7th_The Picture of Dorian Gray

7/25/2019 7th_The Picture of Dorian Gray

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

CHAPTER 1 The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirredamidst 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!

"rom the corner of the divan of Persian saddle #ags on which he was lying, smoking, as was hiscustom, innumera#le cigarettes, $ord Henry %otton could &ust catch the gleam of the honeysweet and honey coloured #lossoms of a la#urnum, whose tremulous #ranches seemed hardlya#le to #ear the #urden of a #eauty so flamelike as theirs' and now and then the fantastic shadowsof #irds in flight flitted across the long tussore silk curtains that were stretched in front of thehuge window, producing a kind of momentary (apanese effect, and making him think of those

pallid, &ade faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarilyimmo#ile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion!

The sullen murmur of the #ees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling

with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling wood#ine, seemed tomake the stillness more oppressive! The dim roar of $ondon was like the #ourdon note of adistant organ!

)n the centre of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full length portrait of a youngman of e*traordinary personal #eauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting theartist himself, +asil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time,such pu#lic e*citement and gave rise to so many strange con&ectures!

As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art, asmile of pleasure passed across his face, and seemed a#out to linger there! +ut he suddenly

started up, and closing his eyes, placed his fingers upon the lids, as though he sought to imprisonwithin his #rain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake!

)t is your #est work, +asil, the #est thing you have ever done,said $ord Henry languidly!

-ou must certainly send it ne*t year to the .rosvenor! The Academy is too large and too vulgar!%henever ) have gone there, there have #een either so many people that ) have not #een a#le tosee the pictures, which was dreadful, or so many pictures that ) have not #een a#le to see the

people, which was worse! The .rosvenor is really the only place!

) don/t think ) shall send it anywhere,he answered, tossing his head #ack in that odd way that used to make his friends laugh at him at0*ford!

o, ) won/t send it anywhere!$ord Henry elevated his eye#rows and looked at him in ama2ement through the thin #luewreaths of smoke that curled up in such fanciful whorls from his heavy, opium tainted cigarette!




ot send it anywhere3 4y dear fellow, why3 Have you any reason3 %hat odd chaps you painters are5 -ou do anything in the world to gain a reputation! As soon as you have one, youseem to want to throw it away! )t is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worsethan #eing talked a#out, and that is not #eing talked a#out! A portrait like this would set you far

a#ove all the young men in England, and make the old men 6uite &ealous, if old men are ever capa#le of any emotion!

) know you will laugh at me, he replied, #ut ) really can/t e*hi#it it! ) have put too much of myself into it!$ord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed!

-es, ) knew you would' #ut it is 6uite true, all the same!Too much of yourself in it5 7pon my word, +asil, ) didn/t know you were so vain' and ) reallycan/t see any resem#lance #etween you, with your rugged strong face and your coal #lack hair,and this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose leaves!

%hy, my dear +asil, he is a arcissus, and you well, of course you have an intellectuale*pression and all that! +ut #eauty, real #eauty, ends where an intellectual e*pression #egins!)ntellect is in itself a mode of e*aggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face!

The moment one sits down to think, one #ecomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid!$ook at the successful men in any of the learned professions! How perfectly hideous they are5E*cept, of course, in the Church! +ut then in the Church they don/t think! A #ishop keeps onsaying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a #oy of eighteen, and as anatural conse6uence he always looks a#solutely delightful!

-our mysterious young friend, whose name you have never told me, #ut whose picture reallyfascinates me, never thinks! ) feel 6uite sure of that! He is some #rainless #eautiful creature whoshould #e always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our intelligence! 8on/t flatter yourself, +asil9 you are not in theleast like him!

-ou don/t understand me, Harry,answered the artist!

0f course ) am not like him! ) know that perfectly well! )ndeed, ) should #e sorry to look likehim! -ou shrug your shoulders3 ) am telling you the truth! There is a fatality a#out all physical

and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the falteringsteps of kings! )t is #etter not to #e different from one/s fellows!The ugly and the stupid have the #est of it in this world! They can sit at their ease and gape at the

play! )f they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat! They liveas we all should live undistur#ed, indifferent, and without dis6uiet! They neither #ring ruin uponothers, nor ever receive it from alien hands! -our rank and wealth, Harry' my #rains, such as theyare my art, whatever it may #e worth' 8orian .ray/s good looks we shall all suffer for what thegods have given us, suffer terri#ly!




8orian .ray3 )s that his name3asked $ord Henry, walking across the studio towards +asil Hallward!

-es, that is his name! ) didn/t intend to tell it to you!

+ut why not3

0h, ) can/t e*plain! %hen ) like people immensely, ) never tell their names to any one! )t is likesurrendering a part of them! ) have grown to love secrecy! )t seems to #e the one thing that canmake modern life mysterious or marvellous to us! The commonest thing is delightful if one onlyhides it! %hen ) leave town now ) never tell my people where ) am going! )f ) did, ) would loseall my pleasure! )t is a silly ha#it, ) dare say, #ut somehow it seems to #ring a great deal of romance into one/s life! ) suppose you think me awfully foolish a#out it3

ot at all,

answered $ord Henry,not at all, my dear +asil! -ou seem to forget that ) am married, and the one charm of marriage isthat it makes a life of deception a#solutely necessary for #oth parties! ) never know where mywife is, and my wife never knows what ) am doing!

%hen we meet we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the8uke/s we tell each other the most a#surd stories with the most serious faces! 4y wife is verygood at it much #etter, in fact, than ) am! :he never gets confused over her dates, and ) alwaysdo! +ut when she does find me out, she makes no row at all! ) sometimes wish she would' #utshe merely laughs at me!

) hate the way you talk a#out your married life, Harry,said +asil Hallward, strolling towards the door that led into the garden!) #elieve that you are really a very good hus#and, #ut that you are thoroughly ashamed of your

own virtues! -ou are an e*traordinary fellow! -ou never say a moral thing, and you never do awrong thing! -our cynicism is simply a pose!

+eing natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose ) know,cried $ord Henry, laughing' and the two young men went out into the garden together andensconced themselves on a long #am#oo seat that stood in the shade of a tall laurel #ush! Thesunlight slipped over the polished leaves! )n the grass, white daisies were tremulous!After a pause, $ord Henry pulled out his watch!

) am afraid ) must #e going, +asil,he murmured,

and #efore ) go, ) insist on your answering a 6uestion ) put to you some time ago!

%hat is that3said the painter, keeping his eyes fi*ed on the ground!




-ou know 6uite well!

) do not, Harry!

%ell, ) will tell you what it is! ) want you to e*plain to me why you won/t e*hi#it 8orian .ray/s

picture! ) want the real reason!

) told you the real reason!

o, you did not! -ou said it was #ecause there was too much of yourself in it! ow, that ischildish!

Harry,said +asil Hallward, looking him straight in the face,

every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter! The sitter ismerely the accident, the occasion! )t is not he who is revealed #y the painter' it is rather the

painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself! The reason ) will not e*hi#it this picture isthat ) am afraid that ) have shown in it the secret of my own soul!$ord Henry laughed!

And what is that3he asked!

) will tell you,said Hallward' #ut an e*pression of perple*ity came over his face!

) am all e*pectation, +asil,

continued his companion, glancing at him!

0h, there is really very little to tell, Harry,answered the painter'

and ) am afraid you will hardly understand it! Perhaps you will hardly #elieve it!$ord Henry smiled, and leaning down, plucked a pink petalled daisy from the grass ande*amined it!

) am 6uite sure ) shall understand it,he replied, ga2ing intently at the little golden, white feathered disk,

and as for #elieving things, ) can #elieve anything, provided that it is 6uite incredi#le!

The wind shook some #lossoms from the trees, and the heavy lilac #looms, with their clusteringstars, moved to and fro in the languid air! A grasshopper #egan to chirrup #y the wall, and like a #lue thread a long thin dragon fly floated past on its #rown gau2e wings! $ord Henry felt as if hecould hear +asil Hallward/s heart #eating, and wondered what was coming!

The story is simply this,said the painter after some time!




Two months ago ) went to a crush at $ady +randon/s! -ou know we poor artists have to showourselves in society from time to time, &ust to remind the pu#lic that we are not savages!

%ith an evening coat and a white tie, as you told me once, any#ody, even a stock #roker, cangain a reputation for #eing civili2ed! %ell, after ) had #een in the room a#out ten minutes, talking

to huge overdressed dowagers and tedious academicians, ) suddenly #ecame conscious that someone was looking at me! ) turned half way round and saw 8orian .ray for the first time! %henour eyes met, ) felt that ) was growing pale!

A curious sensation of terror came over me! ) knew that ) had come face to face with some onewhose mere personality was so fascinating that, if ) allowed it to do so, it would a#sor# mywhole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself! ) did not want any e*ternal influence in my life!-ou know yourself, Harry, how independent ) am #y nature! ) have always #een my own master'had at least always #een so, till ) met 8orian .ray!

Then #ut ) don/t know how to e*plain it to you! :omething seemed to tell me that ) was on the

verge of a terri#le crisis in my life! ) had a strange feeling that fate had in store for me e*6uisite &oys and e*6uisite sorrows! ) grew afraid and turned to 6uit the room! )t was not conscience thatmade me do so9 it was a sort of cowardice! ) take no credit to myself for trying to escape!

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, +asil! Conscience is the trade name of thefirm! That is all!

) don/t #elieve that, Harry, and ) don/t #elieve you do either! However, whatever was mymotive and it may have #een pride, for ) used to #e very proud ) certainly struggled to the door!There, of course, ) stum#led against $ady +randon! /-ou are not going to run away so soon, 4r!Hallward3/ she screamed out! -ou know her curiously shrill voice3

-es' she is a peacock in everything #ut #eauty,said $ord Henry, pulling the daisy to #its with his long nervous fingers!

) could not get rid of her! :he #rought me up to royalties, and people with stars and garters, andelderly ladies with gigantic tiaras and parrot noses! :he spoke of me as her dearest friend! ) hadonly met her once #efore, #ut she took it into her head to lioni2e me! ) #elieve some picture of mine had made a great success at the time, at least had #een chattered a#out in the pennynewspapers, which is the nineteenth century standard of immortality!

:uddenly ) found myself face to face with the young man whose personality had so strangely

stirred me! %e were 6uite close, almost touching! 0ur eyes met again! )t was reckless of me, #ut) asked $ady +randon to introduce me to him! Perhaps it was not so reckless, after all! )t wassimply inevita#le! %e would have spoken to each other without any introduction! ) am sure of that! 8orian told me so afterwards! He, too, felt that we were destined to know each other!

And how did $ady +randon descri#e this wonderful young man3asked his companion!

) know she goes in for giving a rapid precis of all her guests! ) remem#er her #ringing me up to




a truculent and red faced old gentleman covered all over with orders and ri##ons, and hissinginto my ear, in a tragic whisper which must have #een perfectly audi#le to every#ody in theroom, the most astounding details! ) simply fled !

) like to find out people for myself! +ut $ady +randon treats her guests e*actly as an auctioneer

treats his goods! :he either e*plains them entirely away, or tells one everything a#out theme*cept what one wants to know!

Poor $ady +randon5-ou are hard on her, Harry5 said Hallward listlessly!

4y dear fellow, she tried to found a salon, and only succeeded in opening a restaurant! Howcould ) admire her3 +ut tell me, what did she say a#out 4r! 8orian .ray3

0h, something like, /Charming #oy poor dear mother and ) a#solutely insepara#le! ;uite forgetwhat he does afraid he doesn/t do anything oh, yes, plays the piano or is it the violin, dear 4r! .ray3/ either of us could help laughing, and we #ecame friends at once!

$aughter is not at all a #ad #eginning for a friendship, and it is far the #est ending for one,said the young lord, plucking another daisy!Hallward shook his head!

-ou don/t understand what friendship is, Harry,he murmured

or what enmity is, for that matter! -ou like every one' that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone!

How horri#ly un&ust of you5

cried $ord Henry, tilting his hat #ack and looking up at the little clouds that, like ravelled skeinsof glossy white silk, were drifting across the hollowed tur6uoise of the summer sky!

-es' horri#ly un&ust of you! ) make a great difference #etween people! ) choose my friends for their good looks, my ac6uaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their goodintellects!

A man cannot #e too careful in the choice of his enemies! ) have not got one who is a fool! Theyare all men of some intellectual power, and conse6uently they all appreciate me! )s that very vainof me3 ) think it is rather vain!

) should think it was, Harry! +ut according to your category ) must #e merely an ac6uaintance!4y dear old +asil, you are much more than an ac6uaintance!

And much less than a friend! A sort of #rother, ) suppose3

0h, #rothers5 ) don/t care for #rothers! 4y elder #rother won/t die, and my younger #rothersseem never to do anything else!




Harry5e*claimed Hallward, frowning!

4y dear fellow, ) am not 6uite serious! +ut ) can/t help detesting my relations! ) suppose itcomes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves! )6uite sympathi2e with the rage of the English democracy against what they call the vices of the

upper orders!The masses feel that drunkenness, stupidity, and immorality should #e their own special property,and that if any one of us makes an ass of himself, he is poaching on their preserves! %hen poor :outhwark got into the divorce court, their indignation was 6uite magnificent! And yet ) don/tsuppose that ten per cent of the proletariat live correctly!

) don/t agree with a single word that you have said, and, what is more, Harry, ) feel sure youdon/t either!$ord Henry stroked his pointed #rown #eard and tapped the toe of his patent leather #oot with atasselled e#ony cane!

How English you are +asil5 That is the second time you have made that o#servation! )f one putsforward an idea to a true Englishman always a rash thing to do he never dreams of consideringwhether the idea is right or wrong! The only thing he considers of any importance is whether one

#elieves it oneself! ow, the value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man whoe*presses it! )ndeed, the pro#a#ilities are that the more insincere the man is, the more purelyintellectual will the idea #e, as in that case it will not #e coloured #y either his wants, his desires,or his pre&udices!

However, ) don/t propose to discuss politics, sociology, or metaphysics with you! ) like persons

#etter than principles, and ) like persons with no principles #etter than anything else in the world!Tell me more a#out 4r! 8orian .ray! How often do you see him3

Every day! ) couldn/t #e happy if ) didn/t see him every day! He is a#solutely necessary to me!

How e*traordinary5 ) thought you would never care for anything #ut your art!

He is all my art to me now,said the painter gravely!

) sometimes think, Harry, that there are only two eras of any importance in the world/s history!The first is the appearance of a new medium for art, and the second is the appearance of a new personality for art also! %hat the invention of oil painting was to the <enetians, the face of Antinous was to late .reek sculpture, and the face of 8orian .ray will some day #e to me! )t isnot merely that ) paint from him, draw from him, sketch from him!

0f course, ) have done all that! +ut he is much more to me than a model or a sitter! ) won/t tellyou that ) am dissatisfied with what ) have done of him, or that his #eauty is such that art cannot




) hate them for it, cried Hallward! An artist should create #eautiful things, #ut should putnothing of his own life into them! %e live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to #e aform of auto#iography! %e have lost the a#stract sense of #eauty! :ome day ) will show theworld what it is' and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of 8orian .ray!

) think you are wrong, +asil, #ut ) won/t argue with you! )t is only the intellectually lost whoever argue! Tell me, is 8orian .ray very fond of you3

The painter considered for a few moments!

He likes me,he answered after a pause'

) know he likes me! 0f course ) flatter him dreadfully! ) find a strange pleasure in saying thingsto him that ) know ) shall #e sorry for having said! As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit inthe studio and talk of a thousand things!

ow and then, however, he is horri#ly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me

pain! Then ) feel, Harry, that ) have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if itwere a flower to put in his coat, a #it of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for asummer/s day!

8ays in summer, +asil, are apt to linger, murmured $ord Henry!

Perhaps you will tire sooner than he will! )t is a sad thing to think of, #ut there is no dou#t thatgenius lasts longer than #eauty! That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to overeducate ourselves!)n the wild struggle for e*istence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with ru##ish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place! The thoroughly well

informed man that is the modern ideal! And the mind of the thoroughly well informed man is adreadful thing! )t is like a #ric a #rac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced a#oveits proper value! ) think you will tire first, all the same!

:ome day you will look at your friend, and he will seem to you to #e a little out of drawing, or you won/t like his tone of colour, or something! -ou will #itterly reproach him in your own heart,and seriously think that he has #ehaved very #adly to you! The ne*t time he calls, you will #e

perfectly cold and indifferent! )t will #e a great pity, for it will alter you! %hat you have told meis 6uite a romance, a romance of art one might call it, and the worst of having a romance of anykind is that it leaves one so unromantic!

Harry, don/t talk like that! As long as ) live, the personality of 8orian .ray will dominate me!-ou can/t feel what ) feel! -ou change too often!

Ah, my dear +asil, that is e*actly why ) can feel it! Those who are faithful know only the trivialside of love9 it is the faithless who know love/s tragedies!And $ord Henry struck a light on a dainty silver case and #egan to smoke a cigarette with a selfconscious and satisfied air, as if he had summed up the world in a phrase!




-ou must introduce me now,cried $ord Henry, laughing!The painter turned to his servant, who stood #linking in the sunlight!

Ask 4r! .ray to wait, Parker9 ) shall #e in in a few moments!The man #owed and went up the walk!

Then he looked at $ord Henry!

8orian .ray is my dearest friend, He has a simple and a #eautiful nature! -our aunt was 6uiteright in what she said of him! 8on/t spoil him! 8on/t try to influence him! -our influence would

#e #ad!The world is wide, and has many marvellous people in it! 8on/t take away from me the one

person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses9 my life as an artist depends on him!4ind, Harry, ) trust you!

He spoke very slowly, and the words seemed wrung out of him almost against his will!

%hat nonsense you talk5said $ord Henry, smiling, and taking Hallward #y the arm, he almost led him into the house!

7th_The Picture of Dorian Gray

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