# The Picture of Dorian Gray

**Author:** Oscar Wilde
**Tags:** London (England), Conduct of life, Paranormal fiction, Portraits, Appearance (Philosophy), Supernatural, Great Britain, Didactic fiction
**Price:** Free
**Formats:** DOCX, EPUB, FB2, PDF, TXT
**Downloads:** 44
**Added:** 10.07.2026
**URL:** https://samolit.com/books/95803

## Description

Enthralled by his own extraordinary beauty, young Dorian Gray sits for a portrait painted by his devoted friend Basil Hallward and falls under the seductive influence of the cynical aesthete Lord Henry Wotton. Struck by a sudden terror of aging, Dorian makes a fateful wish that the painting, rather than himself, should bear the marks of time and sin, while he remains eternally youthful. As the years pass, his wish is granted in the strangest way: his face stays unlined and radiant while the portrait, locked away out of sight, grows steadily more grotesque, absorbing every trace of his moral corruption. Freed from visible consequence, Dorian pursues a life of increasingly reckless pleasure and cruelty through the drawing rooms and opium dens of Victorian London, indulging every whim without fear of exposure. Yet the hidden canvas becomes an unbearable reminder of his conscience, and the gulf between his flawless appearance and his rotting soul builds toward a reckoning he cannot escape. A haunting meditation on beauty, vanity, and the price of a life lived without restraint, this novel remains a landmark of Gothic and philosophical fiction, blending wit, decadence, and moral unease in equal measure.