The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories [Paperback]

A fashionable young man sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty in Oscar Wilde's fascinating gothic tale.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel, is the enduringly eerie story of a naïve and irresistible young man lured by decadent Lord Henry Wotton into a life of depravity. Though Dorian is steeped in sin, his face remains perfect, unlined as years pass—while only his portrait, locked away, reveals the blackness of his soul. This timeless tale of Gothic horror and fable, reveling in the unabashed hedonism and cynical wit of its characters, epitomizes Wilde’s literary revolt against the proprieties of the Victorian era.
 
Sharing this volume withThe Picture of Dorian Grayare Wilde’s clever and sophisticated story “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” and two of his delicate fairy tales, “The Happy Prince” and “The Birthday of the Infanta.”

With an Introduction by Gary Schnidgall
and an Afterword by Peter RabyOscar Wilde(1854–1900) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was an outstanding student of classics at Trinity College, and in 1874, he entered Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize with his poem “Ravenna” (1878). An early leader of the Aesthetic Movement, which advanced the concept of “art for art’s sake,” Wilde became a prominent personality in literary and social circles. His volume of fairy tales,The Happy Prince and Other Tales(1888), was followed byThe Picture of Dorian Gray(1891) andThe House of Pomegranates(1892). However, it was not until his playLady Windermere’s Fan(1892) was presented to the pubic that he became widely famous.A Woman of No Importance(1893) andThe Importance of Being Earnest(1895) confirmed his stature as a dramatist. In 1895, he brought libel action against the Marquis of Queensbury, lC%