The Picture Of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wildes tale of an incredibly attractive upper class gentleman (the titular Gray) who, after he is the the subject of a painting for artist Basil Hallward, becomes completely obsessed with his own beauty and youth. Basil introduces Gray to his morally devoid friend Lord Henry, who corrupts Gray with the idea that one day he'll begin losing his looks. Gray eventually becomes so worried that he makes an off-the-cuff wish that, in exchange for his soul, all his future sin and ageing are thrust upon the portrait instead of him. As the story unfolds we are reminded to be careful what we wish for...

If you're going to read this book, there are a few things you will need to take into account. The first is that it's old as balls! Like really old! Way older than me, and I'm 27 (that's right; I'm almost dead). When books were written in 1890, they used what seems like a completely different language and can be hard to follow in places - I didn't see Wilde mention texting or Twitter EVEN ONCE throughout the entire book.
The second thing you will need to do is power through its first chapter! The ENTIRE first chapter is Basil Hallward talking about how much he finds Dorian Gray attractive... It's far more homo-eroticism than is required in any single chapter, of any book, ever - but if you keep going you'll be rewarded with what turns out to be a really dark and stimulating story.

The story of Dorian Gray has become common knowledge in popular media, but the original, as you might expect, is the best. Like most people, I was under under the impression that if Gray should look upon his portrait, the curse is instantly broken, and I was surprised when this wasn't the case. It actually served to make the story all the more terrifying when Gray is constantly forced to confront his own misdeeds and sins in painted form of an evil and twisted likeness of himself. After a slightly rocky start, this turned out to be a fantastic book.