The Picture of Dorian Gray | Wilde O

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" is Oscar Wilde's most famous work, his only novel which at the time sparked a storm of negative reviews yet achieved incredible success. The main character of the novel, the handsome Dorian, is a complex and ambiguous figure. A refined aesthete and romantic becomes a ruthless criminal. The attempt to preserve his extraordinary beauty and youth ends in failure. Instead of the hero aging, his portrait does—but this cannot last forever, and Dorian's death puts everything in its place. Oscar Wilde's novel remains very relevant today—isn't the pursuit of eternal youth sometimes a loss of one's true self?