Would you trade your soul for eternal youth? Oscar Wilde's provocative novel,
The Picture of Dorian Gray, tells the story of a beautiful young man who strikes this Faustian bargain by which a painted portrait fades and ages while he remains untouched by time. His stunning beauty protects him from suspicion in a society that judges by appearances while he spirals into ever more scandalous hedonism and wrongdoing. Wilde defended his sensational tale, which outraged Victorian critics, arguing that art should not be judged by moral standards. The book eventually became evidence in a criminal case that sent Wilde to prison for two years for "gross indecency" with men, and ever since the gripping tale retains its power as a key text for anyone skeptical of the stifling constraints of dominant culture or the obsession with superficial beauty that defines our age.
