The Picture of Dorian Gray  (English, Paperback, Wilde Oscar)

Oscar Wilde's only published novel, The Picture Of Dorian Gray is a classic in the genre of gothic fiction. In this highly controversial and popular piece of work, Wilde tells the dazzling tale of a self-indulgent handsome young man whose life is steered into a sequence of misadventures.

Summary Of The Book

Dorian Gray is a charming young man, who poses for Basil Hallward, an artist drawing his portrait. In this process, he happens to meet Basil's imperious friend, Lord Henry Wotton who expresses great appreciation for Dorian's looks and offers some unique perspectives on the aspects of beauty. Just as the beautiful picture is ready, it dawns on Dorian how the lifeless portrait would stay eternally youthful, while his body, made of flesh and blood, would age and become ugly. This thought bothers Dorian so much that he resorts to Wotton’s decadent ways and sells his soul just to ensure his good looks are kept intact. As a result of this gothic pact, only his picture would age as he sins, and not him.

With mysterious and intriguing twists, Wilde further narrates a plot that not only makes Dorian excessively obsessed about the aesthetic flamboyance, but also leads him to lose his love, friendships and sanity. The author intertwines in the story, Basil's unusual affection for the subject of his finest work, and Lord Henry's hedonic oddities. Although a helpless Dorian gradually comes to realize the effects of this unnatural deal, his moral disintegration breaks all limits when it pushes him into committing heinous crimes.

First published in the Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890, The Picture Of Dorian Gray is known to succinctly promote the author's philosophy of art. Most of Wilde’s views expressed in the novel, including the one that argues the relationship between morality and art, created an outrage in the conventional Victorian community who aggressively criticized the work. It was in the next year that Wilde edited some of the provocative content and published the work as a stand alone book with a preface defending the story and its grounds. Now considered a classic work of literature, The Picture Of Dorian Gray has been adapted into numerous plays, musicals, films and television series across the world.

About Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, playwright and poet.

The Importance Of Being Earnest, The Duchess Of Padua, De Profundis, The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, and Salome are some of his other notable works.

Born in Dublin in 1854 into a wealthy family, Oscar Wilde was home-schooled till he was 9 years old. He was then sent to Portora Royal School before he went on to attend Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford. His writings were highly influenced by aestheticism and aesthetic morality, which earned him a lot of social opposition in Britain. This motivated Wilde to move to the USA for a brief period of time. However, he returned to London, where he married Constance Lloyd. Besides a short career in journalism, Wilde devoted all of his time to create different forms of literature that comprised short stories, plays and essays. His works attracted criticism and acclaim alike. He died in 1900 after suffering from cerebral meningitis.