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Then he picked up the yellow book and began to read . It was the strangest book that he had ever read . It was the story of a young Parisian who spent his life trying to experience every passion and every way of thinking that the world had ever known . As Dorian read , the sins of the world seemed to pass before him in rich clothes and to the sound of soft music . It was a poisonous book . Its heavy perfume seemed to hang about the pages and trouble his brain . He read on until it was too dark to see . When he finally reached the club , it was almost nine o’clock . “ I am so sorry , Harry , ” he said . “ That book you sent me fascinated me so much that I forgot the time . ” “ Yes , I thought you would like it . ” “ I didn’t say I liked it , Harry . I said it fascinated me . There is a great difference . ” X . The Yellow Book For years Dorian Gray could not free himself from the power of that book . Perhaps it would be more correct to say that he never tried . He ordered nine copies of it from Paris and had them bound in different colours , to suit his moods . The hero of the book became a kind of picture of himself . The whole book seemed to tell the story of his own life before he had lived it . His wonderful beauty never left him . From time to time strange stories about his way of life went round the clubs of London . But when people saw his pure young face , they could not believe anything bad about him . Men who were telling dirty stories became silent when Dorian Gray came into the room . Often , after one of his long and secret absences , he went up quietly to the locked room . He stood in front of the portrait with a mirror in his hand . First he looked at the evil , ageing face on the canvas , and then at the fair young face that laughed back at him from the glass . The contrast gave him a strange pleasure . He grew more and more in love with his own beauty , and more and more interested in the ruin of his own soul . Sometimes he wondered which were more horrible , the signs of sin or the signs of age . He wanted to fill his life with new sensations . For a time he studied perfumes and made his own . Then he gave strange concerts in his house and collected odd musical instruments from distant lands . After that he collected jewels , and later old silks and church robes . But all these treasures were only ways to forget , for a season , the fear that was sometimes too great to bear . After a few years he could not stay away from England for long . He was afraid that someone might get into the locked room while he was away . Sometimes he left his guests at Selby Royal , his house in the country , and hurried back to London . He only wanted to make sure that the picture was still there .
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