Elric of Melniboné
Dec. 28th, 2008 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daddytoddBack in 1976-1977, DAW books published six slim paperback volumes that collected the complete saga of Elric of Melniboné, as constituted at the time, formatted according to internal chronology. (Or so I believed; much later I learned that a couple of Elric stories had been omitted from this series.)
That was during my junior and senior years of high school, and I read them avidly. I loved the awesome cover art by Michael Whelan, and the bright yellow spines that were the hallmark of the DAW line at the time. I read Moorcock's The Cornelius Chronicles, a massive omnibus containing the first four Jerry Cornelius novels, at about the same time, and collected several dozen more of his books. I was a big fan of Moorcock.
The Elric stories were pretty much Moorcock's first published writings -- at least, his first writings that garnered any serious attention. They began appearing in the UK magazine Science-Fantasy in the early '60's. They were clearly written as a response to Howard's Conan stories, which were 3 decades old at that point, and almost forgotten. (Conan's renaissance was still several years in the future.) Moorcock was right in the middle of what was hapening in the Swinging London of the '60's, and Elric can be seen as an early avatar of the age -- and I believe that my fascination with the stories was partly in response to that. (I was also reading the Ace edition of the Conan stories at the time, but I didn't understand the relationship between the two series until quite a bit later.)
I re-read some of the Elric books in the mid-'80's (maybe all of them, I don't remember) when a seventh volume was belatedly published -- Elric at the End of Time, which collects a couple of stray Elric tales and a number of related stories. Moorcock has added to the Elric saga a few times since; I've never read any of those additions.
In the '90's, White Wolf Publishing (an offshoot of a gaming company, I believe) obtained the rights to Moorcock's back catalogue, and published an impressive 15-volume set reprinting most of his Eternal Champion series (notably excepting the Jerry Cornelius novels, presumably still under contract to another publisher.)
I collected the entire White Wolf series. They're really lovely volumes, featuring excellent cover and interior art. Two of the 15 volumes are devoted to Elric; the fifth and eleventh volumes. The stories are essentially presented in the same order as the earlier DAW series, with the addition of 1989's The Fortress of the Pearl and 1991's The Revenge of the Rose in the first and second volume, respectively.
I attempted to re-read the Elric stories in the mid-'90's, when I was collecting the White Wolf hardcovers, but I didn't get very far. There's a bookmark stuck between pages 28 & 29 of volume 5 Elric: Song of the Black Sword, which indicates I bogged down pretty early on that attempt.
In 2008, Del Rey began an even-more-impressive trade paperback reissue program, this time presenting the Elric stories in the order of composition, rather than according to internal chronology. Three volumes were released in 2008; additional volumes will follow in 2009. Del Rey have included Elric stories never previously collected, and included other "Eternal Champion" pieces written at the same time as the Elric series. I'm not certain how many volumes this series will contain; nothing has been announced beyond volume 4, and it's difficult to determine what to expect in future volumes, considering how much "remixing" has taken place in the three published so far.
I've been so impressed with the covers and interior art of the 2008 Del Rey volumes that I sat down a few weeks back with the intention of reading them. This time, I got through the first short story (The Dreaming City) and into the second (While the Gods Laugh) before losing the thread. I have little desire to continue, other than the hope that later stories might catch my attention, and I might finish the series this time. But I have a bunch of other stuff I want to read first. I won't be surprised to go another 15 years before attempting to read Elric again.
Maybe the Elric stories only worked for the adolescent me because, well, they're frankly pretty adolescent stories. As an adult fast approaching 50, they simply don't resonate with me as they did when I was facing onrushing adulthood, and dealing with (or more accurately NOT dealing with) my sexuality. The freakish albino Elric, with his decidedly unnatural appetites was a pretty good stand-in for how I felt about myself in high school. Reading him today, he just seems like an annoying drama queen!
Maybe I'll have more success with some of Moorcock's later writing. I remember quite enjoying "Gloriana" when I read it some 20 years ago. Perhaps I'll give that another go.
That was during my junior and senior years of high school, and I read them avidly. I loved the awesome cover art by Michael Whelan, and the bright yellow spines that were the hallmark of the DAW line at the time. I read Moorcock's The Cornelius Chronicles, a massive omnibus containing the first four Jerry Cornelius novels, at about the same time, and collected several dozen more of his books. I was a big fan of Moorcock.
The Elric stories were pretty much Moorcock's first published writings -- at least, his first writings that garnered any serious attention. They began appearing in the UK magazine Science-Fantasy in the early '60's. They were clearly written as a response to Howard's Conan stories, which were 3 decades old at that point, and almost forgotten. (Conan's renaissance was still several years in the future.) Moorcock was right in the middle of what was hapening in the Swinging London of the '60's, and Elric can be seen as an early avatar of the age -- and I believe that my fascination with the stories was partly in response to that. (I was also reading the Ace edition of the Conan stories at the time, but I didn't understand the relationship between the two series until quite a bit later.)
I re-read some of the Elric books in the mid-'80's (maybe all of them, I don't remember) when a seventh volume was belatedly published -- Elric at the End of Time, which collects a couple of stray Elric tales and a number of related stories. Moorcock has added to the Elric saga a few times since; I've never read any of those additions.
In the '90's, White Wolf Publishing (an offshoot of a gaming company, I believe) obtained the rights to Moorcock's back catalogue, and published an impressive 15-volume set reprinting most of his Eternal Champion series (notably excepting the Jerry Cornelius novels, presumably still under contract to another publisher.)
I collected the entire White Wolf series. They're really lovely volumes, featuring excellent cover and interior art. Two of the 15 volumes are devoted to Elric; the fifth and eleventh volumes. The stories are essentially presented in the same order as the earlier DAW series, with the addition of 1989's The Fortress of the Pearl and 1991's The Revenge of the Rose in the first and second volume, respectively.
I attempted to re-read the Elric stories in the mid-'90's, when I was collecting the White Wolf hardcovers, but I didn't get very far. There's a bookmark stuck between pages 28 & 29 of volume 5 Elric: Song of the Black Sword, which indicates I bogged down pretty early on that attempt.
In 2008, Del Rey began an even-more-impressive trade paperback reissue program, this time presenting the Elric stories in the order of composition, rather than according to internal chronology. Three volumes were released in 2008; additional volumes will follow in 2009. Del Rey have included Elric stories never previously collected, and included other "Eternal Champion" pieces written at the same time as the Elric series. I'm not certain how many volumes this series will contain; nothing has been announced beyond volume 4, and it's difficult to determine what to expect in future volumes, considering how much "remixing" has taken place in the three published so far.
I've been so impressed with the covers and interior art of the 2008 Del Rey volumes that I sat down a few weeks back with the intention of reading them. This time, I got through the first short story (The Dreaming City) and into the second (While the Gods Laugh) before losing the thread. I have little desire to continue, other than the hope that later stories might catch my attention, and I might finish the series this time. But I have a bunch of other stuff I want to read first. I won't be surprised to go another 15 years before attempting to read Elric again.
Maybe the Elric stories only worked for the adolescent me because, well, they're frankly pretty adolescent stories. As an adult fast approaching 50, they simply don't resonate with me as they did when I was facing onrushing adulthood, and dealing with (or more accurately NOT dealing with) my sexuality. The freakish albino Elric, with his decidedly unnatural appetites was a pretty good stand-in for how I felt about myself in high school. Reading him today, he just seems like an annoying drama queen!
Maybe I'll have more success with some of Moorcock's later writing. I remember quite enjoying "Gloriana" when I read it some 20 years ago. Perhaps I'll give that another go.
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Date: 2008-12-28 08:09 pm (UTC)I bought his books for Plucker and Devil's Rose for the artwork. I think I've got one of his actual artbooks too but it might be up in Ogden still.
And yes, White Wolf used to have a book publishing company, not sure if they still do or not.
http://www.white-wolf.com/