The Marriage of Reason & Squalor

In his first work of fiction, artist Jake Chapman reshapes the world of Mills and Boon in his own inimitable way, slashing the romantic novel down to bare bone and building his own disfigured version from the slaughtered remains. The Marriage of Reason & Squalor is a written extension of the work of the Chapman brothers. Our heroine, Chlamydia Love, is gifted her very own desert island by her fiance, but she develops a grudging adoration for its real owner, the devilishly unattractive writer, Helmut Mandragorass. A battle begins over the ownership of the island and ultimately for the love of Chlamydia. Included in the book is a facsimile of Mandragorass’ magnum opus “Come Hell or High Water’, a work of heartbreaking romance. This manuscript is reproduced as an insert on coloured paper, along with a number of genuine rejection letters sent to Chapman/Mandragorass from publishers who should have known better… Also featured are twenty exclusive colour prints by Jake Chapman as Chlamydia Love. Entitled Visions of Morass, they are from a collection of images drawn by her on the island of Morass, as she struggled with her feelings of agony and ecstasy.