# data[].attributes.body
This book left me with a twofold impression. On the one hand, I really enjoyed art for art's sake. Wilde was endowed with a special gift of storytelling, excellent taste, and a beautiful vocabulary. However, since I'm quite critical of everything I read, it was hard for me to empathize with the characters, and at some point, I just wasn't interested in reading about Dorian and the degradation of his character. However, this in no way detracts from the writer's talent and the fact that this novel is deservedly a classic and should be read by everyone at least once.

# data[].attributes.body
The main characteristics of the style were: suggestion rather than statement, sensuality, great use of symbols, and synaesthetic/Ideasthetic effects—that is, correspondence between words, colours, and music.
We can find all of those features in the vivid, colourfull descriptions and very pompous language of Wilde. Moreover, even though there is a clear moral and idea behind the story, the author never shows his own attitude towards the character's actions. The story is full of sensual descriptions and the reader is supposed to find pleasure in them instead of trying to understand the motives of the characters, morals, and so on. In addition to that, characters are very symbolic: Lord Henry - the devil, Sibyl - an artistic ideal inspired by Shakespeare's  Ophelia, and her brother is inspired by Hamlet.

# data[].attributes.body
Dorian Gray – a handsome, narcissistic young man who was seduced by Lord Henry's "new" hedonism. His life is full of sin, his soul is rotting as the youthful appearance remains the same.
Basil Hallward – a moral man, the painter of the portrait. Killed by Dorian after preaching morals to Gray.
Lord Henry "Harry" Wotton – a flawed aristocrat who stands by philosophy of self-indulgent hedonism. Lord Henry takes pleasure in impressing, influencing, and even misleading his acquaintances. He is a devil who is totally indifferent to what is going to happen to others under his influence.
Sibyl Vane – a talented actress and singer, with whom Dorian falls in love. Her love for Dorian ruins her acting ability. She kills herself by learning that Dorian no longer loves her.
James Vane – Sibyl's brother, a sailor who leaves for Australia. He is very protective of his sister. After Sibyl's suicide, James becomes obsessed with killing Dorian and stalks him, but a hunter accidentally kills James.

# data[].attributes.body
The story begins in the art studio of Basil Hallward, who is discussing a current painting with his witty and amoral friend Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry insists on showing the porret of young and arrestingly beautiful man Dorian Gray to the public. Lord Henry as a satan influences Dorian’s pure mind, by explaining to the young man the theory of new hedonism.  He proclaims that one should live life to the fullest by indulging one’s impulses. Henry also points out that beauty and youth are fleeting, and Dorian claims that he would give his soul if the portrait were to grow old and wrinkled while he remained young and handsome. Henry decides to destroy Dorian’s purity. Basil gives the painting to Dorian.
A few weeks later, Dorian tells Henry that he has fallen in love with an actress, Sibyl Vane, because of her great beauty and acting talent. But after her terrible performance and awkward confession, Dorian is repulsed and wants nothing further to do with her. When he returns home, he sees a cruel expression on the face of his portrait, and he decides to seek Sibyl’s forgiveness. Henry arrives the next day, however, with news that Sibyl committed suicide the previous night, and he convinces Dorian that there is no reason for him to feel bad about it.
Dorian hides the portrait in order to never feel the same guilt again and gets on the path of lust and destruction. Dorian feels no guilt for ruining others’ reputations and lives and actually enjoys his sinful existence.
Once Basil sees what has happened to the portrait. The painting becomes horrifying. Basil tells Dorian that if this is a reflection of his soul, he must pray for forgiveness, but in a rage, Dorian kills Basil and disposes of the body.
After 25 years of existence, Dorian is still young and beautiful on the outside, however, his soul is ugly. Dorian decides to live a more virtuous life and doesn't take advantage of a young girl in love. However, as he looks at the portrait he discovers nothing changes, there is no salvation for his soul. He decides to destroy the portrait and stabs it with a knife. His servants hear a scream, and, when they arrive, they see a loathsome old man dead on the floor with a knife in his chest and a portrait of the beautiful young man he once was.

# data[].attributes.body
Published: 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine

# data[].attributes.body
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. A young Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. He was a peculiar young man who was always striving for beauty and sophistication.
He was a talented spokesman and many contemporaries mentioned that his true genius was never captured in the paper.
Wilde was a part of the aesthetic movement and supported the emphasis of aesthetic values more than other themes for literature. Art for the sake of art.