I really don't think this book is for everyone--for example, I would never pass this one along to my father to read. The descriptions Self gives of drug use and homosexual acts are vivid and unapologetic. It doesn't matter if you feel uncomfortable reading them; in fact, that might be the point.

I don't know much of anything about the gay community of the 1980s and 90s, so my critique of those pieces would be shallow to say the least. I do think that Self made some interesting points about the state of art itself, though. ( )

bawdy, queer rolicking parody
8.03

Self's re-styling of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray moves on a heavy under-current of shock, but considering the treatment, that might be appropriate. Full of grotesques and satire, along with plenty of descriptions just as dark as they are humorous, the novel rewrites the idea of Dorian onto a society already punctured by overindulgence in drugs, alcohol, and sex. Played out in the years when AIDS is just becoming known, the novel's focus becomes a trajectory of declining grotesques who either struggle against attaining any moral code, or suffer slowly under the lack thereof. Self's humor and (insane) descriptions keep the novel moving quickly, even with such a serious backdrop as it finds, but the crudeness and plays on moral violence will turn off a lot of readers before the novel is done. For what it is, however, it's an interesting re-write of Wilde's novel, and one which wouldn't have had anywhere near so much power if Self had chosen to set the novel in an earlier (or later) time--as it turns out, the novel becomes a surprisingly introspective condemnation, showing a destruction that was in many ways far too realistic once AIDS took hold in the eighties.

In the end, this certainly isn't for every reader, and even though I read horror regularly, I was tempted to put the book down in disgust on more than one occasion. If nothing else, this speaks to the shock value that Self so often seeks out as the book moves along. But, all that said, many aspects of the book were frighteningly clever and humorous. ( )

generally my feeling is: don't mess with the original. i liked wilde's better but this was good too. ( )

I kind of feel bad giving this two stars. I can appreciate what he did with the story, I just didn't particularly enjoy it. ( )

[Dorian: An Imitation] Will Self
"Violent crimes are in astonishingly bad taste, just as bad taste is a violent crime”

“Evil is to morality as magnolia is to paint,’ Wotton said after a while; ‘it’s an unpleasant shade of meaning, far too liberally applied, purely on the basis that it isn’t white”

“Oh Good! Wotton guffawed. ‘Confession is such a Bodily relief, don’t you agree? It’s like shitting out guilt - no wonder the Catholics and Freudians have made an entire system of mind control out of it.”

Just like Oscar (Wilde) - perhaps, but then again not really. The first epigram above could have been lifted straight from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” but I am not so sure that Oscar would have been so aware of magnolia paint or that he would have dared use such language about the Catholics and Confession.

On the inside cover Will Self’s book is entitled “Dorian; An Imitation”, which is a pretty accurate description. He has taken Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray which was set in the 1880’s and re-invented it for the 1980’s. The three major characters Henry Wotton, Basil Hallward and Dorian Grey reappear in a new but similar disguise and the famous painting has been updated to a nine screen video projection, other than that the story is largely the same.

My first thoughts when the story started to unroll was ‘Why bother’, why would an author want to take such a famous story and provide us with an imitation, where is the integrity in that, was this just a cheap shot to get into the best sellers listings? These thoughts persisted until about halfway through, until I discovered that I was really enjoying Dorian. Self takes us into a world that he knows well; the drug fuelled homosexual scene of the 1980’s, a world that probably existed in another form in the 1880’s but Wilde could not have hoped to get his novel published had he dared to go there. The angel of death in Self’s novel is the AIDs virus and Basil Hallward repeats the rumour that is spreading around town that the rich, beautiful and seemingly eternally youthful Dorian Gray was “the AIDS Mary, the malevolent and intentional transmitter of the virus.”

The AIDS virus and the drug culture is something new that Self brings to the table, but there are other ideas as well that reflect back on Wilde’s novel. There is a continual feeling of a roman a clef as Self introduces characters and event from the 1980’s; the worship of Princess Diana as the Queen of Hearts, the gay scene around the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the jiggling man (who is he?). There is also the feeling of a society going horribly to the dogs and the only way to combat this is through a breaking of the rules with a cynical view of the straight and narrow. This is of course self destructive and is as effectively portrayed in Self’s novel as it is in Wilde’s .There is no doubt that to pull off such an imitation calls for writing of exceptional wit and vocabulary, after all Self is asking us to compare him to Oscar Wilde. He is largely successful although the harder edge to his writing loses some of the charm in Wilde’s novel. Wilde was able to take his readers to the darkest places in A Picture of Dorian Grey and Self can do just as well in Dorian.

Self shifts the focus a little in the second part of his book; Henry Wotton becomes the central character along with the AIDS virus. The malevolent Dorian almost seems to flicker in and out rather like his video images. There is also a twist to the ending that brings the whole thing down to earth in a very effective way and by this time I was completely won over with Self’s book. No doubt Dorian could be enjoyed as a stand alone novel, however it gains in scope if you have read Oscar Wilde’s novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a great gothic horror story and while Self has lost the Gothicism his retelling has much to admire. Bravo I say and 4 stars. ( )

An imitation, perhaps, but more a modern adaptation of the Wilde classic. With Self's characteristic urban grit, here we have a rather accomplished homage. However, despite the modernization, there are still elements that feel dated (and here we are not criticizing the writing style, but the objects that come to represent the themes of narcissism, shamelessness, and portrayal). ( )

Read. Think of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; the came first. A mash-up of a classic. Contemporarized. Some good lines, but not Wilde (I used to dring to forget . . . now I forget to Drink). Some great scenes.

This was certainly an interesting read, especially when paired with Wilde's original. I found the outright homosexuality of the characters much better in tune with the story and their dialogue and relationships than Wilde's vaguely heterosexual characters. Self's version also did a better job of character development overall-- the book was more of a full and complex novel, rather than an allegory. I especially liked the portrayal of Baz and Wotton (much more sympathetic), while Dorian was all the more evil and cruel. The first Part of the book was a bit hard to take-- graphic and even gory drugs and sex. Maybe realistic-- I don't know. His writing is really over the top with rarely seen vocabulary, but it didn't interrupt the flow too much. I'm not sure I cared for the Epilogue, but it did add an unexpected twist to a story that you think you know. This book is not for everyone, but I'm a straight, drug free, American female and I liked it pretty well. ( )

Interesting, though occasionally causes gagging due to sheer decadence, which is probably Self's idea...Best enjoyed by those who have read, or at least are familiar with, The Picture of Dorian Grey...There are some clever updates here that restore a great deal of the novel's original potency...the painting that ages instead of Dorian has been replaced by a video installation, and all those clove cigarettes and faint whispers of opium are now simply good ol' smack...manages to show a modern audience just how decadent Wilde's short novel was to audiences of the 1890's...but though Self does manage to create a Lord Henry Wotton that has all the self-absorbed indestructibility of the original, Wilde's supercharged wit is sorely missed, especially when the novel gets depressing in the second half. The novel begins in the early 80's, with all the drugs and easily cured STDs the era implies...but then AIDS shows up. Despite the occasional shortcomings of the story, Self is one of those writers--John Updike is another, and John Cheever and Raymond Chandler and Ronald Firbank--who write absolutely wonderful prose. The language itself is beautiful--great metaphors, the sentences are poised just right and give off a dull sheen that reeks of effortlessness.

All in all, it's a cross between Bret Easton Ellis and J.K. Huysmans (who wrote the ne plus ultra of decadence, "A Rebours," or "Against Nature") ( )