About the author
Oscar Wilde was an Irish novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright associated with the Aesthetic movement. His comedies made epigram into social anatomy, while The Picture of Dorian Gray turned beauty, influence, and self-invention toward Gothic consequence.
The wish comes true. As Dorian moves through London under Lord Henry's tutelage — theatres, romances, scandals, worse — his face stays unmarked while the face in the portrait changes, registering each act with growing horror. Wilde turns a fairy-tale premise into a study of influence: who is responsible for what a person becomes, the one who tempts or the one who chooses?
Where to start
Start with The Picture of Dorian Gray. A beautiful young man stays young while his portrait records everything he does.
