Introduction

The beautiful young Dorian Gray has his portrait painted by the artist Basil Hallward and, seduced by the hedonist Lord Henry, makes a wish: that the picture should grow old instead of him, and he remain young for ever. The wish comes true. Thereafter he gives himself up to pleasure and vice; he abandons Sibyl, the actress who loves him, driving her to suicide, and at last even murders the painter. Years pass and his face remains innocent and beautiful, while the portrait locked in the attic grows uglier and more hideous with every sin. At last he raises a knife against the picture... This is Wilde's only novel, full of epigrams and aesthetic description. The volume also contains all Wilde's fairy tales, among them The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Young King and The Star-Child, beautifully written stories whose lovely surfaces hold a celebration of love and sacrifice and a compassion for social injustice.