Wilsberg reads Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray", a novel whose protagonist does not age. Alex replies with a George Orwell quotation: "At 50, everyone has the face he deserves." (Diary entry, Manuscript Note-book. Cranham 17 April 1949. The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: In Front of Your Nose, 1945-1950. Secker & Warburg 1968, p. 515)