The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century

Jerry Cornelius #5

by Michael Moorcock

Catherine Cornelius and Una Persson (usually supporting characters in the Jerry Cornelius novels) grow bored of their current tranquil existence together as lovers and separate in search of adventure. Their stories are told in parallel from this point until the end, where they rejoin and the story begins again. Catherine, generally portrayed in a saintly and/or martyred role moves through a series of relationships in which she is abused or dominated by her partner. She attempts at one point to get Jerry Cornelius (her brother and sometimes her lover) to beat her, but he is unable to satisfy her. Una Persson, who ordinarily fills Jerry's role as the eternal revolutionary when he is unwilling or unable to, embroils herself in a series of revolutionary wars - always on the losing side. At the end, Una begins to despair of the situation in which she has found herself, and is rescued by Catherine who takes her back to the cottage they shared at the start of the novel to recuperate. This is an inversion of their roles throughout the book, as up until that point Una has been an active combatant and Catherine has been increasingly dominated.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Time Travel, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.

Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.

During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.

Reviews

[Multiple Galerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book in about 1982 and for about a decade afterwards would find it on the bookshelves of girlfriends who had pinched it from mine in order to use it for masturbation. HOT!

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in March 2001.

This novel takes two of the characters from the Jerry Cornelius quartet, the mysterious Una Persson and Jerry's sister Catherine, and tries to find more to say about them. It has an interesting structure, with each chapter set in a different alternate version of the twentieth century, but it is not as successful as the later novels of the quartet (The English Assassin, say) which use a similar technique.

There are several reasons why this novel doesn't work. Moorcock may be expert at describing background, but he has used the alternate reality device several times and has difficulty coming up with new and interesting versions of twentieth century history. He also leaves himself little space to describe them. Since some are easier to set up than others, this makes the novel rather bitty, and its central characters are ot sufficiently strong to overcome this. The writing is also rather trendily mid-seventies, containing a lot of not very interesting sex. Read the Cornelius quartet instead.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one hell of a strange book about a pair of time-traveling lesbians. If you are not familiar with Michael Moorcock, don't even bother opening this. It may be an anthology of Moorcock's work about Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius, but I'm not sure. I think that even if I read the book again, I still wouldn't be sure.



Most memorable bit -- one of our gals gets her period while punting on (I think) the Cam. Not many females get their periods in sci-fi (or even fiction, for that matter). At least, not that I've noticed.

[Fenchurch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge Moorcock fan and have accepted that his books are very male orientated. In this book he tries to have women as main characters but ends up writing demeaning pornography. It's best that this book is not mentioned really.

[Arthur B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lacks direction, and Moorcock's track record on writing women doesn't set him up to do this one justice. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/201...

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century. As entropy descends across the later Cornelius Chronicles, the staccato nature of the storytelling becomes increasingly hard to follow. But in the Una & Catherine sidestory, Moorcock achieves a more enjoyable compromise, with the individual shorts having enough time to breathe, making each one into an intriguing little story that's more than a vignette. The shifting but connected stories across the timestreams are also intriguing [4/5].

[Γιώργος Μπελαούρης · Rating 3 out of 5]

moorcock iz one of my all time favourite authors
jerry cornelius, he has said, iz one of his all time favourite characters
i gave it a chance
i thought i d like it, hey, time travelling lesbians sound fun, but...
...meh

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pointless.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alternative look at Moorcock's adventurers in the 20th century through the viewpoints of the previously more incidental female characters; one a provocateur who bounces from revolution to revolution, the other looking for love in all the myriad disappointments and delights the century had to offer. A slight variation on the author's themes and interests, but not with its charms.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Hans · Rating 1 out of 5]

I barely remember anything about this book, except for a vague sense of boredom and distaste.