In fashionable Victorian London, the painter Basil Hallward completes a portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man of such rare beauty that the canvas seems to hold something of his soul. Through Basil, Dorian falls under the spell of the witty, dangerously cynical Lord Henry Wotton, who teaches him to prize youth and pleasure above all else, and to dread the day his beauty fades. Gazing at his own flawless image, Dorian makes a reckless wish: that the painting might age in his place. Wilde's dazzling 1890 novel sets a beautiful young man on a path whose price is only beginning to come due.