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Oscar Wildes tale of a Faustian pact in Victorian England- The Picture of Dorian Gray is a both a slow-burning Gothic horror and a brilliant philosophical investigation of youth- beauty and desire. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Mighall.Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait- Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton- he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succes de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins- and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895. It has lost none of its power to fascinate and disturb.This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novels immorality- and the introduction to the first Penguin Classics edition by Peter Ackroyd.Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)- son of an eminent eye-surgeon and a nationalist poet- was educated in Dublin and Oxford and became the leading exponent of the new Aesthetic Movement. His work- including short fiction such The Happy Price (1888)- his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)- gradually won him a reputation- which was cemented by his phenomenally successful plays- including A Woman of No Importance (1893)- An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Imprisoned for homosexual acts- he died after his release- in exile...