''Dorian, an Imitation'' is a British novel by

Will Self William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Sel ...

. The book is a modern take on

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

's ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''The Picture of Dorian G ...

''. The novel was originally published by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...

in 2002 and subsequently by Penguin in 2003. Self was originally asked to adapt the 1890 Wilde novel into a film screenplay, but this project did not come to fruition. Instead, Self took this uncompleted screenplay and re-worked it into a novel, which he described as "an imitation - and a homage" to the Wilde original. Self draws correlations between the life of his character Dorian and Diana, Princess of Wales, particularly over the time period from June 1981, the time of the

Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer The wedding of the Prince of Wales (future King Charles III) and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday, 29 July 1981, at St Paul's Cathedral in London, United Kingdom. The groom was the heir apparent to the British throne, and the bride was ...

, up to 1997, the year of Princess Diana's death. The novel adheres closely to Wilde's original in its overall plot, with retaining the names of the key characters Dorian Gray, Henry Wootton, and Basil Hallward (with Hallward receiving the short nickname 'Baz'). Updates in Self's novel compared to the Wilde original include the following: * Basil Hallward's oil portrait of Dorian Gray (Wilde) becomes Basil Hallward's video installation 'Cathode Narcissus' (Self). * In Self's scenario, Dorian becomes an asymptomatic carrier of

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

and infects others with the disease, including a former girlfriend. Dorian remains physically unchanged, whilst the 'Cathode Narcissus' video installation depicts the increasing corruption of Dorian and what should normally be the physical toll of AIDS on his person. * Sybil Vane, the aspiring actress in the Wilde novel, becomes the teenage Soho rentboy Herman in the Self novel. The prussic acid (Wilde) is transposed into heroin (Self). * Henry Wootton no longer has his aristocratic title in the Self novel.

References

2002 British novels Novels with gay themes Novels by Will Self Viking Press books Works based on The Picture of Dorian Gray {{2000s-LGBT-novel-stub

See also

References