Product Description

It is 1981 and the "Royal Broodmare", as Henry Wotton calls her, is about to be married. Wotton, an uneasy homosexual and an egregious drug-addict, and his friend Baz have found a remarkable young man Dorian Gray, the epitome of male beauty. 16 years later and the Princess is dead. As the stock market soars and their T-cell counts plummet, what has happened to Henry and Baz? And how does Dorian remain so youthful? Will Self's excoriating new novel is set against the AIDS crises of the '80s and '90s, and is a shameless reworking of our most shameless classic novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #386514 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
'One of those rare writers whose imaginations change the way we see the world' JG Ballard

About the Author
Will Self has published three short-story collections and three novels, all of which are in Penguin. His most recent novel HOW THE DEAD LIVE was shortlisted for the 2000 Whitbread Fiction prize, and was a bestseller in both paperback and hardcover. He is married to the Independent columnist Deborah Orr, and they live with their two children in Stockwell, South London.

Customer Reviews

On no account lock away this work of art in the attic!
My head reels! I have, of course, just finished reading Will Self's "Dorian" and he's smarter than smart can be!

"Dorian - an Imitation" is so much more than simply the retelling of one of our most famous and terrifying modern fables.

Self has not only retold Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray', and done this with great panache, dexterity and originality, but has taken it some way further as well. While many will (think) they know what to expect from the plot, there are plenty of new ports of call to keep the most jaded reader wide awake.

Self has transposed the characters of the original to the London of the 1980s and 1990s. And in so doing, Self gives glorious attention to detail: Dorian Gray's progress from callow youth to shallow monster, his 'mentor' Henry Wotton, the cynical yet perspicacious, bisexual drug-fiend aristo, his somewhat dippy but devoted wife 'Batface', the wrinkled old queen 'The Ferret' (like a human embodiment of the Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland) who keeps falling asleep and to whom they keep feeding drugs... and a convincing cast of many other lowlifes and highbrows.

Impressive, too, is the detail (psychological and social) of (a sector of) the homosexual world of the period, the disease and subculture of AIDS and (of course, Mr Self) drug taking. I write as a not totally unworldly gay man with HIV and feel that Self has achieved an, at times, uncomfortable and poignant accuracy.

At the novel's climax, as ever, Self has more cards up his sleeve than we realise. We're kept on the edge of our seats to the end - our brains reeling on the roller coaster of (!self-) revelation right to last full stop.

I found this book shocking, loathsome, chilling, gruesome and (consequently) totally compelling. Even at its most grotesque (or perhaps, perversely, because of it) it has credibility - the hallmarks of truth. Enough to make you feel exposed as though your own picture were on view because it is so very vivid.

Indeed the book has a very visual, filmic quality about its writing - almost as if it were the screenplay for a movie. Perhaps, (like the video art installation of Dorian Gray itself) the book partly reflects the way that art and entertainment now centres its focus and importance on the medium of the moving image.

Be that as it may, like all good fiction/art, it holds up a mirror to the truth about any of us, so how can we help but leer back at it and make comparisons? For it is "the spectator and not life that art really mirrors" as Oscar Wilde states in his preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray".

Indeed, let's give Wilde the last word seeing as that's where this story began. "The artist is the creator of beautiful things" he says at the start. Self has certainly done that in this version - even if the subject matter might make that seem otherwise.

Buy it. Read it. And shiver!

How we love the Cathode Narcissus
Self does it again. This time he turns his confident prose style to a modernisation of the Wilde classic depicting love, loss and the battle for eternal youth. I re-read the Wilde version immediately after reading Dorian and I was amazed at how closely Self managed to replicate the character development, but also graft a new layer of 20th Century detritus to the original. This is beautiful and shocking piece of literature that will certainly stand up as a classic in its own right, but is even better if read with the Wilde version. Go jiggling man!

The book Oscar wished he'd been allowed to pen
Despite the irritating shadow of the thesaurus hanging over Self's books, his quest to never repeat a word, evolves from irritation into a grudging admiration from this reader. His wild yet disciplined form can evade definition and frequently causes low level anxiety. Those deft turns at fantasy, that allow him to run with dark English shadows, like in 'My Idea of Fun', with the literal application of childhood jokes, and in the gruesome hysteria of 'How the Dead Live', are lessened in 'Dorian'. Yet in 'Dorian', he has congealed this text into something that is more - dare I say - conventional in format. That's not to say that this book doesn't juxtapose hilarity with extreme violence, but that the formation of the story is happier to sit in a more conventional box.

In particular his characters are spectacularly enjoyable, and in particular I had a happy bonding to Henry Wotton, despite or perhaps because of his moral tendency to sit on the fence without getting splinters up his arse, whilst he cheerfully zones out of the world with yet more opiates. In contrast to a cosy bedding down with Henry, I watched in open-mouthed-horrified fascination at Dorian's emotionless foray into that unfashionable zone of evil.

This book was another example of why I shouldn't buy work that I suspect I'll love. Bought on Saturday. Finished by Sunday. A complete waste of £7.99 in terms of longevity of reading. Ignored food, work, sex and play. Would Will call Dorian's bluff? Would Ginger wreak his revenge, Ah yes, Oh No!

Dorian achieves loudly which Will Self girlishly wished for in response to Craig from Big Brother's being added to the ranks of a heartthrob for the gay world, - it will confirm his status as a gay icon. And he doesn't do so badly with the girls, stop with that tongue in cheek picture you put on all publishing back covers - We KNOW what you're insinuating.

If you haven't read any Will Self before, this will be a romping little jaunt through bloodletting, amoral sexuality, beautiful boys, raddled aristocratic harridans, a jiggling man, drug taking and the superlative fencing and parading of the English language. Get addicted. It’s the only way forward.