PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY,THE - Wordsworth Classics

This is a story of moral corruption. Although not shocking by the standards of the late twentieth century, the book and its celebrated Preface, which contained the conclusion 'All art is quite useless', attracted such outraged reviews as 'Why go grubbing in muck-heaps?' on its publication. The later, kinder judgement of the DNB praised the work as being 'full of subtle impressionism and highly wrought epigram'. Crafted in brilliant prose, the book is of lasting importance as a singular example or Wilde's brilliance applied to the novel.