So last week I was at my friend James’s house (http://vittoriacorombona.tumblr.com/) and, as is my wont, I immediately began inspecting his rather lopsided bookcase. It had a rather odd collection of novelisations of video games, academic texts and some unusual fantasy novels. While perusing this smorgasbord of literature, one book caught my eye. This book was ‘Gloriana’, a fantasy/alternate history story set in a version of Elizabethan England. Intrigued, I asked James if I could borrow it and, being the gentleman that he is, he acquiesced.
To attempt to thoroughly explain this book in the context of this review would, I fear, be a difficult and ultimately futile task. For a relatively short book (my version weighs in at 368 pages), it sure packs in a fabulous amount of depth, detail and drama into its punch. In short, the story is about Albion, an Empire centred in modern England that stretches across the British Isles encompassing North America, the Middle East through to the Indian Subcontinent. It is ruled by Queen Gloriana, a woman whose carefully crafted exterior belies a damaged soul who, behind closed doors, struggles to find any kind of emotional or sexual fulfilment. Other characters include Lord Montfallcon, the power-behind-the-throne and shady architect of the so-called ‘Golden Age’, the protective and beautiful Countess of Sciath and the calculating cold-hearted Captain Quire.
To attempt to thoroughly explain this book in the context of this review would, I fear, be a difficult and ultimately futile task. For a relatively short book (my version weighs in at 368 pages), it sure packs in a fabulous amount of depth, detail and drama into its punch. In short, the story is about Albion, an Empire centred in modern England that stretches across the British Isles encompassing North America, the Middle East through to the Indian Subcontinent. It is ruled by Queen Gloriana, a woman whose carefully crafted exterior belies a damaged soul who, behind closed doors, struggles to find any kind of emotional or sexual fulfilment. Other characters include Lord Montfallcon, the power-behind-the-throne and shady architect of the so-called ‘Golden Age’, the protective and beautiful Countess of Sciath and the calculating cold-hearted Captain Quire.
The book is based largely, so I am told, off the Faerie Queen, something I would comment on where I familiar with it. Thus I can only really comment on its allegories to the real-life Elizabethan age, and the similarities are obvious: the tyrannical, blood thirsty, war mongering and womanising father; the refusal to marry despite the presence of a great number of suitors; the use of piracy against Iberia; the use of espionage to protect a ‘Golden Age’. There is a rich backstory alluded to as to how the ‘Albion’ (an ancient name for England) of this story came to be in possession of such an Empire but the story itself is not about ‘Empire’. The story is about how a state based on an idea, on a person, can fall apart when that idea is challenged.
Every character in this story has two faces: public and private, and in many ways the story is the same. Each character has their public persona - noble, chivalric, patriotic but behind closed doors are revealed sexual deviancy, cruelty to lovers/spouses and a number of other vices. Gloriana herself is seen to be, despite her reputation for being different from her father, to share many of the vices and traits that he exhibited. These dichotomies are my favourite part of the story.
Another reason to love the story is the descriptions. The world that Moorcock builds is as intriguing as it is beautiful. There is barely a chapter that passes without a tapestry being woven in your mind, be it the catacombs within the walls, the grounds of the palace or even the vestments of the characters themselves. Moorcock’s true achievement really is in these descriptions as they allow you to immerse yourself in this world that is both familiar and wonderfully unique.
There is much to like in this story, but there are also equally issues. For my tastes, the story took quite a while to get going. The scene setting, while written and described well, took up much of the first third of the book and that’s pretty hard going in a story that was not the easiest to read. The ending too has issues in my mind. I don’t wish to spoil it and I understand that in a new edition this bit has changed, but it crossed some lines in my view that should not be crossed.
All in all, this is a story that I would thoroughly recommend, but one I am unlikely to revisit any time soon. Perhaps had I been greater acquainted with some necessary background reading I would have appreciated it more. But I haven’t. So I didn’t
7/10
Favourite Quotes
“Along the gallery now comes a scrawny, snag-tooth villain wearing leggings of rabbit fur, a torn quilted doublet, a horsehide cap pulled down about his ears. He wears a sword from the guard of which some of the rust has been inexpertly scratched. His gait is unsteady not so much form drink as, it would seem, from some natural indisposition. His skin is blue, showing that he has just come in from the night, but his eyes burn”
“Nor could she refuse to spend the remainder of the afternoon in quiet seclusion, lying face down upon a cushioned bench in her private dressing room while gentle Lady Mary rubbed all the soreness from her muscles. Such occupations were safe, and harmless. It was only afterwards, when she was sleeping deeply, that Captain Quire came to her in a dream.”
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