The Picture of Dorian Gray

When the artist Basil Hallward paints the portrait of a beautiful young man named Dorian Gray, and the languid Lord Henry Wotton murmurs his philosophy of pleasure into the sitter's ear, Dorian makes a reckless wish: that the picture might age in his place. It does. While Dorian stays flawless through years of deepening corruption, the canvas locked in his attic keeps the ledger, every cruelty, every scandal, every sin recorded in paint on a face only he ever sees.

Wilde's only novel is Gothic horror conducted entirely in epigrams: page for page it may be the most quotable book in English, with Lord Henry tossing off paradoxes that have been detached and repeated for over a century. That makes it glorious to hear performed, the wit lands as spoken wit, the way Wilde built it. Beneath the glitter is a genuinely unnerving moral fable about the cost of a life without consequences, driving toward one of the most satisfying endings in the Gothic canon.

At roughly 77,600 words, The Picture of Dorian Gray runs about 8½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The edition linked here is available from Project Gutenberg under its US public-domain listing. Check the edition, translation, completeness and copyright rules where you live. LoudReader lets you browse and download Gutenberg books; they are not all stored on installation. To listen:

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