The Devil's Bargain

Published in 1890, the novel opens as Dorian Gray wishes that a portrait painted by Basil Hallward would age instead of him. The wish comes true. Oscar Wilde draws on the Faust legend but gives it a modern twist: Dorian's corruption grows from a culture that equates beauty with moral goodness.

A single portrait absorbs every sin while its subject stays perpetually young and beautiful. Wilde turned a Gothic premise into a devastating philosophical argument about beauty, morality, and the price of living without consequence.