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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The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (et. al)
Genre: Philosophy/Politics Nonfiction

Blurb (on back of book): A rousing call to arms whose influence is still felt today
Originally published on the eve of the 1848 European revolutions, The Communist Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the worldview Marx and Engels developed during their hectic intellectual and political collaboration. Formulating the principles of dialectical materialism, they believed that labor creates wealth, hence capitalism is exploitive and antithetical to freedom.
This new edition includes an extensive introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones, Britain's leading expert on Marx and Marxism, providing a complete course for students of The Communist Manifesto, and demonstrating not only the historical importance of the text, but also its place in the world today.

MY OPINION: ***

It's very hard for me to rate a book like this one. This clearly is a simultaneously seminal and controversial piece of writing written in the height of the various revolutions and cacophony of 1848. I ultimately decided on a neutral rating because I wasn't really sure what I personally wanted to give it on a 1-5 scale. I read it for my European History class and actually kind of... enjoyed it? I wasn't a fan of all the things Marx talked about but the overall enjoyability was high. 

Marxism and the communist tenets written in this book are two completely different things. I'm not sure if a lot of people really grasp that. Marxism does not necessarily equate to the type of communism that the West loves to hate on. Yes, communism is based on a lot of Marxist ideas, but I wouldn't consider the two terms as interchangeable. 

Basically, this manifesto covers the ideas of class strife and the idea that the proletariat working class needs to rise up against the bourgeoisie middle class in a revolution to overthrow the oppression of capitalism. I'm pretty sure this has never been successful as envisioned in Marx's dreams but it's definitely an interesting idea. I wasn't really sure that his ideas really made the most sense. He wanted to get rid of class differences by establishing a new ruling class in an endless cycle of revolution. Huh. It seems like the idea of communism is that there are no classes and that everyone is theoretically "equal" in the end but this did not seem to really follow that pattern at its core.

He also acted as if the proletariat (his hopeful "ruling class") would one day give up their won power for the greater good. Ummm, I'm not sure if he was just socially unaware but that's not how people work. Nobody is going to give up the power that they worked so hard for just because it's going to help the greater good. Sorry to take the pessimistic side of things but people are selfish and greedy. It's at the core of human nature.

He basically argued for high taxes with no personal property and state ownership of all the credit and power of the people. Hmmm. I'm not really feeling it. I GUESS theoretically it sounds good but at the same time, it's hard to imagine the government having even more power over the people without extreme backlash (but maybe that's because I live in the highly capitalistic USA). 

I saw his vision but the execution will never be correct. I'm glad I finally got around to reading this one after hearing so much about it and how this piece was such an influential product of the Industrial Revolution era. I just personally do not think that Marx accounted for all the flaws in his idea and just ran with his utopian vision.

The ideas are interesting and I'd definitely recommend people read this one if they're interested in learning more about the origins of Marxism and communism. Take it with a grain of salt, though. The history major within me enjoyed it but the current modern-day contemporary student clearly didn't align with all of the ideas proposed in this manifesto.

Main Character: N/A
Sidekick(s): N/A
Villain(s): Capitalism, classes
Philosophy/Politics Elements: This is Marx's and Engels's political philosophy of communism.

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