About the book: year / It was this book that bewitched Dorian Gray: “It was a strange book, he had never read anything like it before!” It seemed as if, to the gentle sounds of a flute, the sins of the whole world in wondrous robes were passing before him in a silent series. Many things that he had only vaguely dreamed about suddenly became flesh before his eyes. Much that he had never even dreamed of was now opening up before him. The finest artists of the French Symbolist school painted in this style. There were metaphors here, as whimsical as orchids, and of equally delicate colors. The sensual life of man was described in terms of mystical philosophy. At times it was difficult to decide what you were reading - a description of the religious ecstasies of some medieval saint or the shameless confessions of a modern sinner. It was a poisonous book. It seemed as if the heavy smell of smoking rose from its pages and stupefied the brain.».