The Picture of Dorian Gray

Basil Hallward’s studio was filled with the rich scent of roses drifting in from the garden, and in the middle of the room stood his latest painting: the full-length portrait of an astonishingly beautiful young man.Basil’s friend, Lord Henry Wotton, lay stretched on a divan nearby, smoking one cigarette after another and admiring the canvas with open envy.

“It’s the best thing you’ve ever painted, Basil,” Lord Henry said. “You must send it to the gallery this year.”“I don’t think I’ll exhibit it at all,” Basil answered, looking away. “I’ve put too much of myself into this portrait.”Lord Henry laughed in surprise, insisting that no one could ever mistake Basil’s own rough, thoughtful face for the flawless young man on the canvas.

“You don’t understand me,” Basil said quietly. “Every portrait painted with real feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the person sitting for it.”“The face on the canvas is only an accident. What it truly shows is the secret of my own soul, and that is exactly why I can never let it be shown.”

Lord Henry pressed him for the real story, and at last Basil agreed to explain, though he warned that his friend would hardly believe it.Two months earlier, Basil said, he had gone to a crowded party at Lady Brandon’s, dreading the usual dull small talk of the season.

Standing among the tedious guests, Basil suddenly felt someone watching him, turned, and saw a strikingly beautiful young man for the very first time.The instant their eyes met, Basil felt a strange rush of fear, sensing that this stranger’s presence alone was powerful enough to take over his whole life and art.It was not his conscience warning him, he said, but something closer to plain cowardice, and he tried at once to slip quietly out of the room.

But Lady Brandon caught him at the door before he could escape, and dragged him through the crowd toward the very young man he had been trying to avoid.Face to face at last, their eyes met again, and Basil felt certain, as the young man later admitted too, that they were somehow always meant to know each other.“And who is this remarkable young man?” Lord Henry asked, delighted by the story so far.“Dorian Gray,” Basil said. “Though I never meant to tell even you his name.”

When Lady Brandon introduced them, she bungled the introduction so badly — mixing up his family, his talents, even what instrument he supposedly played — that both young men burst out laughing on the spot.“Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship,” Lord Henry said, and Basil admitted it was, in fact, exactly how theirs had begun.Lord Henry sat up with new interest and announced that he simply had to meet this Dorian Gray for himself.Basil frowned, warning his friend not to come near Dorian at all — he feared, more than he could explain, what Lord Henry’s clever, corrupting talk might do to someone so young and impressionable.