The picture of Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray is the most beautiful man in London—young, innocent, and adored by all who meet him. When the artist Basil Hallward paints his portrait, Dorian makes a desperate wish: that the painting should age and bear the marks of life, while he himself remains forever young. The wish is granted. Under the corrupting influence of the charming Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian plunges into a life of pleasure and sin. His face remains untouched by time or conscience, untouched by the suffering he leaves in his wake. But hidden away in his attic, the portrait tells the true story—growing grotesque with each act of cruelty, each abandoned lover, each shattered life. Oscar Wilde's only novel scandalized Victorian England with its exploration of beauty, hedonism, and the price of a life without consequences. More than a century later, The Picture of Dorian Gray remains the ultimate portrait of vanity, the ultimate fable of the soul sold for youth—and a haunting reminder that some wishes should never be spoken.