A beautiful young man sits for his portrait and, in a careless wish, trades places with it: he stays flawless while the painting ages and rots in his stead. Freed from consequence, he spends twenty years testing how much cruelty a single life can hold — and the canvas keeps the ledger, growing more hideous with every sin. Wilde's only novel: a glittering, poisoned fable about beauty, appetite, and the face we hide in the attic.