Didn't we, even at one point in our lives, desire immortality and eternal youth? History has several examples of this particular kind of drive--Juan Ponce de Leon searched for it and set foot on Florida.
But what if, impelled by some insiduous desire for hedonism, by some prayer to an all-hearing Fate [or the all-hearing Devil], you get your portrait painted, and your portrait became the reflection of your existence. You never grow old, but it does. The ravages of sin and excess would be wr... (show more)

Didn't we, even at one point in our lives, desire immortality and eternal youth? History has several examples of this particular kind of drive--Juan Ponce de Leon searched for it and set foot on Florida.
But what if, impelled by some insiduous desire for hedonism, by some prayer to an all-hearing Fate [or the all-hearing Devil], you get your portrait painted, and your portrait became the reflection of your existence. You never grow old, but it does. The ravages of sin and excess would be written upon its face, but it would never mar yours. What would you do? Continue living your normal humdrum life, or indulge in the most debauched excesses, if only to test the hypothesis of your parallel existence in the painting? In the end, after all you have done would be written on the face of the painting, would you notice it--would you manage to look into your own eyes and see the depravity that lurks beneath that malevolent gaze? Could you murder? Could you kill yourself when all you have done has exposed your heart to the world--when your realize the defilement that you have engineered?
Those are the themes that this most brilliant novel of the 19th century explores and brings to a most gruesome, although very apt end. (show less)