This is a book that runs deep on many levels. It is incredibly humors, intelligent, cynical, sarcastic, and at times very sad. The two main characters, Dorian Gray and Lord Henry Wotton are easily despicable characters, very self centered, self serving, and one has to wonder how much each of these individuals are a part of Oscar Wilde. The beauty of Dorian surely is a reflection, as Oscar Wilde is probably one of the most beautiful men I think I've ever seen. As for Lord Henry Wotton his total contempt for anything respectable, pretentious, or affluent, surely jives with what others have written about Mr. Wilde, and despite Lord Henry Wotton's total contempt for everything, he is a very likeable character and his insight on human nature is not only a hoot, it smacks of truth! This book and it's characters devotion to hedonism is an obvious revolt on the Victorian times in which it was written, and yet it is timeless in the story it tells and the lessons it teaches us about life, the pursuit of pleasure, and the affliction of Physiological, Emotional, and Spiritual Vampirism, and the price one pays when caught in it's Trap!