Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance

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**Ecstasy**

First edition cover
Author	Irvine Welsh
Country	Scotland
Language	English, Scots
Genre(s)	Novellas
Publisher	W. W. Norton
Released	August 1996
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	276 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-393-31581-9

Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance is a collection of three novellas by Irvine Welsh.

The title refers to an early Rosicrucian pamphlet, entitled The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Stories
2 Stage adaptation
3 Film adaptation
4 Cultural reference
5 External link

[edit] Stories

[edit] Lorraine Goes To Livingston

Features a TV personality necrophiliac with a strong Somerset accent, and an obese Romance writer who suffers a stroke. Parts of this are written in a romantic fiction style rather like parts of Marabou Stork Nightmares.

[edit] Fortune's Always Hiding

An angry and bitter 'Tenazedrine' (Thalidomide) victim and her lover seek revenge on the drug's marketing director.

[edit] The Undefeated

The longest story, The Undefeated, presents slice-of-life episodes from the lives of various representatives of Welsh's favourite subculture: recreational drug users. "I think once you hit your teens, you spend the next 20 years trying to kill yourself," says Welsh. "And then when you turn 40 and realize you didn't die, it's like, 'Oh, no, what do I do now? Guess I'd better start taking care of myself^{[citation needed]}.'"

Housewife Heather ditches her Dire Straits-loving suburban husband and finds a new life amongst the rave scene. Lloyd (an aging clubber she meets) and Heather only get together once she realises that Lloyd has given up drugs.

'Welsh smoothly demonstrates his belief in the liberating power of dance culture. Most interestingly, he avoids the easy route of claiming utopia. If drugs can liberate you, then they can as easily ruin you.'[1]

[edit] Stage adaptation

Soon after publication the book was adapted for the stage. The stage version ultimately inspired the film to be made. In the late nineties the stage toured the UK and Canada.