Dorian Gray is young, arrogant, and devastatingly handsome. Confronted by his beauty in the form of a portrait, and struck by the terrible realization that he will age, Dorian wishes to retain his charms forever and finds his desire granted. He abandons himself to a life of hedonism, vice and murder, yet his face remains unmarked by his evil. But, hidden in his attic, the painting ages and corrupts, and one day Dorian must stand face to face with the man he has become.
A perfect depiction of fin-de-siècle decadence, Oscar Wilde's only novel highlights the tension between the polished surface and murky depths of Victorian high society.
This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray features an afterword by the playwright and actor Peter Harness.