The Picture Of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only known novel that Oscar Wilde wrote. I really wish we knew about another one, because after reading this book, I WANT MORE!! I don't want to give too much away by talking about it, but I will say this... If Alfred Hitchcock was not influenced by this book, I wonder where he was getting his inspiration. It is like a Hitchcock film on steroids. So many plot twists and turns... lots of character development, at least of Dorian himself. Can you tell I loved it?
Here are just a few quotes that stuck out to me:

"I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself."

Have you ever met someone who has had that sort of effect on you? I have yet to do so... but the way he worded that description of feeling is wonderful!! The book is filled with language like this.


"We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible."

I liked this simply because I don't believe it is true. If it was true, what a sad life someone would lead. Yet at the same time, I see some truth in it. If you have a great time with someone or somewhere, you wish you could relive the experience over and over again... there is great joy and sadness in this statement.


"'what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose'-how does the quotation run?-'his own soul'?"

The kicker of the book... we search after things to gratify our desires in this world and in the end we feel nothing more than empty... sometimes more empty than when we began. This book reflects a lot of the thoughts of Solomon in Ecclesiastes. The hidden life is the scariest life to lead. What is done in secret no man can see, but God sees it all. How foolish we are to think we can hide from Him!!


"It had brought melancholy across his passions. Its mere memory had marred many moments of joy. It had been like conscience to him. Yes, it had been conscience. He would destroy it."

I hope I never get to the point in my life where sin has taken such a tole on me that I would want to snuff the very thing that gives me life. Pure selfishness, but made me really reflect on myself.


Go out to your local thrift store and pick up this book if you haven't read it yet, or you don't own it. I see it at the thrift store all the time. If not there, check it out from the library and if you love it buy it!! It is well worth the read!