ThePicture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's only novelRejacketed along with a new Vintage Classics edition of The Importance of Being Earnest and Other PlaysA huge and controversial success in its day. The book was later used as evidence against Wilde during his famous trial for 'gross indecency' in 1895'Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks me: Dorian, what I would like to be' Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (Author)
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. He later lived in London and married Constance Lloyd there in 1884. Wilde was a leader of the Aesthetic Movement. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was first published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. He published a revised and expanded edition in 1891 in response to negative reviews which criticised the book’s immorality. Wilde became famous through of the immense success of his plays such as Lady Windemere's Fan (1892), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

In 1985, after a public scandal involving Wilde's relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, he was sentenced to two years' hard labour in Reading Gaol for 'gross indecency'. His poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol was based on his experiences in prison and was published in 1898. After his release, Wilde never lived in England again and died in Paris on 30 November 1900. He is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery.

Irvine Welsh (Introducer)
Irvine Welsh travels a lot but when stationary he lives between the great capital cities of Edinburgh and London with his wife, Emma.

Except in the winter, where you're more likely to find him in Miami Beach.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY IRVINE WELSH

Dorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamorous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle and untouched by age. But up in his attic, hidden behind a curtain, his portrait tells a different story...

[A] remarkable work of imagination...A wonderfully entertaining parable of the aesthetic idealA heady late-Victorian tale of double-livingThere's an incurable disease afflicting females - ageing. Men, on the other hand, never pass their amuse-by dates. Sean Connery is still cutting the sex god mustard and, if time flies, then HE has frequent air miles. Yet, you never hear a man described as mutton dressed as ram, now do you? This is a book about a bloke who realises that the night is young, but he is not...In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde set the gold standard for chroniclers of decadenceVery decadent and Victorian