In his latest and perhaps most adventuresome book, Robert Kastenbaum offers a fresh view of the quest for perpetual youth. The focus is on the "pretty monster" that Oscar Wilde created a century ago in "The Picture of Dorian Gray". We see Dorian first within the frame of his own times, responding to the pressures of modernization by attempting to escape the natural progression of time. Next we enter Dorian, the Opera, a re-imagining of his quest in the postmodern world of interactive computers. Finally, we observe Dorian's obsession and plight in our own graying society. This insightful analysis of the dangers inherent in becoming "terminally young" also provides a set of propositions worth consideration by gerontologists, educators, philosophers, media mavens, and policy-makers.
