Classic·Gothic Fiction
The Canterville Ghost
Oscar Wilde
An ancient aristocratic phantom meets his match in an unapologetically modern American family determined not to be spooked.
Shared themes:Gothic horror
7 episodesDiscover
1890 · Complete work
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A classic by
“What dark price would you pay if a portrait aged with your sins while you remained forever young?”
In the gilded drawing rooms of late-Victorian London, the dazzlingly handsome Dorian Gray sits for a portrait by the devoted artist Basil Hallward. Seduced by the radical hedonism of Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian utters a fateful wish: to retain his breathtaking youth while the canvas bears the toll of years and transgression. As Dorian abandons himself to a secret life of libertine excess and cruelty, his flesh remains untouched by time, while the locked-away painting festers with the true weight of his corrupted spirit. A brilliant, chilling exploration of vanity, aestheticism, and moral decay.
41 Episodes · Classic
Complete work
Table of Contents
All Episodes (41)
Episode 01
~14 min
Chapter I · I
““It is your best work, Basil, the best thing you have ever done,” said Lord Henry languidly.”
2,776 words
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Episode 02
~11 min
Chapter I · II
““I don’t agree with a single word that you have said, and, what is more, Harry, I feel sure you don’t either.””
2,153 words
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Episode 03
~10 min
Chapter II · I
““You have not spoiled my pleasure in meeting you, Mr. Gray,” said Lord Henry, stepping forward and extending his hand.”
2,042 words
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Episode 04
~11 min
Chapter II · II
“They moved, as he spoke, like music, and seemed to have a language of their own.”
2,121 words
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Episode 05
~6 min
Chapter II · III
““I am glad you appreciate my work at last, Dorian,” said the painter coldly when he had recovered from his surprise.”
1,247 words
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2,572 words
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Episode 07
~9 min
Chapter III · II
““We are talking about poor Dartmoor, Lord Henry,” cried the duchess, nodding pleasantly to him across the table.”
1,896 words
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2,616 words
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Episode 09
~10 min
Chapter IV · II
““It is only the sacred things that are worth touching, Dorian,” said Lord Henry, with a strange touch of pathos in his voice.”
1,996 words
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Episode 10
~4 min
Chapter IV · III
“Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect.”
834 words
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Episode 11
~12 min
Chapter V · I
““He is not a gentleman, Mother, and I hate the way he talks to me,” said the girl, rising to her feet and going over to the window.”
2,443 words
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Episode 12
~9 min
Chapter V · II
““Oh! that you will be a good boy and not forget us,” she answered, smiling at him.”
1,811 words
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Episode 13
~8 min
Chapter VI · I
““No, Harry,” answered the artist, giving his hat and coat to the bowing waiter.”
1,569 words
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Episode 14
~6 min
Chapter VI · II
““To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self,” he replied, touching the thin stem of his glass with his pale, fine-pointed fingers.”
1,222 words
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2,455 words
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Episode 16
~9 min
Chapter VII · II
“She rose from her knees and, with a piteous expression of pain in her face, came across the room to him.”
1,845 words
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1,982 words
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Episode 18
~10 min
Chapter VIII · II
“And to-night I am to dine with you, and then go on to the opera, and sup somewhere, I suppose, afterwards.”
1,974 words
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Episode 19
~6 min
Chapter VIII · III
““We are only at the beginning of our friendship, Dorian,” answered Lord Henry, shaking him by the hand.”
1,189 words
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Episode 20
~11 min
Chapter IX · I
““My dear Basil, how do I know?” murmured Dorian Gray, sipping some pale-yellow wine from a delicate, gold-beaded bubble of Venetian glass and looking dreadfully bored.”
2,140 words
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Episode 21
~7 min
Chapter IX · II
““Basil!” cried the lad, clutching the arms of his chair with trembling hands and gazing at him with wild startled eyes.”
1,448 words
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Episode 22
~9 min
Chapter X · I
““And here is the key, sir,” said the old lady, going over the contents of her bunch with tremulously uncertain hands.”
1,819 words
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Episode 23
~6 min
Chapter X · II
““Always glad to have a rest, Mr. Gray,” answered the frame-maker, who was still gasping for breath.”
1,299 words
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Episode 24
~16 min
Chapter XI · I
“And, indeed, the whole book seemed to him to contain the story of his own life, written before he had lived it.”
3,120 words
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Episode 25
~14 min
Chapter XI · II
“This taste enthralled him for years, and, indeed, may be said never to have left him.”
2,847 words
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Episode 26
~8 min
Chapter XI · III
“He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the ego in man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable, and of one essence.”
1,557 words
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Episode 27
~8 min
Chapter XII · I
“It was on the ninth of November, the eve of his own thirty-eighth birthday, as he often remembered afterwards.”
1,577 words
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Episode 28
~5 min
Chapter XII · II
“Yes: you led them there, and yet you can smile, as you are smiling now.”
1,028 words
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Episode 29
~12 min
Chapter XIII
““You are mad, Dorian, or playing a part,” muttered Hallward, frowning.”
2,423 words
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Episode 30
~13 min
Chapter XIV · I
“Dorian was sleeping quite peacefully, lying on his right side, with one hand underneath his cheek.”
2,591 words
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Episode 31
~10 min
Chapter XIV · II
“Besides, without my stirring in the matter, you are certain to be arrested.”
1,904 words
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1,930 words
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Episode 33
~7 min
Chapter XV · II
““A thousand pardons, my dear Lady Ruxton,” she added, “I didn’t see you hadn’t finished your cigarette.””
1,335 words
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Episode 34
~9 min
Chapter XVI · I
““To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul!””
1,805 words
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Episode 35
~7 min
Chapter XVI · II
““Good night,” answered the young man, passing up the steps and wiping his parched mouth with a handkerchief.”
1,380 words
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Episode 36
~9 min
Chapter XVII
““But I don’t want to be rechristened, Harry,” rejoined the duchess, looking up at him with her wonderful eyes.”
1,784 words
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Episode 37
~9 min
Chapter XVIII · I
“The consciousness of being hunted, snared, tracked down, had begun to dominate him.”
1,891 words
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Episode 38
~7 min
Chapter XVIII · II
““I wish I could love,” cried Dorian Gray with a deep note of pathos in his voice.”
1,433 words
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Episode 39
~10 min
Chapter XIX · I
““And weep over a faithless Florizel,” said Lord Henry, laughing, as he leaned back in his chair.”
2,031 words
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Episode 40
~7 min
Chapter XIX · II
““By the way, Dorian,” he said after a pause, “‘what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose—how does the quotation run?—his own soul’?””
1,491 words
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Episode 41
~10 min
Chapter XX
“As he strolled home, smoking his cigarette, two young men in evening dress passed him.”
1,949 words
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Public-domain work (1890). Text: Project Gutenberg #174. The Spanish version is an AI-assisted translation and may contain errors. Digital edition by Inkora Stories. Learn more