Dorian Gray is a beautiful young man whose portrait, painted by his friend Basil Hallward, comes to bear the marks of his soul while his own face remains eternally youthful. Encouraged by the cynical aesthete Lord Henry Wotton to pursue pleasure without conscience, Dorian descends into corruption, and the hidden, decaying portrait becomes the only witness to his moral ruin. Wilde's only novel remains a landmark exploration of beauty, vanity and the price of a life lived without consequence.