Jerry Cornelius: The English Assassin (1972)

Allison & Busby 1972 - Richard Glyn Jones

"The English Assassin is the great breakthrough book for me. The material in it is more consciously used. Each thing is a metaphor." (Michael Moorcock: Death Is No Obstacle, 1992)

The third novel in Michael Moorcock's "Cornelius Quartet" is The English Assassin: A Romance of Entropy (Allison & Busby, 1972). Preceded by The Final Programme and A Cure For Cancer (and eventually followed by The Condition of Muzak in 1977), this book continues to chronicle the retro-future world of Jerry Cornelius, a spy-assassin whose increasingly-fractured adventures take place scattered throughout the 20th century in a neo-Edwardian "fictional reality". These books feature a colorful supporting cast of morally-flexible counter agents and fervent relatives who bound through a violent, desperate (and frequently ironic) world caught in flux in between order and chaos. Unlike the sword and sorcery sequences featuring Elric and Hawkmoon, the Cornelius stories have a much more sociopolitical bent to them, and comment more directly on moral/ethical issues raised in our own "real world" (even to the extent of quoting genuine news headlines). 

Longer Leaps In Two Directions

Although The English Assassin follows A Cure For Cancer, it has no real relationship to its predecessors in any kind of strict plot-continuity manner. However, it does progress as far as Moorcock's increasing interest in deviating from traditional plot delivery and narrative structure. Although the two prior books in the Cornelius Quartet may have sometimes had some unusual "non-sequitur" leaps and side trips in their presentations, they still generally had a plot-driven through-line where characters are introduced, engage in conflict and then go off into the sunset with the conflict resolved. The English Assassin however, has a more convoluted, almost enigmatic approach. 

Quartet 1975, Patrick Woodroffe

Although the unnumbered "chapters" comprising the beginning and the end of the book can be recognized as something approaching a bleakly satirical mystery-espionage thriller, the episodes in between frequently do not seem to follow in a single, continuous plot sequence. In other words, reading each of these short middle-section episodes is somewhat like reading the first few pages of a couple dozen different "Jerry Cornelius" novels in non-chronological order. Each episode by itself is richly drawn and delivered, but due to the fractured continuity this narrative leap-frogging sometimes feels like tuning in to various "lost episodes" of a long-running radio serial in quick succession. Although each one is filled with nuance and flavor, the total experience can be a jarring one, as the reader is thrown continuously into a new premise, time and place (or war) every three pages. 

This fast-flipping time-space structure was also explored (at a more deliberate pace and through a much different organizational mechanism) in the earlier novel Breakfast In the Ruins (1972). As in Breakfast, these scenes are delivered with genuine feeling, and the satire is dialed down a bit from A Cure For Cancer or the late-60s/early-70s Cornelius shorts collected in The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius. In fact, in his interview in 1992's Death Is No Obstacle, Moorcock characterizes the episodic scenes in The English Assassin as "moral constructs, or parables if you like". 

Additionally, where Cancer addressed the horrors of the Vietnam War by couching them in absurd irony, The English Assassin has a more melancholy approach as it describes what a policy of imperialism in the 20th and late 19th century has wrought to the Empire. Jerry himself is largely absent in this book because The English Assassin is a criticism of (or perhaps a requiem on) the old notions of manifest imperial destiny, and thus the romantic, insouciant figure he had presented in the earlier books is treated here more like the fuzzy recollections of a previous night's wild party ("a memory of more innocent times, of imperial optimism, of the earlier, slicker more confident Jerry Cornelius" - Death Is No Obstacle).

Cornelius & Co.

However, what makes these short episodes especially engaging is the colorful cast of characters. A mentioned, Jerry himself has a much more reduced presence in this volume. Instead, the most arresting and enjoyable character here is almost undoubtedly Jerry's working class mother Mrs Cornelius, who speaks in an endearingly-perverted Cockney patois, and has both extremely coarse and undeniably admirable qualities in equal measure (somewhat like the British Empire as a whole I guess, for which she may stand in for). Jerry's guiltless sister Catherine, the mysterious femme fatale Una Persson and the sinister Miss Brunner are also featured as strong, idiosyncratic female archetypes. Various other figures appear as forces vying for political domination, notably Bishop Beesley, Major (Colonel, Captain, Field Marshal) Nye, Colonel Pyat, General Auchinek and Prinz Lobkowitz (one episode also features the multiverse-hopping airship captain Oswald Bastable who will be further described in the next chapter of this blog). As usual, Jerry's slimy, smirking brother Frank can also be found slinking around the entire affair.

Allison & Busby 1976 - Richard Glyn Jones

Four Shots

The main body of The English Assassin is grouped into four "shots" (which in a "normal" novel could be seen as "acts"). In "Shot One", Jerry's semi-catatonic body is recovered from the sea, encased in a coffin. Major Nye has Una Persson deliver Jerry to Lobkowitz in exchange for weapons (later used for General Auchinek's attack on Athens). Catherine has Jerry's body sent to Colonel Pyat, who is later driven from Berlin by the advance of Auchinek's forces (now reinforced by Cossacks). Pyat eventually brings Jerry back to Ladbroke Grove. Perhaps most importantly, this part introduces Jerry's endearingly foul-mouthed (but brutally-genuine) mother, Mrs Cornelius.

In "Shot Two", several different (seemingly) unconnected narratives unfold, including one in which Una is a theater performer managed by an agent named Auchinek in London. The act ends in a centerpiece episode described as "The Peace Talks", in which characters from Cornelius' world as well as the "real world" make merry (at least until Jerry shows up and guns everyone down with reality).

"Shot Three" (the third major section) includes more fragmented episodes. Mrs Cornelius marries Colonel Pyat. Auchinek is arrested at Una's performance.

"Shot Four" brings the threads back together as the characters make a last stand in England against foreign invaders. Catherine breaks Auchinek out of prison and he goes to ground in England as a farmer. Una is captured and violated by rustic drunks. Cathy discovers Jerry buried on the beach and helps him to resurrect himself. An off-shore destroyer begins laying waste to England's coast, as Cathy says good bye to her homeland in Jerry's schooner the Teddy Bear.

Although most of the episodes in Shots Two and Three occur in a seemingly jumbled order, some of them are seemingly related in a "plot arc" sense. For example, Shot Two's "The Performers" could be followed by "The Businessmen". Shot Three's "Flying Boat" may be followed by "The Raft" and then the second "Flying Boat". It's possible that Shot One's "J.C." could be followed by Shot Three's "The Locomotive". Although someone might possibly figure out some kind of formula for decoding these episodes into a more coherent narrative, to look for something like that would probably undermine Moorcock's intentions in writing the book in this way ("...they are meant to be enjoyed, not puzzled over."). In general, as the Cornelius books progress, they seem to be increasingly intended to cast a sense of timelessness over all of their events, making the entire 20th century the sequence's premise, rather than a specific place and time.

Groups of episodes are also prefaced by bracketing sections entitled "Alternative Apocalypse", "Prologue" (passages on abortion and murder from "Maurice Lescoq's 'Leavetaking'"), "Reminiscence" (semi-poetic fragments which cast a more serious tone on things), and "Late News" (news-clippings describing the sad deaths of children). The eight Alternative Apocalypses are short vignettes which describe different bleak scenarios where Jerry and his friends confront their own ends in different (multiversal) planes. These interstitial elements occur in "symmetric form" within each Shot (as far as their placement in the text). 

Strange Brew

Obviously, this novel challenges the reader to engage in the reading experience to a much greater degree than Moorcock's genre fantasy novels. It's probable that many fans of those books (specifically the Eternal Champion sequence) might find this installment of the Cornelius quartet even more alienating than the first two. However, from a literary standpoint, Moorcock offers his readers a different, more mature brew, and possibly one in which the flavor lasts a bit longer on the tongue. Once one gets used to the high velocity delivery of ideas and themes being presented here, it becomes more apparent that the prose itself has a bit more texture and substance than the genre offerings. 

Quartet 1973, Peter Till

Wikipedia Entry

Wikiverse Entry

The Old New Wave (thesis, includes analysis of the first three Cornelius books) 

Next Chapter: Captain Oswald Bastable: A Nomad of the Timestreams

Previous Chapter: The Lives And Times Of Jerry Cornelius

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Detailed Synopsis

Shot One

• A Bundle: A dark bundle from the sea ends up in a cave beneath Tintagel (the legendary castle of King Arthur). A woman arrives and retrieves a strange map from the object. She then sails off with the bundle in her boat.
• Major Nye: The elderly Major Nye cleans up the bundle to recover a baby-skinned but brainless Jerry Cornelius. He brings the inarticulate assassin to Sussex in a truck.
• Una Persson: Una Persson delivers Jerry’s immobile (but apparently conscious) body to Prinz Lobkowitz and his mistress Eva Knecht in Berlin in exchange for five cases of M16s. After Eva kills Lobkowitz out of jealousy, Una kills Eva. Una then departs, but her black and white cat remains to annoy Jerry in his coffin.
• Sebastian Auchinek: Back at Auchinek’s cave in Macedonia, Una performs uncomfortable oral sex on the pale Jew. Afterwards, they consider going back to retrieve Jerry from Lobkowitz’ house.
• Mrs. C and Colonel P: At Lobkowitz’, Mrs Cornelius identifies the screeching figure in the coffin as her son to Colonel Nye. Colonel Nye promises that he will restore the “hydrophilic” Jerry to his normal state, but Mrs Cornelius is merely amused. She then requests a tour of the city before she returns to London.

The Alternative Apocalypse 1: In London, Jerry and Major Nye rue the fact that all of their victims are dead and that their lives are a bit lonely and pointless, although Jerry has a slightly more defiant outlook.

The Alternative Apocalypse 2: Bishop Beesley has Frank Cornelius, Mitzi Beesley and Karen von Krupp crucify a defiant Jerry to his yacht.

• Mrs C and Frankie C.: Frank Cornelius brings his mother back to her decrepit flat, where she feels most comfortable. She thinks about her children’s fathers, but does not remember Jerry’s father. Frank claims that Jerry is probably just exhausted, and then heads to Scotland on antique business.
• Auchinek: While General Auchinek and Colonel Lyons oversee an attack in Athens (made possible by Una’s weapons delivery), Auchinek states that he is tired of European cultural values and would prefer a more oriental approach. They discuss a possible alliance with China and Japan.
• Persson: In the Ukraine wilderness, Una proposes an alliance between Auchinek and the Zaporozhian Cossacks in order to oppose the West. Una and their leader Karanin also have an intimate encounter.
• Nye: Major Nye speaks with his two daughters, one of which, Elizabeth, is having a love affair with Catherine Cornelius. Catherine has had Jerry delivered to Colonel Pyat, his old commander in Berlin.
• J.C.: Pyat brings Jerry with him onto a train. They had been driven from Berlin by the arrival of Auchinek and his Cossack forces. At King’s Cross Pyat commandeers a hansom and heads towards Ladbroke Grove with Jerry and his coffin in tow.

Shot Two

• The Observers: In Guatemala City, during the early days of the "1900-75 War", Colonel Pyat and Colonel Jerry Cornelius (working for opposing governments) check out the local arms (as prospective buyers) and have a friendly conversation.
• The Performers: Just before Una Persson’s “manly” performance on stage at the Empire in London (“Honour to the Queen”), a bomb explodes and forces everyone outside. Una later sees a figure heading back inside. Una’s concerned benefactor Auchinek asks her if she is “herself”.
• The Seducers: Mrs Cornelius dresses up in an elaborate outfit. Her son (an unnamed boy of 15) is sent off to work at Sammy’s pie shop. That night, the boy notices the nearby Blenheim Arms pub and shivers.
• The Interpreters: An airship captained by Oswald Bastable picks up Captain Nye. Nye is as a representative of the British Empire whose mission is to parley with a tribe of Anarchist Scotsmen led by a man named Mahon (“the Red Fox”) and ask for their surrender. He is disturbed to find that Mahon is being advised by a strange monocle-wearing Englishman named Mr. Cornelius, and that Cornelius has given the Scots a massive airship fleet armed to the teeth.
• The Explorers: Catherine Cornelius leaves Jerry’s place and heads back to her own home. There she greets Prinz Lobkowitz, who has brought over two travelers to lodge there, Miss Brunner and Mr. Smiles. After Lobkowitz departs, Miss Brunner invites Catherine to play the piano.

The Alternative Apocalypse 3: At Ladbroke Grove, Jerry is disappointed to find his HQ, the Convent of the Poor Clares, has been torn down. After picking up a few souvenirs, he muses upon this sign of the apparent breakdown of society and departs in a taxi.

The Alternative Apocalypse 4: In Cornwall, Jerry finds himself in a half-track armored car with Shakey Mo Collier, Bishop Beesley and Karen von Krupp, as they seek refuge by heading towards St. Michael’s Mount. Karen complains of a dangerous earlier encounter with Field Marshal Nye in Portsmouth, but Jerry defends him as just doing his duty.

• The Lovers: As Catherine and Una share a bed together, Miss Brunner arrives bringing Mrs Cornelius, who is working as a housemaid. When Catherine and her mother recognize each other they are at first surprised and Miss Brunner gloats in an attempt to humiliate Cathy. However Mrs Cornelius douses Miss Brunner with a bucket of water and defiantly quits her employ. Miss Brunner later recovers and announces that Lobkowitz will soon arrive for dinner.
• The Businessmen: Auchinek visits Major Nye in Scotland hoping to secure tour dates for Una now that the Empire has been closed. Nye receives news that his son has been captured and decides to accompany Auchinek back to London.
• The Envoys: Lobkowitz has a meeting with Colonel Pyat outside the closed Buckingham Palace. While navigating through local merchants, they discuss the departure of all of their old friends.
• The Gatherers: Mrs Cornelius hosts a dinner at her home to her teenage son, Catherine, Frank, Sammy the pie chef, Miss Brunner and Mr Smiles. Frank states that some people have been looking for Jerry, but he doesn’t know where he is. After dessert, Mrs Cornelius and Miss Brunner have an intimate encounter.
• The Rowers: Although a prisoner, Captain Nye is pleased to be allowed to go on a lake boating trip with his keeper Catherine. When they visit a small, romantic island, Nye is horrified to discover the remains of an ape-like creature, which somehow makes him think of Catherine.

The Peace Talks: Preliminary Speech: Just before his exile, Lobkowitz states his wish for a blank generation unsullied by the one preceding it.

The Peace Talks: The Ball: Hearst Castle has been rebuilt in Ladbroke Grove over the former Convent of the Poor Clares and a great ball is prepared. Arrivals include Miss Brunner, Prinz Lobkowitz, Bishop Beesley, Susan Sunday (Lady Sue), Captain Maxwell, Professor Hira, Cyril Tome, Mrs Cornelius, Catherine, Major Nye, Captain Nye (his “son”), Oswald Bastable, Karl Glogauer, a moody albino, Frank Cornelius, Gordon Gavin, Shakey Mo, Una Persson, Auchinek, Colonel Pyat, Spiro Koutrouboussis, Jack Trevor Story, Hawkwind, etc. The ball proceeds with much merrymaking. Jerry suddenly appears from behind a bookcase and is surprised to see so many guests in his house. A mysterious figure enters (Jerry?) and orders everyone to leave at gunpoint. As guests scatter, Miss Brunner remarks that this outcome was inevitable.

The Peace Talks: Concluding Remarks: Lobkowitz returns from exile and asks his audience (Pyat) to appreciate the moments of tranquility in life’s conflicts.

Shot Three

• The Theatre: At the Prince of Wales Theatre Una Persson performs in a musical melodrama, with her old agent (now political writer) Sebastian Auchinek in attendance. Auchinek is taken out of the show by policemen who seek his “help”.
• The Flying Boat: Frank, Professor Hira, Miss Brunner and Catherine depart from Lake Geneva in Captain Nye’s luxurious flying boat (as opposed a cheap and slow airship). On the way to Rowe Island, Catherine comforts the skeleton of a young teenage boy carefully stored in the aft section.
• The Pier: Mrs Cornelius and her reluctant new husband Colonel Pyat enjoy a holiday at Brighton Beach. Mrs Cornelius gleefully takes advantage of the boardwalk rides, as Pyat muses on the town’s forthcoming destruction.
• The Hills: Major Nye visits his old home in the hills of Simla (India), and is haunted by the nearby mansion he had built. During a bombing attack, his son had perished within. Later he flees to Bombay without informing his family. (This episode is an "echo" of the short story "The Delphi Division" (The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius), in that both comment on British Imperialism (as per MM in Death Is No Obstacle)).
  
• The Statue: Prinz Lobkowitz has been installed as the ruler of a city in Prague, but resistance fighters continue to cause statues to explode nearby. Una Persson arrives in his office and declares victory.

The Alternative Apocalypse 5: Jerry Cornelius, a Rajah of Sandakan, is informed that fighting has begun again. Jerry disappears from the pool he had just been enjoying.

The Alternative Apocalypse 6: Jerry, Shakey Mo, Beesley and his daughter Mitzi roam the war-torn countryside of England. They enter and wreak havoc on William Wordsworth’s museum in Grasmere. Beesley threatens the defiant museum guide, an elderly woman.

• The Airship: On board a luxury airship on the way to India from England, Mrs Cornelius and Bishop Beesley have a lusty interlude. Mrs Cornelius’ teenage son is relieved to be leaving Europe.
• The Locomotive: While commanding an armored train to Kiev, Colonel Pyat’s forces are shelled by tank barbarians (in “land ironclads”). They escape when the train goes through a mountain tunnel, although the back half of his train is lost.
• The Steam Yacht: A bored Una and an admiring Lobkowitz wait out a thick fog on the Teddy Bear while floating on Lake Erie.
• The Flying Boat: Frank, Catherine, Captain Nye, and Professor Hira escape from the ruins of Rowe Island (and Jerry’s possible demise). A ritual had gone terribly wrong. Miss Brunner and the skeleton are not aboard. Catherine pairs off with Nye, as Frank flirts with Hira.
• The Raft: Jerry’s bloody remains float on a raft in the open sea. Jerry philosophically dialogues with some voices from past, present and future, and then his carcass slides into the waters.

Shot Four

• Observations: In the Mediterranean and surrounded by competing foreign fleets, Frank Cornelius and Shakey Mo Collier transport a pulsating/bouncing/screeching object on their destroyer the Cassandra. Shaky Mo recommends they just dump it into the sea. They head towards Sardinia.
• Guarantees: Major Nye and his wife have been relocated to Brighton Beach to guard the coast from foreign invasion. While doing his rounds, Nye gets a glimpse of something floating in the distance, but it eventually disappears from sight.
• Estimates: Una Persson boards a refugee ship departing from Dubrovnik, heading for England. In the cockpit, Colonel Pyat and the Polish pilot express their disappointment in England’s effectiveness in the conflict. The Pole mentions that Pyat lost the “box” back in Ladbroke Grove, and now it has “been around”.
• Applications: Catherine Cornelius finds herself in the unusual role of breaking an ex-show business agent named Sebastian Auchinek out of Brighton Prison. As they head north, Catherine mentions the “modification of species and so on.”
• Securities: Mrs Cornelius brings her new husband Colonel Pyat back to her neighborhood pub. She mentions that Jerry has been “hibernating” (“Mastur-fuckin’-batin’, I corl it!”). Pyat prefers not to stay at his new wife’s home and suggests a holiday trip. They decide on the Crystal Palace.

The Alternative Apocalypse 7: In the basement of a Ladbroke Grove senior home, Jerry and Una use advanced weaponry to hold off attacks from Beesley, Miss Brunner, Frank, Karen, Mo and Mitzi. After killing them all, Jerry and Una make frenzied love.

The Alternative Apocalypse 8: Near a fused-solid River Thames, Jerry and Catherine walk amidst the ruins of a long-ago destroyed world and characterize it as a new paradise arising from a winter.

• The Forest: Mrs Cornelius, Colonel Pyat, Frank and Catherine enjoy a secluded picnic in a forest. Jerry is still missing, his hoped for resurrection apparently a disappointment. Catherine sees her reflection in the water take on mannish features. Lobkowitz arrives and after executing Pyat disappears into a pool of water. Mrs Cornelius takes the death of her newest husband in stride.
• The Farm: Auchinek, now in a new identity as an apolitical farmer, hears a shot from afar but ignores it. He seems to hear the word “traitor” whispered by the machines in his farmhouse.
• The Village: After parachuting in, Una is captured by rustic villagers and abused by them in their dance-hall. They make her dance, sing and then rape her. Una feels discomfort from all of the heavy, sticky bodies and decides it is “time to split”.
• The Hill: On a hill above the village dance-hall, a dying Major Nye spends his last, sad breath with his daughter Elizabeth bemoaning the failures he has known in the army. The lights go out in the dance-hall and the village falls silent.
• The Seaside: Cathy, Frank and their mother use the funds found in dead Colonel Pyat’s wallet to enjoy a holiday at the sea shore (in the nearby village, Elisabeth Nye catches a glimpse of them but is in disbelief). Frank complains of being cold. Cathy helps some nearby children dig a deep hole in the sand (believing they are rescuing a buried cat) but she discovers Jerry’s coffin. Jerry soon emerges wearing a white Pierrot suit and a blue conical clown hat (he had had to draw from Frank’s life energies in order to restore his vitality). Cathy is ecstatic and joins him for a trip out to sea on the Teddy Bear. Mrs Cornelius has a nice dream while Frank huddles in his weakness. In the village, Una waits for a destroyer approaching the coast. The destroyer begins shelling the beach, the village, and the forest. Auchinek’s farm had already been set on fire the previous night. On board the Teddy Bear, Jerry takes a nap and Cathy says goodbye to England.