Gloriana (novel)

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Gloriana

Dust-jacket from the first edition
Author Michael Moorcock
Cover artist Jill Riches
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Allison & Busby
Publication date 1978
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 348 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-85031-237-X

Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen is a novel [1] by award winning British fantasy writer Michael Moorcock [2]. It was first published in 1978 and has remained in print, in one edition or another, ever since.

It is a 'romance', reimagining the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in an alternative 'Albion' whose empire encompasses America and Asia. It is based in part on elements of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Montfallcon, Gloriana's Chancellor, vies with the anti hero Captain Quire for influence through a shadowy network of espionage and deceit but Gloriana's position is threatened only when she falls in love.

The novel is dedicated to Mervyn Peake, one of Moorcock's literary heroes and its atmosphere owes something to Titus Groan and Gormenghast.

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