The Picture of Dorian Gray

"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.¿... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that¿-for that¿-I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!" The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic philosophical novel that explores themes of aestheticism and double lives. It is the only novel written by Wilde, and one of his major and most controversial works.