The portrait of Dorian Grey is Oscar Wilde's only novel, he is better known for his work as a play write, producing work such as 'The Important of Being Earnest'. Wilde is a Victorian writer and is better known for being homosexual in a time when sodomy was illegal. Wilde was actually incarcarated at one point because of his sexuality. However, Wilde was not easily put down by others, he belived in the living life and was very eccentric and flamboyant. With one of his famous quotes being, 'There is only one thing worse than people talking about you and that is them not talking about you!'

With this in mind The Picture of Dorian Grey presents us with three characters: Basil- the most level headed of the three characters, he is the artist who paints Dorian and introduces him to Lord Wooton. Lord Wooton- the very frivalous and brash character, he introduces Dorian to the more glamourous side of life thus leading him astray. And lastly but most important there is Doraian, the attractrive narracist.

Without giving away the ending the plot is as follows:
Basil is an artist who paints a portrait of a young man he knows called Dorian Grey. Dorian Grey is extremely beautiful but at this point he is not aware of it. When Basil shows the painting to Lord Wooton he is amazed by it because it encapsulates youth and innocence. Basil does not want to show the image because he feels he has 'put to much of himself into the image'. Wooton meets Dorian which Basil is uncomfortable with as he realises how influencing he is. Wooton is drawn to Dorian because he is young, rich and attractive ansd through Dorian lives a completly immoral lifestyle. The more Dorian because influenced by Wooton the more he takes on his hedonistic lifestyle. The one thing about Dorian is, whatever he does or no matter how many years pass he still reamins as beautiful and youthful as the day the portait was made. Dorain is extremely vain and it is revealed that he had made a supernatural pact for the painting to take on all of his years and for his beautiful face to remain the sam. So it is revealed that this sordid painitng is hidden away becoming more grotesque with each sin Dorian commits. However eventually Dorain has to take the responsability of his lifestlye.

This book would appeal to students, people who enjoy reading books of the gothic or victorian genre and Wilde fans. It would also appeal to a wider audience because Dorain Gret is the first rock n roll star in literature, he is a true headonist. Its literaly sex, opium and opera.

In my opinion Wilde was making a satirical point about the aristocracy how they all had too much money and would sit around having tea parties and gossiping much like we see in Alice and Wonderland's Mad Hatter's Tea Party. He was also exploring themes of age and innocence and how people may feel there life is boring once they reach a certain age, such as Lord Wotton who says :

One of the great secrets of life. Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.

All in all a good read, it short as well which suits the style and prevents it from being boring.