The Picture Of Dorian Gray is the novel of the decadent 1890’s.  Wilde’s only full length novel, it is a thrilling, melodramatic tale of love, murder, thwarted revenge and final justice.  But in its pages Wilde also expressed his own distinctive views on art, life and beauty through Lord Henry Wotton, the immoral aristocrat who corrupts Dorian Gray.  In some ways both Dorian and Lord Henry are self-portraits of Wilde – not as he was but as he would have liked to appear. This adds to the novel’s power and poignancy.