The picture of Dorian Gray is about a young man who is wealthy, cultured and 'impossibly beautiful'. He meets a painter called Basil Hallward who asks him to sit for several paintings, where he often portrays him as a mythological greek god or hero. The novel opens as Basil completing his first painting of Dorian as he really is. But he is disappointed because he says it reveals too much of his feeling for the subject. Whereas Lord Henry (a famous witt) says it would be his best piece. Lord Henry then upsets Dorian himself with a speech about how his is in his prime. Dorian, curses his new portrait as he believes it will one day remind him of beauty he has lost. He pledges his soul that the painting will grow old and he will stay young forever.
Immediately after publication, the book was banned in every single english speaking country(europe and america with a few others), without exception. and then later in 1930 after it was stolen and then translated into Arabic. The bannings were because the countries felt that the book had explicit sexual content. They weren't really successful because most people still read the book and talked about it, but they were successful as to take it off the shelves of bookshops. There are not bans in england for the book today or america, I think the same is for most of europe. I do not think that the book should of been banned for the last 50 years, before that i can see why, people were still innocent and they this type of rebellious book was not cool or stylish. But I think that they should have raised the bann earlier than it should have been.