Questions about the Picture of Dorian Gray

[lokariototal]

What was the book that Lord Henry gave to Dorian Gray that fascinated dorian so much? What is the book about?

Why was dorian so afraid that people view his painting?

How did Dorian meet Sybil Vane?

[Cody0852]

Dorian was afraid of people seeing his painting because he was afraid of them seeing his true self-seeing his soul.
Dorian met Sybil Vane at a club or pub I don't remember where she acted.He was captivated by her.

[Dinkleberry2010]

Although Wilde doesn't mention the title of the book that Lord Henry gave to Dorian Gray, he gives little hints that he is referring to the book Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans, which was kind of a representative work of French decadence at that time, and had a rather dubious reputation at the time. Books of, shall we say, ill-repute were, in the time that Wilde was writing, wrapped in yellow paper, to alert the discerning that they were dealing with a book of lewd or wanton character. That is why Wilde uses the term "that yellow book." Some have thought he was referring to The Yellow Book which was an actual publication of the mid-1890s, but he could not have been referring to that publication, because The Yellow Book was not created until 1894. Wilde wrote The Picture Of Dorian Gray in 1890.