The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

By Eithne Farry  on Tuesday 23 June 2009

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No32 in Marie Claire's Best Books Ever list!

It's hardly surprising that Oscar Wilde's only novel should have been a succès de scandale, with the stuffed shirts of the Establishment huffing over its immorality and decadence. It has all the hallmarks of Wilde's famous plays: gilded, debonair youth indulging in witty epigrammatic repartee while sighing over the beauty of art.

But The Picture of Dorian Gray has an eerily prescient story at its heart, as the titular charmed innocent leads a doomed double life, having gained his wish to never grow old. It's scary and gripping, with a dramatically grim ending and a heartbreaking epilogue. Within five years of its publication, Wilde was imprisoned for homosexual practices (illegal at the time) and within ten years he was dead.

GET 60% OFF THE RRP OF THIS NOVEL WITH THE MARIE CLAIRE GOOD BOOK CLUB

Does Oscar Wilde feature in your best-books-ever list? Leave your comments below...

Review by Eithne Farry

Release date: Tuesday 23 June 2009

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