The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde (scary books to read txt) đ
- Author: Oscar Wilde
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âPoor Lady Brandon! You are hard on her, Harry!â said Hallward listlessly.
âMy dear fellow, she tried to found a salon, and only succeeded in opening a restaurant. How could I admire her? But tell me, what did she say about Mr. Dorian Gray?â
âOh, something like, âCharming boyâ âpoor dear mother and I absolutely inseparable. Quite forget what he doesâ âafraid heâ âdoesnât do anythingâ âoh, yes, plays the pianoâ âor is it the violin, dear Mr. Gray?â Neither of us could help laughing, and we became friends at once.â
âLaughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one,â said the young lord, plucking another daisy.
Hallward shook his head. âYou donât understand what friendship is, Harry,â he murmuredâ ââor what enmity is, for that matter. You like everyone; that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone.â
âHow horribly unjust of you!â cried Lord Henry, tilting his hat back and looking up at the little clouds that, like ravelled skeins of glossy white silk, were drifting across the hollowed turquoise of the summer sky. âYes; horribly unjust of you. I make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not got one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me. Is that very vain of me? I think it is rather vain.â
âI should think it was, Harry. But according to your category I must be merely an acquaintance.â
âMy dear old Basil, you are much more than an acquaintance.â
âAnd much less than a friend. A sort of brother, I suppose?â
âOh, brothers! I donât care for brothers. My elder brother wonât die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.â
âHarry!â exclaimed Hallward, frowning.
âMy dear fellow, I am not quite serious. But I canât help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves. I quite sympathize 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 be their own special property, and that if any one of us makes an ass of himself, he is poaching on their preserves. When poor Southwark got into the divorce court, their indignation was quite magnificent. And yet I donât suppose that ten percent of the proletariat live correctly.â
âI donât agree with a single word that you have said, and, what is more, Harry, I feel sure you donât either.â
Lord Henry stroked his pointed brown beard and tapped the toe of his patent-leather boot with a tasselled ebony cane. âHow English you are Basil! That is the second time you have made that observation. If one puts forward an idea to a true Englishmanâ âalways a rash thing to doâ âhe never dreams of considering whether the idea is right or wrong. The only thing he considers of any importance is whether one believes it oneself. Now, the value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the probabilities are that the more insincere the man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be coloured by either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices. However, I donât propose to discuss politics, sociology, or metaphysics with you. I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world. Tell me more about Mr. Dorian Gray. How often do you see him?â
âEvery day. I couldnât be happy if I didnât see him every day. He is absolutely necessary to me.â
âHow extraordinary! I thought you would never care for anything but your art.â
âHe is all my art to me now,â said the painter gravely. âI sometimes think, Harry, that there are only two eras of any importance in the worldâs 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. What the invention of oil-painting was to the Venetians, the face of Antinous was to late Greek sculpture, and the face of Dorian Gray will some day be to me. It is not merely that I paint from him, draw from him, sketch from him. Of course, I have done all that. But he is much more to me than a model or a sitter. I wonât tell you that I am dissatisfied with what I have done of him, or that his beauty is such that art cannot express it. There is nothing that art cannot express, and I know that the work I have done, since I met Dorian Gray, is good work, is the best work of my life. But in some curious wayâ âI wonder will you understand me?â âhis personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style. I see things differently, I think of them differently. I can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me before. âA dream of form in days of thoughtââ âwho is it who says that? I forget; but it is what Dorian Gray has been to me. The merely visible presence of this ladâ âfor he seems to me little more than a lad, though he is really over twentyâ âhis merely visible presenceâ âah! I wonder can
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