I really suck at writing reviews of books. Amazon has better reviews than I could write. Not to mention the countless number of book blogs that are out there.
(I’m a HUGE fan of book blogs.) And I don’t consider mine one so it’s not for that reason that I’m particularly fond of the genre.
I grew up in a small rural Wisconsin community. I was, even as a young girl, a voracious reader. I’ve never been part of a group of friends who all found solace and excitement in reading a good book and extolling it’s virtues. For the most part I don’t talk about my love of reading with my friends because they don’t “get it” and there is nothing more frustrating as a lover of books then to discuss that love with someone who just doesn’t “get it”. That was one of the problems with my marriage. My husband was so far from getting it. In high school he told me that I would be big geek if I wasn’t so cute. I know that was supposed to be a compliment but the thing is that I have always preferred to be recognized for my intelligence versus my appearance. I like it if someone is attracted to me, because we all know that physical attraction kinda helps a relationship, but I also want to be with someone who is attracted to my mind and with whom I can discuss a great book, beautiful music or a wonderful movie.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a book that I’ve wondered about since my sophomore year of college. My roommate that year was a high school classmate of mine. Straight A Salutatorian, Pre-Med and a Honor Student. I was in the midst of my own anatomy and physiology courses and a very important science of speech and hearing course. My free time was spent reading trashy romance novels that were popcorn for my brain. I remember watching her climb up in her bunk with this book night after night and wondering what it was that she was so caught up in. I’m certain that she was reading it for some Honors Literature course but I just remember thinking that someday I would read it to find out what she seemed so enthralled by.
So here, I’ve finally read Dorian Gray and I can mark it off my to be read list. I know that I’ve written NOTHING about the book but I don’t think I need to.
There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make us almost enamored of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with malady of reverie….. Out of the unreal shadows of the night comes back to the real life that we had known. We have to resume it where we had left off, and there steals over us a terrible sense of the necessity for the continuance of energy in the same wearisome round of stereotyped habits, or a wild longing, it may be, that our eyelids might open some morning upon a world that had been refashioned anew in the darkness for our pleasure, a world in which things would have fresh shapes and colours, and be changed, or have other secrets, a world in which the past would have little or no place, or survive, at any rate, in no conscious form of obligation or regret, the remembrance even of joy having its bitterness, and the memories of pleasure their pain.
I also read this book for the MizB- Casual Classics Challenge.
Filed under: book, classics, literature, quote, reading, reading challenge
I “get it.” Finding someone you can discuss a good book with is one of those great gifts in life.
I read Dorian Gray shortly after I dropped out of college. It was on a reading list one of my English professors gave me (I knew I’d be leaving college for a while and asked for a reading list).
I can’t do book reviews either. But I remember the book well, and it left a lasting impression. I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t take it off the shelf and give it another read now that I’m so much older. My perspective of a book changes with time.
I think, too, I was sort of caught up with Oscar Wilde after watching a program about Lillie Langtry. (Oscar Wilde once said of her, “I would rather have discovered Lillie Langtry than America.”).
He is the master of quotes!
When I was reading Dorian Gray I’d read something and know that I’d read that somewhere else and having it put into the context of the book and the dialog was wonderful.
I read Anna Karenina in high school and loved it then. As an unhappily married adult it meant something else entirely to me. I now plan to read it as a happily divorced Mom. So I know what you mean about a book changing as you change.
I started my blog when I moved away from a group of more bookish friends, so I know what you mean.
I don’t know if the world needs any more reviews of “Dorian Gray”, but stories, like the interesting one you told, of how you come to books or what books mean to you, are valuable.
Good luck finding time for the Classics Challenge – you have a great list of books.
I enjoy writing book reviews, but I don’t really often enjoy discussing books. Once in awhile, but not often.
I read Dorian Gray in HS, or maybe college, and I loved it. I should re read it sometime soon.
I re-read Madame Bovary a year or two ago, and boy, I saw it with entirely different eyes this time around. If you’re the least bit interested, I reviewed it here:
http://jellyjules.com/?p=619