SummaryThe preface is a collection of free-standing statements that form a manifesto about the purpose of art, the role of the artist, and the value of beauty. Signed by Oscar Wilde, the preface serves as a primer for how Wilde intends the novel to be read. He defines the artist as "the creator of beautiful things," and the critic as "he who can translate into another manner or new material his impression of beautiful things." He condemns anyone who finds ugliness where there is beauty as "corrupt." He states that a book can be neither moral or immoral, and that morality itself serves only as "part of the subject matter" of art. Since art exists solely to communicate beauty, Wilde warns against reading too much into any work of art: "Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril." The preface ends with the whimsical statement that "All art is quite useless"; earlier, however, we are told that the "only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely."Chapter 1 opens with a description of Basil Hallward, a respected but reclusive painter, who is entertaining

his friend,Lord Henry Wotton. It is a beautiful spring day. Lord Henry admires Basil's latest work-in-progress, a full-length portrait of a beautiful young man, and urges him to show it at a gallery. Basil says that he never will because he has "put too much of myself into it." Lord Henry laughs at him, mistaking his meaning, and says that the painter is nothing like the boy in the picture. In the following discussion, it becomes clear that Lord Henry often speaks in elaborate, cynical, even paradoxical aphorisms, while Basil is a simpler man with more purely romantic values. Basil clarifies his earlier statement by saying that "every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."The discussion turns towards the sitter, whom Basil describes as a delightfully pure and naive young man named Dorian Gray. Lord Henry insists on meeting the man, but Basil refuses. He wants to protect the boy's innocent purity from Lord Henry's cynical, sensualist influence. It becomes clear that Basil has very strong feelings for Dorian, bordering on adulation. To Basil's chagrin, the butler announces Dorian's unexpected arrival, and the artist implores of Lord Henry: "He has a simple and a beautiful nature...Don't spoil him...Don't take away from me the one person who gives my art whatever charm it posseses."Lord Henry and Dorian are introduced, and begin talking as Basil prepares his paints and brushes. Henry is immediately taken by the boy's charm and good looks, and Dorian is quickly impressed with Henry's conversational acumen and firmly unorthodox views of morality. Controlling his jealousy, Basil asks Henry to leave so that Dorian can pose for the picture in peace. Dorian insists that Henry stay, Basil relents, and Henry continues to dazzle the model with an impromtu lecture on how people ought to be less inhibited so that one might "realise one's nature perfectly." As he paints, Basil notes that "a look had come into the lad's face that he had never seen before." It is this look of revelation that the artist captures in his painting. Lord Henry's lecture makes Dorian feel that "entirly fresh influences were at work within him," and he marvels that "mere words" could have this effect. Lord Henry sees clearly the effect that he has on Dorian, and is proud of it. Dorian and his new friend adjourn to the garden as Basil puts the finishing touches on his work. In the garden, Henry tells the boy that "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul," and that he has "the most marvellous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having." The conversation then turns towards beauty, and Henry asserts that it has "the divine right of soverignity," that beauty gives power to those who have it, and that nothing in the world is greater. He warns Dorian that his beauty will someday fade, a prospect that horrifies the impressionable young man.

Basil then informs the pair that the painting is complete. Upon seeing the painting, Dorian is overwhelmed with joy and wonder at its beauty. It is his first unabashed immersion into vanity. As soon as he thinks of how precious his beauty is, however, he remembers Lord Henry's statement about the fleetingness of youth and flies into a fit, becoming enraged at the portrait because it will always retain its beauty, while he is destined to grow old. In a fit of passion, he thinks, "If only it were the other way! If only it were I who was to be always young, and the picture was to grow old! For that...I would give my soul for that!" Seeing Dorian's distress, Basil grabs a knife and moves to destroy the painting. Dorian stops him, saying that it would be murder, and that he is in love with the work. Basil promises to give the picture to Dorian as a gift, and tells him that it will be delivered to him as soon as it is dried and lacquered.