A Cure For Cancer
London: Allison & Busby, 1971 (February) hardcover;
binding: brown boards;
original price: £1·50;
256 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 85031-026-1;
cover artist: none (lettering only);
illustrated by Malcolm Dean.
Jerry Cornelius — the ambiguous, amoral, androgynous English Assassin —
The second volume of the Cornelius tetralogy, A Cure For Cancer was first serialised in New Worlds (q.v.) in 1969. As a novel it was collected — partially revised (purportedly) — in The Cornelius Chronicles (1977) with The Final Programme, The English Assassin and The Condition Of Muziak, then fully revised in 1979. In this form it was collected in The Cornelius Chronicles Book One (1988) with The Final Programme only, and later (with all three other titles) in The Cornelius Quartet (1993).
(Preceded by The Final Programme)
First paperback edition: Harmondsworth: Penguin mass-sized paperback, 1973 (September);
original price: 40p;
261 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 0-14-00-3483-8;
cover artist: David Pelham;
illustrated by Mac [sic] Dean.
London: Quartet paperback, 1976 (January 16th);
original price: 70p;
261 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 0-704-31256-5 (0-704-31 only, on copyright page);
cover artist: Patrick Woodroffe;
illustrated by Mal Dean.
London: Allison & Busby reprinted hardcover, 1976 (possibly Feb. ’77, but [N.B.] dated 1971);
binding: black boards;
original price: £3·50;
256 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 0-85031-026-1 (85031-026-1 on copyright page);
cover artist: Richard Glyn Jones;
illustrated by Malcolm Dean.
London: Futura (Quartet) paperback, 1977 (July 5th, but dated 1976);
“Quartet” only, on back cover & copyright page;
original price: 75p;
261 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 0-704-31256-5 (0-704-31 only, on copyright page);
cover artist: Patrick Woodroffe;
illustrated by Mal Dean.
First revised edition: Glasgow: Fontana paperback, 1979 (September);
original price: £1·00 (later overprinted £1·50);
253 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 0-00-615343-7;
cover artist: Bill Sanderson;
interior artist: Malcolm Dean.
First American edition: New York: Holt, Reinhart & Winston hardcover, 1971 (September 27th);
original price: $6·95;
256 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 0-03-085073-8;
cover artist: Tom Hachtman;
illustrated by Malcolm Dean.
London: Titan trade-sized paperback, 2016 (March 1st);
revised text;
edited by John Davey;
original price: $9·95;
343 pages;
I.S.B.N.: 9871783291793;
cover artist: Julia Lloyd;
interior artist: Malcolm Dean.
N.B. (1): The revised (Fontana) edition contains the following note: “Although these books may be read in any order, the reader might wish to know that the structure of [this] the last volume reflects the structure of the overall tetralogy.”
N.B. (2): All English-language editions also contain a note that the book: “has an unconventional structure”, to which was added (in the revised editions) “and, like the other books in the tetralogy (like the overall tetralogy itself), is developed and resolved in something approximating sonata form: Introduction; Development (1 and 2); Resolution [Recapitulation in Titan ed.]; Coda.”
(Followed by The English Assassin)
(Click here for Foreign Editions)
A Cure For Cancer is also available as an e-book: 9871783291786.
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