The Picture of Dorian Gray

By Oscar Wilde, 1891

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray Summary

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a novel that delves into themes of beauty, morality, and the nature of art. It tells the story of Dorian Gray, a young man whose portrait ages and reflects his moral decay while he remains outwardly youthful and attractive. Influenced by Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian embarks on a hedonistic lifestyle, leading to tragic consequences.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray Excerpt

Short Summary: Dorian Gray, a handsome young man, has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward. Under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian wishes to remain youthful while the portrait ages. His wish is mysteriously granted, leading him down a path of moral degradation as the portrait reflects the consequences of his actions.

"The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as usual, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-colored blossoms of the laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid jade-faced painters who, in an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.

In the center of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself, Basil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time, such public excitement and gave rise to so many strange conjectures."

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