THE RULES OF ATTRACTION
BRET EASTON ELLIS

'COMPELLING . . . AND SYMPATHETIC TO HIS "LOST GENERATION" THE WAY ONLY FITZGERALD WAS ABOUT HIS'
VANITY FAIR

BRET EASTON ELLIS SHOT TO FAME WITH HIS FIRST NOVEL, LESS THAN ZERO, WRITTEN WHEN HE WAS TWENTY YEARS OLD. THE RULES OF ATTRACTION IS HIS SECOND, A COMPELLING AND CONTROVERSIAL TALE OF STUDENT SEX AND ROMANTIC ENTANGLEMENTS ON A NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE CAMPUS.

LAUREN, WHO CHANGES HER COURSE SUBJECT EVERY TIME SHE CHANGES HER SLEEPING PARTNER, IS THE CENTRE OF A CURIOUS LOVE TRIANGLE WHICH INVOLVES THE SHREWD AND PASSIONATE BISEXUAL PAUL, AND SEAN WHOSE AMBIVALENCE AND CYNICISM CONCEAL - EVEN FROM HIMSELF - HIS OWN ROMANTIC YEARNINGS.

THROUGH EACH OF THE CHARACTERS' VOICES ELLIS PRESENTS A KALEIDOSCOPIC VIEW OF CLASHING EXPECTATIONS AND FRUSTRATIONS, OF THE DREAMS AND TUMULTUOUS DESIRES OF YOUTH. THE RULES OF ATTRACTION PAINTS A POIGNANT AND SOMETIMES HILARIOUS PICTURE OF THE COUPLINGS AND CAPITULATIONS, THE DRAMAS AND DOWNFALLS OF AMERICAN COLLEGE LIFE IN THE 1980S.

Bret Easton Ellis is the author of Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, The Informers and Glamorama, all available in Picador. He was born in 1964 and raised in Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Bennington College and lives in New York City.

ALSO BY BRET EASTON ELLIS IN PICADOR

LESS THAN ZERO

AMERICAN PSYCHO

THE INFORMERS

GLAMORAMA

BRET EASTON ELLIS

THE RULES OF ATTRACTION

PICADOR

First published 1987 by Simon & Schuster Inc., New York

First published in Great Britain 1988 by Picador

First scanned in 2003 by Vortex for #bookz

An imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London Nl 9RR

Basingstoke and Oxford

Associated companies throughout the world

www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 0330 30186 I Copyright (c) Bret Easton Ellis 1987

The acknowledgement on page 327 constitute an extension of this copyright page.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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