The Picture of Dorian Gray enamoured of him. The Roman goddess of love then offers him eternal life with her in the Venusberg, and he accepts; yet, Tannhäuser becomes dissatisfied with life in the Venusberg, and returns to the harsh reality of the mortal world. After participating in a singing contest, Tannhäuser is censured for the sensuality of his art; eventually, he dies searching for repentance and the love of a good woman. About the literary hero, the author Oscar Wilde said, "in every first novel the hero is the author as Christ or Faust." As in the legend of "Faust", in "The Picture of
Dorian, an Imitation 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, 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: Dorian, an Imitation Dorian, an Imitation is a British novel by Will Self. The book is a modern take