Oscar Wilde's 1890 Gothic novel follows a young Victorian gentleman who remains eternally youthful while his portrait ages and reflects the moral corruption of his increasingly hedonistic lifestyle. A haunting exploration of vanity, morality, and the consequences of living without restraint in 19th-century London society.
The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs; and now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily im…Continue reading →
A brilliant Irish playwright and poet who captivated Victorian London with his razor-sharp wit and flamboyant personality, this literary giant lived from 1854 to 1900. His masterpiece "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and comedic plays like "The Importance of Being Earnest" remain timeless classics that skewer social hypocrisy with unmatched eloquence. All works by Oscar Wilde →
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