The Picture of Dorian Gray

What's the appeal of this work?
I finished it yesterday and I have to say that I don't get why this is considered such a great 'classic'.
The concepts of the book were good, using the painting to show the corruption and redemption of the soul.
But the actual excecution was not great imo. First of all, Lord Henry is a terrible character. A cycnic who is good with words but has absolutely nothing to say except some 'deep' one-liners. Could be an interesting side-character, but instead he takes the front stage for half of the book without ever actually stating a coherent line of thought.
Second, there was too much fluff. There are fiftheen pages about Dorian interest in jewels and tapestry.. And lots of totally uninteresting conversations and descriptions.

Does anyone feel the same way about this work?
Who disagrees and why?
Very interested to hear some opinions on this book.

If you hate Lord Henry then you're doing it right. He's loud, obnoxious, pretentious, loveless, and has nothing better to do than corrupt Dorian. You're supposed to hate him and the vain tragic path he seduces Dorian towards, away from Basil's aestheticism. The obsession with jewels and tapestry, and the gorgeous prose describing them, is meant to sicken the reader with beauty.

>You're supposed to hate him
Says who? It seems to me that Lord Henry is sometimes an advocate of many of Wilde's own ideas regarding art and sexuality.

> to sicken the reader with beauty.
What does that even mean?

>hating Lord Henry
faggot detected

>too much fluff
What is fluff and why do you consider there to be fluff in this novel?

The good part of the book is the first part when Lord Henry is in it.

Lord Henry is based. My favourite part is at the end where Dorian says that that edgy book he gave him destroyed his life and Henry doesn't give a shit
>dunno what you mean fampire that was just a book nobody forced you to do anything
Dorian destroyed his whole life because he took a glib edgelord seriously when he should have been listening to his pozbuddy artist friend. Absolute kinography.

with fluff I mean unneccesary and unintersting writing that only serves as filler between interesting parts.
This happens a lot in the novel, as with the chapters about Dorians passion for gems and tapestry. And also in the chapters themselves a lot of things are said and describeded that could just be cut.

>There are fiftheen pages about Dorian interest in jewels and tapestry.

Literally the point of that chapter is that it's boring and repetitive. As Dorian gains no pleasure from collecting the items, the reader gains no pleasure from reading about them.

>unneccesary
Because it doesn't serve the plot? Because nothing in the novel is without purpose.

I am assuming here you have not read it in english, and if so you haven not a profound enough knowledge of the tongue to appreciate the brilliant aestheticist style it is written in.

the writing in this book is so fucking good it could have no plot, it could talk about literally nothing at all and still be a magnificent read.

tl:dr kys

Does anyone know what actual book the yellow book is?

/thread

>Lord Henry is a terrible character. A cycnic who is good with words but has absolutely nothing to say except some 'deep' one-liners.
He's the corrupter. His one liners as you call them are supposed to be like good advice, but are endlessly corrupting.
>There are fiftheen pages about Dorian interest in jewels and tapestry
But they are beautifully written, and in my mind, it's to show how vain he is. It doesn't matter per se that they are jewels. It might as well be food, as many crooked souls today are addicted to food. Have you ever met a good christian boy eating like a spoiled pig, or indulging in his jewellery collection? Anyway, it's a very nice piece of work, and also very funny. the part where he murdered Basil, and casually told that he killed someone to the chemist who disliked Dorian made me laugh out loud desu

/thread
This.

Ah fuck. I got spoiled....

À rebours

It's a good book.

>le opening spoilers for a book you haven't read
Kys senp.

>What does that even mean?
You're supposed to think, "Jesus Dorian, chill the fuck out with this sinful obsession over material objects bro, that's not Christian."

Thank fuck I'm not the only one who thought the overly long descriptions of muh anesthetics were mundane.

*aesthetics

>anesthetics

Yeah, I agree with most of your points. Importance of Being Earnest is such a good play though that it elevates the rest of Wilde's work