I didn’t like
  • The story felt very predictable at a lot of parts, so did the ending

How I Discovered It

Noor A. had recommended it to me and (most importantly) gave me the physical book to read

Who Should Read It?

Whoever is self obsessed? xD

Top Quotes

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

None of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.

The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.

The aim of life is self-development.

It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place

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

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

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

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. That is all.

Summary + Notes

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The Preface

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

Chapter I

• Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration

• When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them.

• I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

• None of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.

• The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.

• In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.

Chapter II

• The aim of life is self-development.

• The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.

• It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place

• If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that – for that – I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!’

Chapter IV

• Lord Henry had not yet come in. He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.

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

• ‘Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.’

• You should not say the greatest romance of your life. You should say the first romance of your life. You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love.

• When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

• Was the soul a shadow seated in the house of sin? Or was the body really in the soul, as Giordano Bruno thought? The separation of spirit from matter was a mystery, and the union of spirit with matter was a mystery also.

• It often happened that when we thought we were experimenting on others we were really experimenting on ourselves.

Chapter V

‘To see him is to worship him, to know him is to trust him.’

Chapter VI

• Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

• I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do. If a personality fascinates me, whatever mode of expression that personality selects is absolutely delightful to me.

• The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

• When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy. –To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self

• Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.

• Being adored is a nuisance. Women treat us just as Humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them.’

Chapter VII

Only 2 kinds of people who are really fascinating

1. People who know absolutely everything
2. People who know absolutely nothing

Chapter VIII

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

• It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

• You cut life to pieces with your epigrams.

• I remember your saying once that there is a fatality about good resolutions – that they are always made too late

• One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.

Chapter IX

• To become the spectator of one’s own life, as Harry says, is to escape the suffering of life

• It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one’s worship into words.

Chapter X

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

Chapter VIII

• “You told me you had destroyed it.” – “I was wrong. It has destroyed me.”

Chapter XIV

• Leaning back with half-closed eyes, he kept saying over and over to himself: – “Devant une fac¸ade rose, Sur le marbre d’un escalier.”
  • Translation: Upon a red-faced town, On the marble of a stairway.

Chapter XV

• ‘I wish it were fin du globe’ said Dorian, with a sigh. ‘Life is a great disappointment.’
  • Translation: End of the world

• “What nonsense people talk about happy marriages!” exclaimed Lord Henry. “A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.”

• Her feet are very pretty, but they are not feet of clay. White porcelain feet, if you like. They have been through the fire, and what fire does not destroy, it hardens. She has had experiences.

Chapter XVI

• To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.

Chapter XVII

• When they make up their ledger, they balance stupidity by wealth, and vice by hypocrisy

• Said the Duchess, shaking her head; “and women rule the world. I assure you we can’t bear mediocrities. We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all.”

Chapter XVIII

• He shook his head. “Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful.”

Chapter XIX

• ‘My dear boy’ said Lord Henry, smiling, ‘anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there. That is the reason why people who live out of town are so absolutely uncivilized. Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt. Country people have no opportunity of being either, so they stagnate.’

• Lord Henry laughed. ‘If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart,’

• The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. That is all.

Chapter XX

As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace. He seized the thing, and stabbed the picture with it.

• When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.