The Picture of Dorian Gray was perhaps my biggest surprise of the year in regards to my expectations for a book. I picked it up expecting it to be a typical classic exploring the lives of British aristocracy, and Wilde shut down that expectation immediately. Wilde’s prose is among the best I’ve ever read, his words each holding so much meaning, and so many passages exploring philosophy, art, beauty and morality each so quotable. I don’t like annotating books, but this one almost persuaded me to do so, and if I ever were to sit down and fully annotate something, Wilde has just comfortably secured the first place podium spot. 

Dorian as a protagonist was so interesting to, he having made a deal with the devil to trade his soul for the eternal beauty as depicted in his portrait, therefore his character is constantly fighting his morality, guilt and trying to hide from his friends both his supernatural secret and his sins as a consequence of it. He’s not a great person, though you can’t help at some points sympathising and at some points loathing. I sat and stared at the wall too many times to count when reading this, for each plot event had so much wider impact and opened up so many more lessons on morality. Wilde is such an incredible wordsmith, everything he’s ever written is now going on my TBR and I think The Picture of Dorian Gray has to break into my top five favourite books.