The Picture of Dorian Gray
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Writing in the height of the aesthetic movement in Europe, Oscar Wilde rose to the pinnacle of popular society on both the strength of his writing’s biting social commentary and his glittering public persona. The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s first and only novel. Originally published in 1890, it tells the story of a handsome young man who becomes so alarmed by the transitory nature of youth that he makes a wish to stay young forever, while a picture of him ages instead. When he realizes that his dearest wish has come true, young Dorian begins a treacherous pursuit of fleeting pleasure. This classic cautionary tale explores the nature of art, beauty, and morality.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) is the foremost representative of aestheticism in English literature. Born in Dublin, the son of Anglo-Irish intellectuals, Wilde became fluent in French and German as a child and went on to study classics at Oxford. In his early career, Wilde worked in London as a prolific journalist, lectured, and published poetry. He quickly became a well-known public personality. He published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, in 1890, and in the early 1890s went on to write several plays featuring the biting high-society satire that brought him to the apex of his fame.