The story is set in 19th century England. The main character in the book is Dorian Gray, a young man aged about twenty years. He is depicted to have a perfect, clean appearance, and an innocent soul. The book opens with his two close friends, Lord Henry, and Basil Hallward, an eccentric painter having a conversation with each other. Basil has become completely obsessed with the image of Dorian and is spending all his hours working on a brilliant portrait of him, and Dorian Gray becomes all he can talk about. Dorian is eventually influenced by Basil's way of thinking and becomes obsessed with himself and his image.

When the picture is complete, Dorian is mesmerized by it. He takes it home and realizes that as he grows old, his portrait will retain its good looks, and wishes that the portrait could grow old and that he would stay young. It has such a dramatic effect on him that he stops carin

Dorian led Basil up to his room where the portrait was hung on the wall. Basil couldn't believe what he had done, and that such things were possible. He sat down at a table and began sulking, and a mad craze swept over Dorian. He grabbed a knife and quickly stabbed Basil several times in the neck until he died where he sat.

This book was extremely impressive. I have never read a novel as deep as this one, and I find it hard to believe that this is Oscar Wilde's only novel. He did an excellent job of building the characters and plot. Most of the time, I felt as though I was witnessing the events in the book as they happened.

Basil asks Dorian to exhibit his painting at an art gallery, to which Dorian angrily refuses. Basil is quite perplexed by this. One day, he is about to leave for Paris for around three months. He goes to stop in quickly at Dorian's house, and Dorian decides to show the portrait to him. This excerpt is from page 121, Chapter 12:

Dorian later calls a chemist he knew in University, Alan Campbell, to clean up the bloody mess in his room. Alan is reluctant to assist in a murder, but eventually gives in. After his work, he shows Dorian that no trace of Basil is left, and never appears in the book again.

Life has become a wreck for Dorian and he wishes to end the grief caused by the painting. Before going to bed one night, he stabs the painting and dies. The painting is young again and he has the aged appearance that he should. There is no rip in the painting, but the knife he stabbed it with is in his chest.

Hallward started back. 'This is blasphemy, Dorian!' he cried. 'You must not say things like that. They are horrible, and they don't mean anything.'

Some common words found in the essay are:
Basil Dorian, Sybil Sybil, Dorian Gray, Knowing Dorian's, Lord Harry, Romeo Juliet, Alan Campbell, Harry Dorian, Basil Hallward, Oscar Wilde, dorian gray, lord harry, dorian stays, stops caring, goes home, sybil vane, 19th century, obsessed image, harry basil,
Approximate Word count = 1312
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)