Oscar Wilde

Dorian Grayis the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist impressed and infatuated by Dorian'sbeauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mood in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat'shedonisticworld view: that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues alibertinelife of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and records every sin. The Picture of Dorian Grayis aGothicandphilosophical novelbyOscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue ofLippincott's Monthly Magazine.Fearing the story was indecent, the magazine's editor deleted roughly five hundred words before publication without Wilde's knowledge. Despite that censorship,The Picture of Dorian Grayoffended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde(16 October 1854– 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for hisepigramsand plays, his novelThe Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for "gross indecency", imprisonment, and early death at age 46.