Review: The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My last reading session was 21 minutes. I finished reading this book on Thursday, June 1, 2023 at 12:22 p.m.

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The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde-Notes & Highlights

So this is a Sister Summer Book Club book choice! Well, actually, we are going to be reading from my personal copy, which is the censored version, which is okay with me. I can read that book for a second time! But I was really really excited to read the uncensored version. I've never read that version before. I borrowed it from the library and I am super excited to read it. I'm gonna be reading it with the accompanying audiobook on Hoopla. I hope to finish reading it before June 1st. I think I can do that since this version is shorter.

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* So far I've noticed some differences in the storyline. I've read up to chapter 7. In this uncensored 13 chaptered version I noticed that Sybil killed herself by some poison. I don't remember exactly how Sybil killed herself in the main version, but I think she drowned herself like Ophelia did. Another thing I noticed was that Basil revealed a secret to Dorian. I can clearly see why they made him cut it out. All this gay love was too much for them Victorians! XD Basil basically confessed his love to Dorian and Dorian thought it strange lol. I'm just really glad that Dorian didn't kill Basil for this confession. Great! Now I'm thinking about Dorian/Basil fanfiction! Ahhhhh! XD :P ;P. I really hope that Dorian doesn't kill Basil in this version!

“The love that he bore him, for it was really love, had something noble and intellectual in it” (150).

I love that Dorian loves Basil back! <3

“The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable. There were passions in him that would find their terrible outlet, dreams that would make the shadow of their evil real” (150).

I like this quote.

“Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities” (174).

I thought that this said insecure. But insincerity is true here too. It makes you think...

* Ah man! I really wish that Basil didn't need to die in this story!

“He sighed, and took up the book again, and tried to forget” (197).

“I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days have been your sonnets’” (212).

Interesting thought, Henry.

“It was better not to think of the past. Nothing could alter that. It was of himself, and of his own future, that he had to think” (214).