The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to. "The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged--petulant, hedonistic, vain, and amoral--while a painting of him ages and grows increasingly hideous with the years, has been horrifying, enchanting, obsessing, even corrupting readers for more than a hundred years. Taking the reader in and out of London drawing rooms, to the heights of aestheticism, and to the depths of decadence. "The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a melodrama about moral corruption. Laced with "bon mots and vivid depictions of upper-class refinement, it is also a fascinating look at the milieu of Wilde's "fun-de-siecle world and a manifesto of the creed "Art for Art's Sake."