Читать книгу Dorian Gray - John Garavaglia - Страница 14

Dorian about his friend’s scandalous reputation, Dorian ignored the artist as well.

Wotton’s words had a profound impact on the young impressionable Dorian, while the model took his place on the well-decorated dais. He listened excitedly as the nobleman began to explain his theory of beauty.

“To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances,” grinned Lord Wotton. He looked at the young man. “Dorian, the gods have been good to you. But what the gods give, they cruelly take away. You have only a few years in which to live. Then your youth goes—and your beauty will go with it. Then you will discover that there are no more triumphs left for you.”

Dorian frowned slightly at those words. But there was more to come.

“Realize your youth while you still have it,” Lord Wotton commanded. “One day, time will catch up with you. You will become old and gray. There is such little time that youth will last. The common hill flowers wither, but they blossom again. But we humans never get our youth back. Our limbs fail, our senses go,” he said, painting a scary picture for Dorian of old age.

“We degenerate into a hideous old age, haunted by the memory of missing out on passions that frightened us and temptations we never yielded to. Don’t squander your golden days. Live life! Search for new sensations! Be afraid of nothing!”

DORIAN GRAY

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