Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Sunday, November 3, 2013

The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray by Mitzi Szereto (forthcoming 2013)




The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray is the fifth book I have read and posted on by the multi-talented Mitzi Szereto Three of the books were collections of erotic fairy tales and short stories.  I also read her retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice:  Hidden Lusts an Erotic Retelling. These are all very much sexually driven works and the squeamish would say they cross over into the border of  porn at times.  If the idea of the young ladies in Pride and Prejudice being experts at sexually satisfying their suitors while remaining technically virgins does not interest you, then Mitzi is going to tell you exactly how they do this so then maybe she is not your kind of writer.  I have found her work great fun to read.

The premise of The Wilde Pleasures of Dorian Gray is very intriguing.  This is not rewriting of Wilde but a continuation of it.  In  Szereto's story Dorian fakes his own death and continues on a life of ever increasing decadence up to the present day, never aging, never seeing his libido decline or losing his beauty. Wilde makes veiled references to Dorian's activities.  Szareto lets feel we are there, participating if you like, in all night sex parties, orgies, no activity barred encounters.  Dorian is famous for his capacity to orgasm numerous times in an evening.  There are precise descriptions of oral sex, gay and with women but as you read on in the book Dorian increasingly becomes preoccupied with anal sex with other men.  He likes to initiate young inexperienced men by being the first to use them for anal sex.  As he becomes increasingly jaded, he develops a passion for being anally raped by the roughest kind of street thug in the back alleys of Morocco. Dorian has great financial resources scattered in banks all over Europe so he has no money worries. Dorian knows where to go to find men who will violently rape him.  Szereto brilliantly lets us see the insides of brothels in London and Paris where only the most wealthy of decadents can go and she also takes us to darkest back ways.  Szereto vividly describes anal sex of the roughest kind.  

The story moves from Morocco to Peru, where Dorian becomes for a while a brother in a monastery. I will let you guess what ends up happening to the innocent young monk in whom he develops an interest. 

Szereto reveres Wilde and nothing in the prose jarred me.



"(From the back cover):
What if Dorian Gray Faked His Death and Led a Secret Life?

Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Mitzi Szereto’s TheWilde Passions of Dorian Gray continues where Wilde left off with the Faustian tale of a man of eternal youth and great physical beauty who lives a life of corruption, decadence, and hedonism. The story begins in the bordellos of Jazz-Age Paris, moving to the opium dens of Marrakesh and the alluring anonymity of South America. In his pursuit of sensation and carnal thrills, Dorian’s desires turn increasingly extreme as he leaves behind yet more devastation and death. He ultimately settles in present-day New Orleans, joining forces with a group of like-minded beings known as the Night People. They inadvertently return to Dorian his humanity when he falls in love with a young woman he rescues from becoming their victim. Will she be his redemption? Or will she be his final curse?"



About the author:
Mitzi Szereto is a bestselling multi-genre author and anthology editor, has her own blog “Errant Ramblings: Mitzi Szereto’s Weblog”, and is the creator/presenter of the Web channel “Mitzi TV”, which covers “quirky” London. Her books include Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire; Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts;Normal for Norfolk (The Thelonious T. Bear Chronicles); Red Velvet and Absinthe: Paranormal Erotic Romance; Getting Even: Revenge Stories; and In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales. Her anthology Erotic Travel Tales 2 is the first anthology of erotica to feature a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She divides her time between the UK and USA.

The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray is first rate escapist reading with lots of interesting plot twists and turns.  It is not for the homophobic. ,

Mel u






  

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