‘The Dancers At The End Of Time’

The Dancers At The End Of Time

St. Albans:  Granada, 1981 (April 9th) hardcover;
original price:  £7·95;
viii + 663 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-246-11606-4;
cover artist:  Rod Matthews.

An omnibus of what is probably Moorcock’s best-loved trilogy — a lyrical, romantic comedy of errors in which the decadent, immortal inhabitants of Earth in its very last days meet the reluctant Victorian time-traveller, Mrs. Amelia Underwood — collecting An Alien Heat (1972), The Hollow Lands (1974) and The End Of All Songs (1976). It was preceded by a paperback box set (c. 1978), before being bound as a single hardcover volume in 1981.

St. Albans:  Mayflower/Granada, circa 1978 mass-sized paperback (slip-cased) box set;
original price: £2·50;
645 pages (158 + 180 + 307pp.);
I.S.B.N.: 0-583-12948-X;
cover artists: Bob Haberfield + Rod Matthews (reverse).

(+ [possible] later reprint[s], including 1982 — unseen [unverified] — £4·25.)

First (bound) edition; see above
(+ book-club ed.).

First (bound) paperback edition: St. Albans:  Granada, 1983 (March 10th);
original price:  £2·50;
viii + 663 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-583-13639-7.

Granada p/b ed. (1984, £2·95), reprinted Grafton (1986, £3·50; 1988, £3·95)
(+ later [undated] reprint[s]).

First revised edition:  London:  Millennium, 1993 (April 8th) hardcover and simultaneous trade-sized paperback;
part of the Tale Of The Eternal Champion (U.K.);
original prices:  £14·99 (h/c), £10·99 (p/b);
iv + 538 pages;
I.S.B.N.s:  1-85798-035-2 (h/c) & 1-85798-036-0 (p/b);
cover artist:  Mark Reeve (click here to see uniform designs).

Hardcover
(+ book-club ed.)

States “revised”, but should perhaps be more accurately ‘containing minor textual amendments’.

London: Orion, 1996 (October 7th) mass-sized paperback;
original price:  £6·99;
iv + 664 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-75280-617-3;
contains (further) minor textual amendments.

London: Gollancz trade-paperback, 2003 (May 8th);
SF Masterworks series No. 53;
original price:  £6·99;
iv + 664 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-575-07476-0;
cover artist:  Steve Stone;
reproduces the text of the Orion edition.

2003 edition (+ later reprint[s]), + yet later reprint (below), 978-0-575-07476-7 (£9·99).
(+ later reprint[s])

London: Gollancz trade-paperback, 2013 (June 27th);
part of the Michael Moorcock Collection;
edited by John Davey;
original price:  £9·99;
xx + 619 pages;
includes ‘Introduction To The Michael Moorcock Collection’ by John Clute (pp. vii–xii);
also includes ‘Introduction To The Michael Moorcock Collection’ by Moorcock (pp. xiii–xviii);
I.S.B.N.:  978-0-575-10855-4;
cover artist:  Mark Reeve;
illustrated by James Cawthorn (frontispiece).

(+ later reprint[s])

Copyright page states “Revised version”, but should be more accurately ‘Version contains minor textual amendments’.
Trade paperback (simultaneous 1st ed., not to scale).

First American edition:  Clarkston, GA: White Wolf hardcover, 1998 (May);
part of the Tale Of The Eternal Champion (U.S.);
edited by John Davey;
original price:  $22·99;
x + 534 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  1-56504-186-0;
cover artist:  Tom Canty (also interior).

(+ book-club ed.)

States “revised”, but should be more accurately ‘containing minor textual amendments’.
Trade-sized paperback, 2000 (November);
original price:  $16·99;
I.S.B.N.:  1-56504-994-2;
with (further) minor textual amendments/corrections.

Contents (first [bound] edition):-
p. i: title page;
p. ii: copyright page;
p. iii: An Alien Heat;
p. iv: dedication/epigraph page (for An Alien Heat);
p. v: contents page (for An Alien Heat);
p. vii: Prologue (for An Alien Heat);
p. 167: The Hollow Lands;
p. 351: The End Of All Songs.

Contents (first [revised] editions):-
p. iii: untitled introduction (non-fiction) by Michael Moorcock;
p. 7: An Alien Heat (as The Beginning: An Alien Heat on title page);
p. 147: The Hollow Lands (as The Middle: The Hollow Lands on title page);
p. 291: The End Of All Songs (as The End: The End Of All Songs on title page).

(Click here for Foreign Editions)