Mike

A fascinating morality tale of a Dorian Gray, a young man who loses his soul in a painting. He meets a man who gives him some advice that changes his life.

“The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. 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 has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also. You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame—-”

Taking this to heart, Gray lives his life to his pleasure and does what his mind wants. Always lurking behind him, is a painting of himself that changes with each evil act he commits. As he grows older and more evil, Gray stays young and beautiful while the painting grows old and evil is etched onto its face.

This was more enjoyable to read than I had assumed and I’m glad to have read it. While some passages are slow, it is a generally quick read that is also an interesting character study. One of the better books I’ve read on this list.

I absolutely loved this movie so I was looking forward to reading this. However, I couldn’t get through it. For some reason, it was just not appealing to me. It was hard for me to be enthused by all the nautical descriptions and it felt like it took forever just for them to sail. By that time, I gave up.

Now I will attempt this book at a later date or maybe even another novel in the series. The movie, which was based off several of the novels, was a phenomenal movie that excites me on every viewing, but I don’t feel the same energy and excitement while reading the book.

I couldn’t even find a passage I felt was interesting enough to note on this entry.

I figured I would go to the top of the list and read Pride and Prejudice even though I was not really looking forward to it. I have to say, it wasn’t as bad as I assumed it would be, but I still didn’t enjoy it very much. It felt very drawn out in places and the italics drove me crazy. It seemed that Jane Austen felt that all the characters should emphasize most of their words and I felt like characters were always yelling or talking loudly to each other. It was a good story, although the ending felt very rushed and fit together too conveniently.
I know I’m not really doing the novel justice in this short write up, but I just was not enthused by it. While I may not be its biggest fan, I do recommend reading Pride and Prejudice simply for the experience of meeting the Bennet family and Mr. Darcy.

‘That is very true,’ replied Elizabeth, ‘and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.’
‘Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, ‘is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the works are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.’