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In Which an Account Is Given of How the Reviewer Encountered the Novel and of the Frequent Comparisons and Contrasts To Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast To Follow

Though the following account contains, hopefully to a thorough and elucidative extent, descriptions of many aspects of the aforementioned novel, all efforts will be made to avoiding plundering or "spoiling" any twists or events of plot, bar where hidden from view (be warned ye who click on spoilers).

Okay, so I shan't keep up trying to construct sentences like that for the entirety of the review (not least because I begin to have a conniption trying to determine which words should and should not be capitalized in a title), but that is how the chapter titles are structured throughout Gloriana, and gives an idea of the more baroque, older style in which the novel's written.

I don't know strictly where I first heard of or was recommended Gloriana, but I have no doubt it was on a thread about Gormenghast; Gloriana is dedicated to memory of Peake, and it is a clear homage and love letter to Gormenghast. I will, inevitably, be referencing Gormenghast frequently through this review, both in comparison and contrast, but it's worth saying this initially: while it is clearly inspired by Gormenghast, it doesn't merely copy Peake's books, and it does much differently and in addition to being an homage; and, despite many differences, I think it is the closest thing to Gormenghast I've yet read.

I'm going to wear out the G on my keyboard.

In Which The Reviewer Outlines the Premise of Gloriana

Gloriana is primarily a pastiche of Elizabethan romances, plastered on a framework of a dialogue between Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, as strange and yet not inconceivable bedfellows as that might seem. It is very much a Fantasy of Manners novel, in the London of an alternate/approximate British Empire. And, as one may gather from "erotic fantasia" and the fate of the realm lying on one man's lovemaking skill, it is also a book rather involved with sex- The Unfullfill'd Queen in the title being, as opposed to the historical Virgin Queen, a queen no one has been able to satisfy. It isn't erotica or even steamy, but it involves a lot of often quite strange (and sometimes dubiously consensual, from a modern perspective) sexual acts- it reminds me a little of Dhalgren in that regard, for a reference frame.

In Which the Novel is Described in Contents and Style

Gloriana fits quite neatly into the classification of Fantasy of Manners- the basic events of the novel, underneath Peake and Spenser, sex and Romance (the genre), are of plots and schemes, court politics and character interactions. Most of the novel takes place inside the palace, a huge, rambling, labyrinthine structure worthy of comparison to Gormenghast.

The novel is written in a very fun, almost baroque prose style. It doesn't have the density or complexity of someone like Peake or Wolfe, but it is very stylized nonetheless. Complex compound sentences abound, be it with lists, clauses which are, even nestedly at time, subordinated, or semicolon splices. Not every sentence is long, but many are.

One very large divergence from Gormenghast is the focus- while Gormenghast is very much a setting and atmosphere driven novel, Gloriana is focused on characters and their interactions. There are plots and schemes, politics (domestic and international), shifting alliances and betrayals and perceived betrayals.

The novel primarily revolves around Captain Quire and his scheming and plots. We're introduced with him working for the Realm, and we see his skills and efficacy. But, well, alliances can shift... Quire is an amazing Machiavellian hero? Anti-hero? Villain? Well up in that literary realm alongside Gormenghast's eminent Steerpike. He's a bit of a bastard, and very amoral, but very understandable too, and even honourable, for a given value of honour.

In Which a Resident Pachyderm is Finally Acknowledged, and Explanations Given to Some Extent

So, in the next paragraph I will, spoilering where apt, discuss a portion towards the very end of the novel. But I'll initially just say this- there are two versions of chapter 34 of Gloriana. With the initial version, I would have knocked off at least a star of my rating. The relevant event of that chapter, while making sense with regards to the characters, made everything that followed both make much less sense and feel worse on a moral/meta level. I think the change that was made, while still having that section be weaker than the rest of the novel for me, made the results make far more sense and saved the novel.

Heavy spoilers here: (view spoiler)[There was, in the second to last chapter of the novel, a rape of Gloriana. This was what finally resulted in Gloriana reaching orgasm, and she then married the ("repentant") rapist. The change removed the rape, and changed it around into a sort of catalysis of both characters resulting in the would-be rapist's change and Gloriana's release. (hide spoiler)] I still think the ending portion wasn't as good as it could have been, but as I said: the change saved the novel for me.

I'll let Moorcock describe the change in his own words (I put one portion in spoilers, but it isn't really a spoiler imo; it describes a theme, not an event):

You're dead on about Gloriana, but it wasnt public outcry made me change it, just my own thinking about it. I was upset that John Clute in the SF Encyclopedia ascribed my changes to some sort of knee-jerk 'feminism'. That wasn't the case. (view spoiler)[I did want Gloriana to start thinking of herself, rather than of herself as 'the State' and I needed some way of offering her release, (hide spoiler)] but I'd never been entirely happy with the original end. No point in saying 'women don't like this or don't like that' -- different women have different views. I just wasn't happy with the implications, as you say, so changed it to give what I thought was a better, clearer message.

In Which a Conclusion is Reached and Final Impressions Related

Overall, I really enjoyed Gloriana. It ended as 5/5 for me. It was a very fun court politics, schemey, Fantasy of Manners novel with a nice historical veneer. It was influenced by and homaged Gormenghast very well, the best I've seen done, and is the closest I've read, despite the differences- romantic vs gothic, characters vs setting. If it hadn't been for the very end, which despite saving the book after the change, still fell just a bit flat for me, it would have even been a new favourite.