Series
Karl Glogauer
Michael Moorcock · 2 novels · 1969–1972
Michael Moorcock's two Karl Glogauer novels share a character rather than a plot. In Behold the Man (1969), Glogauer travels back in time seeking the historical Jesus, discovers the real man is severely disabled, and takes on the role of Christ himself, engineering his own crucifixion to fulfill the story he grew up reading. Breakfast in the Ruins (1972) recasts him across seventeen variant lives spanning 1871 to 1990, each one crueler than the last, framed around a present-day encounter in London -- using the same protagonist for a different formal experiment rather than continuing a single narrative.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Map
Karl Glogauer at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 1960s1
- 1970s1
Shape
Mood
Grim and calm: 100% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 5%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book2 of 2 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Breakfast in the Ruinsdarkest · calmest
- Behold the Manbrightest · most intense