About this book

In a London studio scented with roses and lilac, the painter Basil Hallward finishes the most beautiful portrait of his life: a full-length canvas of his young friend Dorian Gray. On the day the portrait is unveiled, Dorian meets Basil's friend Lord Henry Wotton, a brilliant and dangerous talker who whispers to him a single idea: that youth is the only thing worth having, and that to lose it is to lose everything. In a moment of foolish wish, Dorian asks the heavens to let the portrait grow old while he stays young. The heavens, in this story, listen. From that day on, every cruelty Dorian commits, every friendship he wastes, every love he poisons, leaves no mark on his face — only on the canvas locked away in a hidden room. Oscar Wilde's only novel, retold in five sharp chapters as a fable about beauty, conscience, and the price of a wish granted too quickly.

Content warnings: Şiddet

From the book

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.