The Picture of Dorian Gray biography, "Oscar Wilde" (1989), the literary critic Richard Ellmann said that: Wilde does not name the book, but at his trial he conceded that it was, or almost [was], Huysmans's "À rebours" ... to a correspondent, he wrote that he had played a 'fantastic variation' upon "À rebours", and someday must write it down. The references in "Dorian Gray" to specific chapters are deliberately inaccurate. Some commentators have suggested that "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was influenced by the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's (anonymously published) first novel "Vivian Grey" (1826) as, "a kind of homage from one outsider to
The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) Dorian prevents this, saying that this would be murder. Lord Henry invites them to the opera that evening. Basil declines and asks Dorian to say behind to dine with him, but Dorian accepts the invitation. "Scene 2" A month later, at a visit to Lord Henry's house, Dorian says that he has fallen in love with a young Shakespearean actress, Sibyl Vane. He asks Lord Henry to bring Basil with him to Sibyl's performance as Juliet the next night. Lord Henry accepts, and after Dorian, thinks about his attraction to and influence over the young man. "Scene 3" The next