The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde's only novel (1890, expanded 1891) follows a beautiful young man whose portrait ages while he stays young, and what that costs him.

Author

Oscar Wilde

First published

1890

Setting

Late Victorian England

Genre

Gothic, philosophical fiction

Read it if you like

Epigrams, aesthetics and a very good horror idea.

On screen and stage

Film (1945) and many stage versions

Overview

After the painter Basil Hallward finishes a portrait of the strikingly handsome Dorian Gray, Dorian, influenced by the witty Lord Henry Wotton, wishes that the portrait would age instead of him. His wish seems to come true. Dorian pursues pleasure without consequence while the painting records his actions. The story is a Gothic fable about vanity and conscience.

Themes

• Vanity and youth
• Art and morality
• Influence
• A double life

Background

Wilde first published the story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890, then in a revised, longer book edition in 1891 with a preface defending art from moral judgment. The book was attacked as immoral and was cited at Wilde's 1895 trials.

Why it endures

It joins an aesthetic argument, art for art's sake, to a Gothic horror plot and some of Wilde's most quotable epigrams.

Quotes