The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings - Tapa blanda

Dorian Gray's extraordinary beauty wins the admiration of an artist who begins painting portraits of him, all but one depicting him as an ancient hero. This single portrait is of Dorian in his very essence; an honest depiction of his character and beauty. But when someone tells Dorian that beauty fades, he begins to see the portrait as a menacing thing, which will inevitably remind him of the beauty he once had. Dorian pledges his soul for a critical exchange: that the picture bears the burden of ageing and dishonour, and that he stays young and beautiful forever. As Dorian indulges in the most hedonistic of lifestyles, exploiting his own beauty and completely disbarring all morality, the portrait grows uglier and older while he shows no signs of physical degradation. Dorian Gray is a story of extreme selfishness, masked by the appeal of eternal beauty.

Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, to the Irish nationalist and writer "Speranza" Wilde and the doctor William Wilde. After graduating from Oxford in 1878, he wrote in different forms throughout the 1880s, becoming one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s with An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest