The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde - UPDATED REVIEW

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde  Genre : Classics Blurb (on back of book) : Oscar Wilde’s only novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind. UPDATED REVIEW MY OPINION : ****** I would like to start out this review by stating that this is undoubtedly m
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Anne of Windy Poplars - L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
Genre: Classics

Blurb (on back of book): Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside--and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty--and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her delicious triumphs.

MY OPINION: ***

This one hurt. As a child, I vividly remember reading this particular one and feeling like it dragged on. However, this was all prior to my Goodreads/book-reviewing days so in my heart, this was a five stars. Now, as a wannabe-book-critic, I feel compelled to give my honest thoughts, even though the child in me wants to give it the five stars and move on. 

This was definitely my least favorite book in the series so far. It just doesn't really feel like an Anne novel. I know L.M. Montgomery wrote this one literally AFTER some of the later ones so it honestly felt like a filler novel written last-minute to account for the big time jump from the third and fifth books. Nothing in here was relevant to what we've gotten to know about Anne and her friends from the previous books and so it felt like, why am I reading this? I think if I were to ever reread this series again in the future, I'd skip this one because you can honestly do without it. 

This book, in contrast to the previous ones, is told in a combination of letters to Gilbert and the normal prose that we're used to. I'm just not a fan of epistolary writing and I don't think I ever will be. Especially since it felt like all of the letter excerpts cut out any of the interesting parts that you'd expect to find in a love letter to Gilbert and just literally recounts the gossip about every single non-important character in the book. It felt like L.M. Montgomery got sick of her regular cast, built in 30 new people, and then proceeded to give us their entire life stories and called it a day. 

I would have loved to see Gilbert's responses. We were so robbed of that man in this book. He doesn't appear at all (well, he does, in like one sentence that is glossed over "Anne and Gilbert were reunited blah blah") and it was very unsettling for us Shirbert fans. 

I found it really interesting to see how much of the content in this book about the rando people was taken and adapted into the second movie in the 1987 sequel to the Anne movies. I always thought they'd just gone off-script and wrote in some random plots for that movie but it turns out a lot of it was taken from this book, which was super fun. 

We basically get to see Anne playing the solution-giver and guardian angel for the many different characters in this book. We see a little Anne in Elizabeth and we definitely see a lot of the found family trope and Anne helping people in abusive or terrible situations similar to her own childhood, which was sweet. Even though she goes through her fair share of mistakes and scrapes, she emerges still as the angelic, sweet, lovable Anne we've known throughout the series. 

Aunt Chatty and Aunt Kate were lesbians in love and nobody can tell me otherwise.

On that note, Anne was a little bit in love with Katherine, and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Something you can always learn from an Anne book is that you should never judge someone by their cover because a kindred spirit can be found in the most surprising places.

It's honestly just a very picturesque image of a quaint assortment of neighbors and friends and enemies all coming together through Anne's will. I liked it well enough but it was definitely not at the same level as any of the books in this series. It took me several MONTHS (yes, MONTHS) to finish this one and I contemplated just quitting multiple times. However, I'd recommend reading it if you're going the series for the first time; otherwise, TBH, you can skip it and I won't tell anyone.

Main Character: Anne
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, neighbors, Gilbert, etc
Villain(s): Mistakes, gossip, etc
Classics Elements: This is a classic novel.

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