The Picture of Dorian Gray (First Avenue Classics ™)

Is the price of eternal youth worth a man's soul? The exceptionally handsome Dorian Gray is a model—and the muse—for a young artist, Basil Hallward. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, who values only the pleasurable things in life with no regard for morality. He makes Dorian realize that one day his famed beauty will fade, and he will be left with nothing. Dorian decides to sell his soul so that a portrait of him will age in his place. As he indulges in every vice and selfish whim, his portrait grows increasingly hideous. But will he learn the true cost of his corruption in time to change his ways? This unabridged edition of British playwright Oscar Wilde's only novel, first published in 1891, begins with his famous preface, in which he justifies his artistic philosophy.

From the Inside Flap

Dorian Gray has just had his portrait painted. It is a perfect likeness of the quite extraordinary beautiful young man, and it prompts him to make a mad wish for eternal youth. In the years to come, he devotes his public life to and aestheticism-and his private one to decadence and debauchery.

From the Back Cover

Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton. The novel was met with moral outrage by contemporary critics who, dazzled perhaps by Wilde's brilliant style, may have confused the author with his creation, Lord Henry, to whom even Dorian protests, 'You cut life to pieces with your epigrams.'. Encouraged by Lord Henry to substitute pleasure for goodness and art for reality, Dorian tries to watch impassively as he brings misery and death to those who love him. But the picture is watching him, and, made hideous by the marks of sin, it confronts Dorian with the reflection of his fall from grace, the silent bearer of what is in effect a devastating moral judgement.

About the Author

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish-born poet, dramatist, and novelist. His works include collections of fairy stories; the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray; and many brilliantly witty plays, including what is often considered to be his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest.

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