8 h 56 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your face stays innocent while a hidden portrait bears the marks of every cruel choice?
In late Victorian London, Basil Hallward paints a portrait of Dorian Gray, a young man of remarkable beauty. Lord Henry Wotton fills Dorian's mind with talk of pleasure and fading youth. Dorian wishes to remain young forever, leaving the painting to age instead. His wish turns beauty into a dangerous shelter.
As Dorian pursues pleasure, his face reveals nothing, but the portrait begins to change. Basil hopes to keep him good, while Lord Henry delights in shaping his views. When Dorian falls for the actress Sibyl Vane, love enters a life increasingly ruled by appearances. Oscar Wilde brings sharp wit to a dark question: what restrains us when wrongdoing leaves no visible trace?
What you’ll discover
- A portrait with secrets Watch a painted likeness carry the guilt its beautiful subject refuses to show.
- The lure of influence Hear Lord Henry turn common sense upside down with dazzling, unsettling talk.
- Beauty against conscience Explore how the pursuit of pleasure puts friendship, love, and moral judgment under pressure.
- Wit beneath the darkness Enter a world where drawing room comedy sits beside the dread of the supernatural.
- Art and dangerous devotion Meet Basil Hallward, whose admiration for Dorian's beauty comes with hopes for his goodness.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy sharp conversation, gothic secrets, and stories about beauty, temptation and conscience. It offers a witty villain and a London of candlelit parlors and fog.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A painter hides his heart in a portrait
- Clever words can wake a young man's vanity
- One reckless wish binds a face to a canvas
- Dorian falls in love with an actress named Sibyl
- A failed performance changes the portrait
- Grief arrives late and the picture goes into hiding
- A double life tightens around a beautiful face
- Influence is the novel's quiet engine of ruin
- Beauty, surface and the price of living as art
- A witty voice, a locked room and a mirror
Who’s who
- Dorian GrayA strikingly beautiful young man who wishes his portrait would age in his place and then follows his appetites wherever they lead.
- Lord Henry WottonA witty, idle aristocrat who preaches pleasure and enjoys shaping the young man he has just met, without much thought for the cost.
- Basil HallwardA gifted painter who adores Dorian and puts his best work into the portrait, then fears for the friend he has helped to create.
- Sibyl VaneA young actress at a small theater who loves Dorian sincerely and believes love is worth more than all her stage roles.
- James VaneSibyl's rough younger brother, bound for a life at sea, who swears to protect his sister from any man who would harm her.
- Alan CampbellA brilliant chemist and once a close friend of Dorian, who now wants nothing to do with him.
- Victor and FrancisDorian's valets, quiet watchers in his house, whose glances make him feel that someone might guess the secret upstairs.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde · 1890
A painter's portrait of Dorian Gray grows cruel and old while the young man himself never changes.
Medium level5–10 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
Picture a young man so beautiful that a painter is afraid to show his portrait to the world. In a moment of vanity, the young man wishes that the painted face would grow old while he stays young.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A painter hides his heart in a portrait
The novel opens in Basil Hallward's studio, where the scent of roses drifts through an open door. Lord Henry Wotton lies on a divan and admires a full-length portrait of a young man of extraordinary beauty. Basil says he will not send it to any exhibition, because he has put too much of himself into it.
Basil met the sitter, Dorian Gray, at a crowded party and felt both terror and wonder, as if this one personality could absorb his whole soul and his whole art. Lord Henry takes it lightly, yet he is hungry to meet the model. Basil begs him not to, saying that his influence would be bad and that Dorian must stay simple and unspoiled.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1890
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 5 h 45 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-picture-of-dorian-gray.
Wilde, O. (2026). The picture of Dorian Gray. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-picture-of-dorian-gray (Original work published 1890)
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-picture-of-dorian-gray.
@book{wilde2026picture,
author = {Wilde, Oscar},
title = {The Picture of Dorian Gray},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-picture-of-dorian-gray},
note = {First published 1890}
}
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What is The Picture of Dorian Gray about?
It follows a handsome young man in London who wishes that his portrait would age while he stays youthful. The wish seems to come true, and the novel shows how a life with no visible consequences changes him.
Who is Lord Henry Wotton?
Lord Henry is an aristocrat and friend of the painter Basil Hallward. He speaks in clever paradoxes and urges Dorian to chase beauty and sensation, which makes him the book's main source of dangerous ideas.
What does the portrait symbolize?
The portrait stands for the conscience and moral record that Dorian refuses to carry himself. It shows the effects of his choices on a canvas while his own face stays smooth and young.
The author
Oscar Wilde
1854–1900 · Irish playwright and poet
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist born in Dublin. He lived in London and later in France, where he died in Paris. He published The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890. His play The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in 1895.
More by Oscar Wilde
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