The picture of Dorian Gray and The Decay of Lying

"this portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to hi his own soul. And when winter came upon it, he would still be standing where spring trembles on the verge of summer. [...]"
This cowardly yet magnificent and desirable social outcast brings together in a single character several major figures of 19th century fiction.

AND The Decay of Lying :
written in 1889, is Oscar Wilde's most famous essay : "Life," he writes, "imitates art far more than art imitates life"

Titre original : The picture of Dorian Gray and The Decay of Lying