At eighteen, the handsome Dorian Gray has his portrait painted, which prompts an admirer, Lord Henry Wotton, to declare that life is nothing without beauty and sensuous gratification. Suddenty scared of growing old and ugly, Dorian makes the fateful wish that the painted image shouldage rather than himself. Then - fearless of the consequences - he launches on a life of excessand depravity. Wilde's cautionary tale, published in 1891, describes how every sin that Dorian commits is reflected in the portrait. The painting is banished to his attic, wherethe image finally becomes so toathsome that Dorian tries to destroy it.