Dorian, an Imitation Dorian, an Imitation Dorian, an Imitation is a British novel by Will Self. The book is a modern take on Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray". The novel was originally published by Viking Press in 2002 and subsequently by Penguin in 2003. Self was originally asked to adapt the 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
The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) has changed, with a cruel expression around the mouth. He muses that the painting has become 'the visible emblem of my conscience'. He pledges to reform his life and marry Sibyl to make amends. However, Lord Henry arrives with the news that Sibyl Vane has committed suicide. He calms Dorian by assuring him that she was less real than Shakespeare's heroines that she portrayed. Dorian agrees to go to the opera with him that night. Looking again at the altered portrait, he resolves to let it represent the life he shall now lead, in search of 'pleasures secret and subtle,