What book inspired Dorian Gray to taint his soul??

[tpc: Zelath]

Hi guys..

Just finnished the picture of dorian gray (by that bittersweet oscar wilde) and i do wonder what book is it that dorian read and got in such many copies, rebound in different clors and gave a lot of guilt for tainting his soul.. it do intrigue me indeed - i mena it sounds all worth a read.. thought you guys woulda be into this kinda topic - so any guesses or knowings bout what book this might be bout!? 

[Telarus]

via Wikipedia

Dorian Gray's "poisonous French novel" that leads to his downfall is believed to be Joris-Karl Huysmans' novel À rebours. Literary critic Richard Ellmann writes:

    Wilde does not name the book but at his trial he conceded that it was, or almost, Huysmans's A Rebours...To a correspondent he wrote that he had played a 'fantastic variation' upon A Rebours and some day must write it down. The references in Dorian Gray to specific chapters are deliberately inaccurate.[18]

18 - Ellmann, Oscar Wilde (Vintage, 1988) p.316

[Cain]

That seems likely.  Wilde loved that book, considered it the apotheosis of decadence in art.

[LMNO]

de Sade, 120 Days of Sodom.