The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's best-known work and only novel. Published as a novella first in 1890, it features a beautiful young man who is swept up in a Faustian bargain. Dorian Gray, who has recently been inspired to live as an aesthete, becomes the subject of a painting by his friend Basil Hallward.

The painter, who believes that Dorian has opened up a new vein of brilliance in his art, claims it is his finest work, and promptly falls in love with young man. The man responsible for Gray's hedonistic mindset is Lord Henry Wotton (or Wilde himself), a man who espouses a life of sensual pleasure over morality or ethics. Upon witnessing the painting, Dorian expresses his wish, however whimsical, that the painting would age and not he. When his wish becomes true, Dorian, who feels no repercussions for his actions, spirals into a life of of vice and debauchery.