The Picture of Dorian Gray

Published in 1890

Categories: Classics for Adults

Lord Henry lounges in an armchair with a cigarette as Basil Hallward stands beside him, both looking at a full-length portrait of a young man in a gilt frame
Illustration: Paul Thiriat, engraved by Eugène Dété (1908)

The painter Basil Hallward finishes a portrait of a beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, and his friend Lord Henry fills the young man's head with the idea that youth and pleasure are all that matter. Dorian wishes that the picture could grow old instead of him. His wish comes true: he stays young and fair while the face in the painting, locked away upstairs, shows every cruel thing he does. Oscar Wilde's only novel shocked London in 1890.