Oscar Wilde (1775-1817) was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, and bon vivant. In his time, he was as well known for his colorful life as for his writing. That life, however, was rather too colorful for the time. In 1895, Wilde was sentenced to two years' hard labor for homo- sexuality. Prison broke him emotionally and physically; he died three years after his release.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1891) is Wilde's only novel. It contrasts hedonism with respec- tability using the Victorian belief that one's appearance was a reflection of one's soul. It was controversial when originally published- largely because of its homoerotic subtext-but is now considered one of the great classics of Gothic literature.

This book is in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for writing English developed in the mid-19th century at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah).