However, Byng is also tempted by the villainous Densdeth, who seems to want the protagonist to fall into a life of unspecified sin and debauchery. It is there that Byng meets his mysterious and reclusive neighbor Cecil Dreeme, and the two strike up a romantic friendship. An old friend lends Byng his rooms at Chrysalis College (an equivalent of real-life New York University, perhaps also partially modelled on the Tenth Street Studio Building). However, in modern times, the book has been referred to as "one of the modern classics of Western literature.Ĭecil Dreeme – Robert Byng has recently returned from his Grand Tour of Europe to settle in New York City. It deals with the artistic movement of the decadents, and homosexuality, both of which caused some controversy when the book was first published. The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered one of the last works of classic gothic horror fiction with a strong Faustian theme.
Dorian is selected for his remarkable physical beauty, and Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode of art. But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins.The Picture of Dorian Gray – The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you-well, of course you have an intellectual expression, and all that.
‘Too much of yourself in it! Upon my word, Basil, I didn’t know you were so vain and I really can’t see any resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made of ivory and rose-leaves. ‘Yes, I knew you would laugh but it is quite true, all the same.’ Lord Henry stretched his long legs out on the divan and shook with laughter. ‘I know you will laugh at me,’ he replied, ‘but I really can’t exhibit it. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.’
It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. ‘Not send it anywhere? My dear fellow, why? Have you any reason? What odd chaps you painters are! You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. Lord Henry elevated his eyebrows, and looked at him in amazement through the thin blue wreaths of smoke that curled up in such fanciful whorls from his heavy opium-tainted cigarette.
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