The Picture of Dorian Gray: Annotated Edition (Alma Classics Evergreens) de Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Annotated Edition (Alma Classics Evergreens): Evergreens

Notă: 5.00 · 2 note

en Limba Engleză Paperback – 31 iul 2014

Dorian Gray is having his picture painted by Basil Hallward, who is charmed by his looks. But when Sir Henry Wotton visits and seduces Dorian into the worship of youthful beauty with an intoxicating speech, Dorian makes a wish he will live to regret: that all the marks of age will now be reflected in the portrait rather than on Dorian's own face. The stage is now set for a masterful tale about appearance, reality, art, life, truth, fiction and the burden of conscience.

Oscar Wilde's only full-length novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a lasting gem of sophisticated wit and playfulness, which brings together all the best elements of his talent in a reinterpretation of the Faustian myth.

Citește tot Restrânge

Toate formatele și edițiile

	Preț	Express
Paperback (166)	20^.01 lei 3-5 săpt.	+6^.40 lei 4-10 zile
Harper Collins Publishers – iul 2013	20^.01 lei 3-5 săpt.	+6^.40 lei 4-10 zile
Harper Collins, UK – noi 2021	25^.97 lei 3-5 săpt.	+7^.16 lei 4-10 zile
Clydesdale – 2018	29^.56 lei 3-5 săpt.
Oxford University Press – 17 apr 2008	33^.36 lei 10-16 zile	+13^.94 lei 4-10 zile
Dover Publications – 30 sep 1993	34^.06 lei 3-5 săpt.
Random House (UK) – 31 iul 2007	37^.34 lei 24-30 zile	+13^.60 lei 4-10 zile
–	39^.45 lei 3-5 săpt.
Penguin Random House Group – 31 dec 2000	39^.51 lei 3-5 săpt.
Penguin Books – 27 iun 2012	42^.77 lei 24-30 zile	+15^.68 lei 4-10 zile
Penguin Books – 31 mar 2010	42^.95 lei 24-30 zile	+15^.98 lei 4-10 zile
Alma Books COMMIS – 31 iul 2014	43^.11 lei 3-5 săpt.	+12^.82 lei 4-10 zile
Penguin Books – 29 ian 2003	43^.43 lei 24-30 zile	+16^.80 lei 4-10 zile
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	49^.28 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	50^.09 lei 3-5 săpt.
Real Reads – 16 iun 2014	50^.42 lei 3-5 săpt.	+5^.89 lei 4-10 zile
–	50^.43 lei 3-5 săpt.
HarperCollins Publishers – 2 sep 2021	51^.21 lei 3-5 săpt.	+8^.77 lei 4-10 zile
–	51^.35 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	51^.57 lei 3-5 săpt.
KUPERARD (BRAVO LTD) – 31 dec 1999	52^.77 lei 3-5 săpt.	+10^.26 lei 4-10 zile
VINTAGE BOOKS – 30 iun 2011	53^.74 lei 3-5 săpt.	+9^.51 lei 4-10 zile
UNION SQUARE & CO – 7 mai 2022	53^.84 lei 3-5 săpt.	+15^.45 lei 4-10 zile
CREATESPACE –	54^.59 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	54^.66 lei 3-5 săpt.
West Margin Press – 18 mar 2020	54^.68 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	54^.75 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	54^.87 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	55^.03 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	55^.50 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	55^.69 lei 3-5 săpt.
Reclam Philipp Jun. – iun 1995	56^.15 lei 17-23 zile	+4^.87 lei 4-10 zile
HarperCollins Publishers – iun 2017	56^.92 lei 3-5 săpt.	+7^.37 lei 4-10 zile
–	57^.36 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	57^.71 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	57^.77 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	57^.90 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	57^.92 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	58^.15 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	58^.28 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	58^.38 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	58^.55 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	60^.36 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	63^.06 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	64^.04 lei 3-5 săpt.
Denton & White –	65^.36 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	66^.55 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	66^.77 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	66^.79 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	66^.79 lei 3-5 săpt.
Klett Sprachen GmbH – 10 noi 2014	68^.92 lei 17-23 zile	+6^.40 lei 4-10 zile
CREATESPACE –	70^.39 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	71^.01 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	71^.88 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	72^.91 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	73^.25 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	74^.05 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	74^.56 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	74^.80 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	75^.73 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	75^.79 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	75^.86 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 6 dec 2015	76^.03 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	76^.08 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	76^.87 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	78^.44 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	80^.97 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	84^.27 lei 3-5 săpt.
G&D MEDIA – 27 iul 2021	84^.53 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	85^.30 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	87^.49 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	87^.75 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	88^.12 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	88^.49 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	89^.30 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	90^.59 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	90^.91 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	91^.08 lei 3-5 săpt.
Spastic Cat Press – 31 iul 2011	91^.69 lei 3-5 săpt.
Klett Sprachen GmbH – 7 feb 2023	94^.52 lei 17-23 zile	+8^.77 lei 4-10 zile
–	96^.42 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	98^.56 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	99^.70 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	102^.80 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	103^.62 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	103^.62 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	105^.26 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	106^.01 lei 3-5 săpt.
Large Print Press – 31 ian 2011	106^.19 lei 3-5 săpt.
Les prairies numériques – 25 iul 2020	108^.36 lei 3-5 săpt.
Samuel French, Inc. – 31 dec 2010	108^.37 lei 3-5 săpt.
Les prairies numériques – 26 noi 2020	109^.55 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	109^.86 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	114^.67 lei 3-5 săpt.
University of British Columbia Press – 17 aug 2015	121^.16 lei 3-5 săpt.	+10^.45 lei 4-10 zile
–	122^.88 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	126^.26 lei 3-5 săpt.
Adelphi Press – 9 iun 2018	127^.52 lei 3-5 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	128^.85 lei 3-5 săpt.
–	130^.63 lei 3-5 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform –	147^.69 lei 3-5 săpt.
Mint Editions – 30 aug 2022	160^.65 lei 3-5 săpt.
Elsinor Verlag – 3 iun 2014	52^.03 lei 38-44 zile
Martino Fine Books – 15 iun 2011	57^.82 lei 38-44 zile
Digireads.com – 31 dec 2004	60^.89 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	61^.77 lei 6-8 săpt.
Elsinor Verlag – 28 iul 2014	63^.45 lei 38-44 zile
–	65^.18 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	65^.46 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	65^.75 lei 6-8 săpt.
Digireads.com – 18 feb 2016	66^.85 lei 6-8 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	68^.99 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	71^.64 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	71^.64 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	72^.52 lei 6-8 săpt.
LIGHTNING SOURCE INC – 22 sep 2018	78^.45 lei 17-23 zile
LIGHTNING SOURCE INC – 28 sep 2018	78^.45 lei 17-23 zile
–	80^.75 lei 6-8 săpt.
Serenity Publishers, LLC – 31 iul 2008	80^.94 lei 6-8 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	83^.27 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	83^.66 lei 6-8 săpt.
FREDERICK SINGER & SONS – 7 aug 2013	84^.45 lei 6-8 săpt.
LIGHTNING SOURCE INC – 28 sep 2018	84^.50 lei 17-23 zile
SC Active Business Development SRL – 12 oct 2016	86^.07 lei 38-44 zile
1st World Library –	86^.70 lei 6-8 săpt.
Lulu.Com – 11 iul 2019	87^.10 lei 6-8 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	87^.74 lei 6-8 săpt.
Ancient Wisdom Publications – 17 mar 2008	89^.70 lei 6-8 săpt.
Lector House – 20 mai 2019	93^.53 lei 6-8 săpt.
Martino Fine Books – 26 mar 2019	94^.06 lei 38-44 zile
–	94^.83 lei 6-8 săpt.
Gröls Verlag – 6 ian 2023	95^.13 lei 38-44 zile
Norilana Books – 9 feb 2007	95^.14 lei 6-8 săpt.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform – 15 dec 2015	95^.83 lei 6-8 săpt.
Bibliotech Press – 2 aug 2019	99^.62 lei 6-8 săpt.
Binker North – 31 dec 1889	99^.83 lei 6-8 săpt.
FV éditions – 25 noi 2020	101^.37 lei 6-8 săpt.
Public Park Publishing – 3 ian 2020	101^.47 lei 6-8 săpt.
Public Publishing – 30 mai 2020	102^.64 lei 6-8 săpt.
Susan Publishing Ltd – 30 mai 2020	102^.64 lei 6-8 săpt.
Camel Publishing House – 30 mai 2020	102^.64 lei 6-8 săpt.
Barclays Public Books – 30 mai 2020	102^.64 lei 6-8 săpt.
CREATESPACE –	103^.29 lei 6-8 săpt.
Public Public Books – 31 mai 2020	104^.07 lei 6-8 săpt.
Toronto Public Domain Publishing – 31 mai 2020	104^.07 lei 6-8 săpt.
USA Public Domain Books – 31 mai 2020	104^.07 lei 6-8 săpt.
Yorkshire Public Books – 31 mai 2020	104^.07 lei 6-8 săpt.
Texas Public Domain – 31 mai 2020	104^.07 lei 6-8 săpt.
Ali Ribelli Edizioni – 26 apr 2020	108^.93 lei 38-44 zile
Read & Co. Classics – 20 iun 2018	111^.06 lei 6-8 săpt.
Serenity Publishers, LLC – 15 aug 2010	114^.18 lei 6-8 săpt.
Prince Classics – 10 mai 2019	119^.94 lei 38-44 zile
Throne Classics – 29 mai 2019	119^.94 lei 38-44 zile
Sleeping Cat Books –	126^.85 lei 6-8 săpt.
Book Jungle – 12 mar 2008	131^.07 lei 6-8 săpt.
Antiquarius – 21 sep 2020	134^.91 lei 38-44 zile
Simon & Brown – 30 sep 2018	138^.66 lei 38-44 zile
Simon & Brown – 31 aug 2010	138^.72 lei 38-44 zile
Urban Romantics – 11 aug 2011	139^.86 lei 38-44 zile
Simon & Brown – 8 noi 2018	140^.66 lei 38-44 zile
Simon & Brown – 20 noi 2018	142^.24 lei 38-44 zile
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC – 19 sep 2022	144^.78 lei 6-8 săpt.
Antediluvian Books – 21 dec 2016	145^.05 lei 38-44 zile
Idylls Press – 11 dec 2008	149^.93 lei 6-8 săpt.
TREDITION CLASSICS – 31 dec 2012	180^.17 lei 6-8 săpt.
Hansebooks – 20 apr 2021	183^.88 lei 6-8 săpt.
Echo Library – 22 ian 2006	218^.36 lei 38-44 zile
Hardback (30)	45^.75 lei 3-5 săpt.	+28^.51 lei 4-10 zile
Pan Macmillan – 20 mar 2017	45^.75 lei 3-5 săpt.	+28^.51 lei 4-10 zile
WORDSWORTH EDITIONS LTD – oct 2022	48^.20 lei 3-5 săpt.	+10^.24 lei 4-10 zile
Arcturus Publishing – 30 oct 2022	57^.39 lei 3-5 săpt.	+9^.06 lei 4-10 zile
Flame Tree Publishing – 14 sep 2020	57^.78 lei 3-5 săpt.	+13^.72 lei 4-10 zile
Arcturus Publishing – noi 2022	71^.70 lei 3-5 săpt.
UNION SQUARE & CO – 7 iun 2022	76^.70 lei 3-5 săpt.	+20^.48 lei 4-10 zile
Arcturus Publishing – noi 2024	87^.54 lei 3-5 săpt.	+29^.89 lei 4-10 zile
Penguin Books – 5 noi 2008	91^.47 lei 24-30 zile	+34^.23 lei 4-10 zile
Arcturus Publishing – 4 noi 2024	102^.34 lei 3-5 săpt.
UNION SQUARE & CO – 19 dec 2023	102^.84 lei 3-5 săpt.	+22^.56 lei 4-10 zile
Mint Editions – 29 feb 2020	107^.21 lei 3-5 săpt.
chiltern publishing – 8 sep 2020	127^.26 lei 3-5 săpt.	+18^.70 lei 4-10 zile
12th Media Services – 7 mar 2019	112^.75 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	127^.77 lei 6-8 săpt.
–	127^.77 lei 6-8 săpt.
FV éditions – 24 noi 2020	135^.36 lei 6-8 săpt.
Public Park Publishing – 16 ian 2020	136^.42 lei 6-8 săpt.
Norilana Books – 9 feb 2007	165^.22 lei 6-8 săpt.
1st World Library –	178^.84 lei 6-8 săpt.
Prince Classics – 10 mai 2019	189^.07 lei 38-44 zile
Throne Classics – 29 mai 2019	189^.07 lei 38-44 zile
–	190^.02 lei 38-44 zile
Simon & Brown – 8 noi 2018	191^.78 lei 38-44 zile
Simon & Brown – 29 sep 2018	191^.78 lei 38-44 zile
Lulu – 28 sep 2015	194^.45 lei 6-8 săpt.
Simon & Brown – 19 noi 2018	201^.63 lei 38-44 zile
Borgo Press –	215^.61 lei 6-8 săpt.
Antiquarius – 21 sep 2020	233^.96 lei 38-44 zile
TREDITION CLASSICS – 31 dec 2012	253^.04 lei 6-8 săpt.
Echo Library – 31 dec 2006	275^.44 lei 38-44 zile
Legat în piele (1)	115^.70 lei 3-5 săpt.	+27^.47 lei 4-10 zile
UNION SQUARE & CO – 27 mar 2015	115^.70 lei 3-5 săpt.	+27^.47 lei 4-10 zile

Din seria Evergreens

Preț: 51^.37 lei
Preț: 58^.75 lei
Preț: 51^.96 lei
Preț: 44^.79 lei
Preț: 51^.37 lei
Preț: 42^.18 lei
Preț: 45^.48 lei
Preț: 55^.91 lei
Preț: 40^.07 lei
Preț: 44^.48 lei
Preț: 54^.90 lei
Preț: 51^.85 lei
Preț: 51^.62 lei
Preț: 56^.10 lei
Preț: 45^.68 lei
Preț: 44^.88 lei
Preț: 53^.89 lei
Preț: 44^.76 lei
Preț: 58^.75 lei
Preț: 45^.79 lei
5%

Preț: 48^.09 lei
Preț: 45^.85 lei
Preț: 32^.75 lei
Preț: 47^.84 lei
Preț: 47^.57 lei
Preț: 48^.60 lei
Preț: 51^.37 lei
Preț: 45^.39 lei
Preț: 45^.52 lei
Preț: 61^.20 lei
Preț: 45^.52 lei
Preț: 46^.75 lei
Preț: 45^.77 lei
Preț: 44^.13 lei
Preț: 38^.21 lei
Preț: 52^.57 lei
Preț: 46^.55 lei
Preț: 48^.85 lei
Preț: 44^.75 lei
Preț: 45^.49 lei
Preț: 39^.87 lei
Preț: 47^.37 lei
Preț: 47^.31 lei
Preț: 47^.31 lei
Preț: 49^.89 lei
Preț: 48^.09 lei
Preț: 45^.08 lei
Preț: 45^.27 lei

Preț: 43^.11 lei

Preț vechi: 45^.55 lei
-5% Nou

Puncte Express: 65

:
8^.25€ • 8^.60$ • 6^.86£

Carte disponibilă

Livrare economică 20 ianuarie-03 februarie 25
Livrare express 03-09 ianuarie 25 pentru 22^.81 lei

Adaugă în coș

Wish list
Gift list
Am citit!

Adaugă în listă

Preluare comenzi: 021 569.72.76

Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781847493729
ISBN-10: 1847493726
Pagini: 256
Dimensiuni: 128 x 198 x 22 mm
Greutate: 0.25 kg
Editura: Alma Books COMMIS
Colecția Alma Classics
Seria Evergreens

Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom

Recenzii

Reading and rereading Wilde throughout the years, I noticed something that his panegyrists had not, it seems, suspected: namely the verifiable, elementary fact that Wilde was virtually always right.
Wilde stood for art. He stood for nothing less all his life... He is still enormously underestimated as an artist and thinker... Wilde was a great writer and a great man.
Every line that Wilde ever wrote affected me so enormously.
I think The Picture of Dorian Gray stands as high as it ever has.
A heady late-Victorian tale of double-living, in which Dorian's fatal, corruptive influence over women and men alike is left suggestively indistinct.

Descriere

Notă biografică

Oscar Wilde

Textul de pe ultima copertă

Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton. The novel was met with moral outrage by contemporary critics who, dazzled perhaps by Wilde's brilliant style, may have confused the author with his creation, Lord Henry, to whom even Dorian protests, 'You cut life to pieces with your epigrams.'. Encouraged by Lord Henry to substitute pleasure for goodness and art for reality, Dorian tries to watch impassively as he brings misery and death to those who love him. But the picture is watching him, and, made hideous by the marks of sin, it confronts Dorian with the reflection of his fall from grace, the silent bearer of what is in effect a devastating moral judgement.

Cuprins

The Picture of Dorian GrayAcknowledgements
Introduction
Chronology
Further Reading
A Note on the Text

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Appendix 1: Selected Contemporary Reviews of The Picture of Dorian Gray

Appendix 2: Introduction to the First Penguin Classics Edition, by Peter Ackroyd

Notes

Extras

CHAPTER I

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst 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.

From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid jade-faced painters of Tokio who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion. The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.

In the centre of the room, clamped to an upright easel, stood the full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, and in front of it, some little distance away, was sitting the artist himself, Basil Hallward, whose sudden disappearance some years ago caused, at the time, such public excitement, and gave rise to so many strange conjectures.

As the painter looked at the gracious and comely form he had so skilfully mirrored in his art, a smile of pleasure passed across his face, and seemed about to linger there. But he suddenly started up, and, closing his eyes, placed his fingers upon the lids, as though he sought to imprison within his brain some curious dream from which he feared he might awake.

"It is your best work, Basil, the best thing you have ever done," said Lord Henry, languidly. "You must certainly send it next year to the Grosvenor. The Academy is too large and too vulgar. Whenever I have gone there, there have been either so many people that I have not been able to see the pictures, which was dreadful, or so many pictures that I have not been able to see the people, which was worse. The Grosvenor is really the only place."

"I don't think I shall send it anywhere," he answered, tossing his head back in that odd way that used to make his friends laugh at him at Oxford. "No: I won't send it anywhere."

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. "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. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. 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. 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."

"I know you will laugh at me," he replied, "but I really can't exhibit it I have put too much of myself into it."

Lord Henry stretched himself out on the divan and laughed.

"Yes, I knew you would; but it is quite true, all the same."

"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 out of ivory and rose-leaves. Why, my dear Basil, he is a Narcissus, and you — well, of course you have an intellectual expression, and all that. But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. Your mysterious young friend, whose name you have never told me, but whose picture really fascinates me, never thinks. I feel quite sure of that. He is some brainless, beautiful creature, who should be 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. Don't flatter yourself, Basil: you are not in the least like him.

"You don't understand me, Harry," answered the artist. "Of course I am not like him. I know that perfectly well. Indeed, I should be sorry to look like him. You shrug your shoulders? I am telling you the truth. There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one's fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live, undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They neither bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are — my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks — we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly."

"Dorian Gray? Is that his name?" asked Lord Henry, walking across the studio towards Basil Hallward.

"Yes, that is his name. I didn't intend to tell it to you."

"But why not?"

"Oh, I can't explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance to one's life. I suppose you think me awful foolish about it?"

"Not at all," answered Lord Henry, "not at all, my dear Basil. You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. When we meet — we do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go down to the Duke's — we tell each other the most absurd stories with the most serious faces. My wife is very good at it, much better, in fact, than I am. She never gets confused over her dates, and I always do. But when she does find me out, she makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would; but she merely laughs at me."

"I hate the way you talk about your married life, Harry," said Basil Hallward, strolling towards the door that led into the garden. "I believe that you are really a very good husband, but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues. You are an extraordinary fellow. You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply a pose."

"Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know," cried Lord Henry, laughing; and the two young men went out into the garden together, and ensconced themselves on a long bamboo seat that stood in the shade of a tall laurel bush. The sunlight slipped over the polished leaves. In the grass, white daisies were tremulous.

After a pause, Lord Henry pulled out his watch. "I am afraid I must be going, Basil," he murmured, "and before you go, I insist on your answering a question I put to you some time ago."

"What is that?" said the painter, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground.

"You know quite well."

"I do not, Harry."

"Well, I will tell you what it is. I want you to explain to me why you won't exhibit Dorian Gray's picture. I want the real reason."

"I told you the real reason."

"No you did not. You said it was because there was too much of yourself in it. Now, that is childish."

"Harry," said Basil 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 is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit the picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my soul."

Lord Henry laughed. "And what is that?" he asked.

"I will tell you," said Hallward; but an expression of perplexity came over his face.

"I am all expectation, Basil," continued his companion, glancing at him.

"Oh, there is really very little to tell, Harry," answered the painter; "and I am afraid you will hardly understand it. Perhaps you will hardly believe it."

Lord Henry smiled, and, leaning down, plucked a pink-petalled daisy from the grass, and examined it. "I am quite sure I shall understand it," he replied, gazing intently at the little golden white-feathered disk, "and as for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."

The wind shook some blossoms from the trees, and the heavy lilac-blooms, with their clustering stars, moved to and fro in the languid air. A grasshopper began to chirrup by the wall, and like a blue thread a long thing dragon-fly floated past on its brown gauze wings. Lord Henry felt as if he could hear Basil Hallward's heart beating, and wondered what was coming.

"The story is simply this," and the painter after some time. "Two months ago I went to a crush at Lady Brandon's. You know we poor artists have to show ourselves in society from time to time, just to remind the public that we are not savages. With an evening coat and a white tie, as you told me once, anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation for being civilized. Well, after I had been in the room about ten minutes, talking to huge over-dressed dowagers and tedious Academicians, I suddenly became conscious that some one was looking at me. I turned half-way round, and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my soul, my very art itself. I did not want any external influence in my life. You know I did not want any external influence in my life. I have always been my own master; had at least always been so, till I met Dorian Gray. Then— but I don't know how to explain it to you. Something seemed to tell me that I was on the verge of a terrible crisis in my life. I had a strange feeling that Fate had in store for me exquisite joys and exquisite sorrows. I grew afraid, and turned to quite the room. It was not conscience that made me do so; it was a sort of cowardice. I take no credit to myself for trying to escape."

"Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all."

"I don't believe that, Harry, and I don't believe you do either. However, whatever was my motive — and it may have been pride, for I used to be very proud — I certainly struggled to the door. There, of course, I stumbled against Lady Brandon. 'You are not going to run away so soon, Mr. Hallward?' she screamed out. You know her curiously shrill voice?"

"Yes; she is a peacock in everything but beauty," said Lord Henry, pulling the daisy to bits with his long, nervous fingers.

"I could not get rid of her. She brought me up to Royalties, and people with Stars and Garters, and elderly ladies with gigantic tiaras and parrot noses. She spoke of me as her dearest friend. I had only met her once before, but she took it into her head to lionize me. I believe some picture of mine had made a great success at the time, at least had been chattered about in the penny newspapers, which is the nineteenth-century standard of immortality. Suddenly I found myself face to face with the young man whose personality had so strangely stirred me. We were quite close, almost touching. Our eyes met again. It was reckless of me, but I asked Lady Brandon to introduce me to him. perhaps it was not so reckless, after all. It was simply inevitable. We would have spoken to each other without any introduction. I am sure of that. Dorian told me so afterwards. He, too, felt that we were destined to know each other."

Papetărie, jocuri, reviste