For years, Dorian Gray remained completely under the influence of the strange book Lord Henry had given him.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Dorian never seriously tried to escape its influence.
He ordered no fewer than nine large, expensive copies of the first edition from Paris and had each one bound in a different color so that he could choose a copy to match his mood.
His moods changed constantly now, and at times he seemed to have almost no control over them.
The main character of the novel—a fascinating young man from Paris who combined romantic imagination with scientific curiosity—became, in Dorian’s mind, almost a prediction of himself.
The entire novel seemed to contain the story of his own life, written before he had actually lived it.
In one important way, however, Dorian was luckier than the hero of the novel.