The Portrait of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde, published in 1890 (revised in 1891) and written in the context of the Victorian era. The author includes themes of aesthetics such as art, beauty, youth, morals and hedonism. The novel is fantastic, but also philosophical, and highlights the equivocal personality of the Irish dandy as well as the current decadentist, prompting virulent exchanges of letters between Wilde and several very critical papers judging the work "repugnant". It is also Wilde's only novel in his ...
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The Portrait of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde, published in 1890 (revised in 1891) and written in the context of the Victorian era. The author includes themes of aesthetics such as art, beauty, youth, morals and hedonism. The novel is fantastic, but also philosophical, and highlights the equivocal personality of the Irish dandy as well as the current decadentist, prompting virulent exchanges of letters between Wilde and several very critical papers judging the work "repugnant". It is also Wilde's only novel in his entire career. Summary Dorian meets Lord Henry, says Harry, a friend of Basil Hallward, a renowned painter. Conscious of the fascination and perversion that Lord Henry might have for his ideal of beauty, "this simple and beautiful nature," Basil asks Lord Henry not to attempt to corrupt him. But Dorian lets himself be seduced by theories about youth and the pleasure of this new friend who reveals it to himself by flattering him: "A new hedonism ... You could be the visible symbol. With your personality, there is nothing you can do. " From then on, he became deeply jealous of his own portrait painted by Basil Hallward. He expressed the hope that the painting would age in its place in order to be able to preserve its beauty as a teenager. "If I were still young and the portrait grows old in my place! I would give everything, everything so that it would be so. There is nothing in the world that I would not give. I would give my soul! ". Eventually the young man falls in love with an actress whose fascination, Sibyl Vane, and promises him marriage. But his love for Dorian prevents Sibyl from embodying her characters as she did before and her game becomes very bad, which can be seen by Basil and Lord Henry that Dorian took with him to the theater. Deeply disappointed and humiliated, Dorian repudiates Sibyl and leaves her brutally, leaving her collapsed. On returning he notices on the portrait an expression of cruelty which he did not know. He begins to suspect that his senseless wish might have been realized. The next day Harry learns of Sibyl's suicide. Surprisingly, he only feels a superficial pain at the announcement of this death: "However, I must admit that this event did not move me as much as it should have. It seems to me as the sublime denouement of an astonishing piece. He has all the frightful beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I played a great part but from which I emerged unscathed. ". It is a pivotal moment of the novel, the moment when Dorian's return is no longer possible, although he does not know it yet. The portrait began to change: Dorian's soul is no longer that of the innocent young man who could feel compassion for his fellow men....
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