Gloriana [Paperback]

Michael Moorcock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

A fable satirizing Spenser's "The Fairie Queen" and reflecting the real life of Elizabeth I, tells of a woman who ascends to the throne upon the death of her debauched and corrupted father, King Hern. Gloriana's reign brings the Empire of Albion into a Golden Age, but her oppressive responsibilities choke her, prohibiting any form of sexual satisfaction, no matter what fetish she tries. Her problem is in fact symbolic of the hypocrisy of her entire court. While her life is meant to mirror that of her nation - an image of purity, virtue, enlightenment and prosperity - the truth is that her peaceful empire is kept secure by her wicked chancellor Monfallcon and his corrupt network of spies and murderers, the most sinister of whom is Captain Quire, who is commissioned to seduce Gloriana and thus bring down Albion and the entire empire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Moorcock is one of the most exciting discoveries in the contemporary English novel." -- Washington Post Book World

"The intrigues, the lords and maidens ... are woven into a tapestry that is as wonderful as it is funny." -- Newsday

"Vastly entertaining...a labor of love, and a triumphant one." -- William Gibson

"[Moorcock is] the greatest writer of post-Tolkien British fantasy." -- Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

About the Author

SALES POINTS * Part of the Fantasy Masterworks series * 'A great read...fiction writing at its best; a craftsman in full possession of his powers as Moorcock is here is a joy' Maxim Jakubowski, Vector * 'He is a giant. If you are at all interested in fantastic fiction, you must read Michael Moorcock' Tad Williams * 'Vastly entertaining' Science Fiction Review * 'A complex fantasy richly and convincingly textured' Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Locus * 'He casts a heady, enslaving spell' Ruth Rendell * A wonderful and brilliant fantasy set in a superbly realized alternate Elizabethan England. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446691402
• ISBN-13: 978-0446691406
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.4 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,442,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in London in 1939, Michael Moorcock now lives in Texas. A prolific and award-winning writer with more than eighty works of fiction and non-fiction to his name, he is the creator of Elric, Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat, amongst many other memorable characters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb writing and characterisation only matched by Peake, December 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gloriana, Or the Unfulfill'd Queen (Paperback)

The cleverness of this book takes my breath away. No wonder it won the World Fantasy Award and no wonder Peter Ackroyd, among others, picked it as his Book of the Year (and seems to be dipping into it ever since!). As a student of Elizabethan, Jacobean and Carolignian literature, I am highly impressed both by the underlying philosophical argument (very late Renaissance) and the prose, which is more Carolignian than Elizabethan. Moorcock specifically says that while the book has some direct reference to Spenser's The Fairy Queen, it has none to Elizabethan England. What always astonishes me is how readers who don't read widely seem to know exactly why a book is bad! This is very much a book for grown-ups and I suppose it wouldn't appeal to bigots, but it's very hard to see bigots even beginning to understand it. The main characters represent Virtue and Vice, very much in a Jonsonian mode, but the plot has a more Jacobean feel -- Captain Quire the assassin, who enjoys his work and practises it like an art, an intellectual killer with a rationale subtler than Hannibal Lector's, and Gloriana, the burdened symbol of her Empire, the embodiment of all her nation regards as virtuous, yet unable to enjoy an organism and devoting all her free time to that quest, desperately seeking it in sensation, because she cannot trust herself to love. The book falls into four parts, following the seasons, very much a late Renaissance idea, and contains parodies of public poetry. The range of other characters, both comical and sinister, is brilliant. And so are the scenes -- the dance on the ice, the great masque, the hunt -- a major set piece for each season. Platonicism instead of Christianity. This is a well-considered and profoundly knowledgeable book, like most of Moorcock's ambitious fiction. This follows in theme books like Behold the Man and The Brothel in Rosenstrasse -- how much of the person is the embodiment of others' desires ? How do those desires mould the destiny of the person ? This is a superb piece of literary fiction. It is foolish to list it as generic fiction at all. It deserves a demanding and literate readership.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb new edition, August 10, 2004

By 

Father Thyme (San Francisco, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gloriana (Paperback)

This new special edition not only includes BOTH of the controversial penultimate chapters but an illuminating afterword by Moorcock, AND several of the lyrics from his aborted musical version. It is the best version of a classic novel praised by the likes of Angela Carter, Peter Ackroyd, D.M. Thomas, Michael Chabon and many of the best contemporary writers and there's nothing much more I can say about it except buy this edition rather than any other. There is a Fantasy Masterworks edition done in the UK, but it isn't a patch on this, either for production or 'extras'. Far easier to get into than Peake, there are obvious relationships to Gormenghast as well as to Spenser's The Fairy Queen, The Pilgrim's Progress and other conscious allegories. It bears up well on rereading!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moorcock's richest, most surprising work!, August 23, 1998

By 

WeHaveSixFeet (Montreal, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gloriana: Or, The unfulfill'd queen : being a romance (Hardcover)

It is England under Elizabeth as it might have been if the Gods of Chaos still lurked in the walled-up secret corridors abandoned since mad, incestuous, violent Henry VIII was o'erthrown. In a palace in whose walled-in corridors lurk madmen and shadows, the frigid Queen seeks satisfaction, and a man who regards assassination as an art form seeks fulfillment. Moorcock's most surprising, rich and intense work, far beyond Elric and Corum.