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{{Short description|1989 science fiction novella}}
⚫ '''''Great Work of Time''''' is a ] by ]. A ] story involving ], it concerns a ] created by the will of ] to preserve and expand the ].
{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}


{{Infobox novella|image=GreatWorkOfTime.jpg|caption=Cover of the first edition (1991)|genre={{flatlist|
Originally published in Crowley's ] collection ''Novelty'', ''Great Work of Time'' was also published on its own in a Bantam paperback edition in 1991. It is now available as part of the omnibus volume ''Novelties and Souvenirs''.
⚫ * ]
* Novella
}}|author=]|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-553-29319-7}}


⚫ '''"Great Work of Time"''' is a ] ] by American writer ], originally published in Crowley's 1989 book collection ''Novelty''. A story involving ], it concerns a ] whose aim is to avert ] to preserve and expand the ].
⚫ It won the ] in 1990.


==Title== ==Plot==
Caspar Last uses his newly created time machine to travel to 19th-century ] to obtain the very rare ] stamp. Last plans to sell the stamp, reap the profits, and never again use time travel or let it be used by others. A shadowy group called the Otherhood buys his stamp and takes control of the time machine, which it wishes to use to preserve the existence of the ]. In the new timeline, the British Empire survives as a dominant world power throughout the 20th century.


Denys Winterset, a promising young official in the ] in Africa in the 1950s, travels the ], where he meets a mysterious stranger, and is invited to join the Otherhood. Winterset is told that he must travel back to the beginning of the group in 1893 and assassinate its founder ]. Otherwise, in the late 1890s, Rhodes will change his will and dissipate much of his fortune, the Otherhood will never come into being, and the original timeline will be restored.
The title comes from ]'s poem about ], who, Marvell said,


In another timeline, a different manifestation of Winterset travels into the future, even though such travel had been forbidden by the Otherhood. There, he learns that excessive tinkering with the timelines has generated countless unintended changes. The citizens of this world ask Winterset to go back, prevent the previous Winterset from killing Rhodes, and restore the "true" timeline.
:Could by industrious valour climb
:To ruin the great work of Time,
:And cast the kingdoms old
:Into another mould.


Meanwhile, the other Winterset has arrived in ] and has no difficulty in gaining Rhodes's trust. At the moment of opportunity, a mysterious force, implied to be the future Winterset, prevents Winterset from pulling the trigger. The mission fails and traps Winterset in the past. Winterset enters the service of Rhodes and witnesses first-hand the ugly and brutal side of Rhodes's independent colony-building. Later on, Winterset can only watch helplessly as "The Original Situation" reasserts itself, the world is convulsed by two World Wars, and the second one is followed by the breakup of the British Empire.
==Synopsis==


In the final chapter, Winterset, a young man, now living in the "true" 20th-century history, enters the Colonial Service, now a doomed institution, with the Empire's colonies being ceded to new independent nations in Africa. He meets his older self in 1956 in Africa and learns of the truth of time travel. He helps his older self escape from Africa amid the chaos and returns to ], where the story ends with their last meeting many years later.
The main character, Caspar Last, is invited by his boss, a British colonial administrator named Sir Geoffrey Davenant, to join a secret society that has the ability to alter time. This society, which calls itself the Otherhood (because it is not quite a brotherhood), was endowed by Cecil Rhodes in 1893 with the goal of preserving and expanding the British empire. It was modeled on the ]. Agents of the Otherhood go back in time to change the past and prevent or lessen the impact of historical events like ], ], and the rise of ] and ].


Winterset notes in '']'' newspaper "the sale of the single known example of the 1856 magenta British Guiana" stamp, known to have been owned in 1956 by the Otherhood, and realises that time travel means that his story is still vulnerable to being rewritten.
The Otherhood eventually reveal to Last that they want him to travel back to the beginning of the group, 1893, and ensure its creation by murdering Rhodes.


==Analysis==
⚫ ]
As noted by the critic Susan Young:
⚫ ]
{{bquote|''Great Work of Time'' has the same basic outline as Isaac Asimov's '']'' - i.e. a secret society of well-meaning time travelers bent on remodeling history, and a young man recruited into the society in order to make a specific change that would bring this society itself into being. The details of what the time travelers do and where in time they operate are much different from those in Asimov's book. However, in both books, the society's operations come to a halt through the influence of people from the future, because the society's actions endanger the existence of the future.<ref>{{cite book |first=Susan F. |last=Young |chapter=Well-Meaning Do-Gooders and Time-Travel Paradoxes |editor-first=Edward |editor-last=Bell |title=The Sociology of Science Fiction}}</ref>}}
⚫ ]

==Awards==
The story won the ] in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|author=World Fantasy Convention |title=Award Winners and Nominees |url=http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/winners/ |accessdate=2021-07-20}}</ref>

==Publication history==
* ''Novelty: Four Stories'', 1989
* ''The Great Work of Time'', 1992, publisher: Spectra, {{ISBN|0-553-29319-2}}
* ''Novelties & Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction'', 2004, publisher: Harper Perennial, {{ISBN|978-0-380-73106-0}}
* ''A Science Fiction Omnibus'', 2007, edited by Brian Aldiss, publisher: Penguin books, {{ISBN|978-0-14-118892-8}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web |url=http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/f&sf/92-01.html |title=Books to Look For: Fantasy & Science Fiction |date=January 1992 |first=Orson Scott |last=Card |website=Hatrack.com |access-date=2022-12-18}} Review of ''Great Work of Time''.
* {{cite web |last=Morrison |first=James |date=September 2005 |url=http://www.bookslut.com/small_but_perfectly_formed/2005_09_006545.php |title=Small but Perfectly Formed |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002011035/http://www.bookslut.com/small_but_perfectly_formed/2005_09_006545.php |archive-date=2 October 2008 |url-status=dead |website=Bookslut.com}} Reviews several books by Crowley

{{John Crowley}}
⚫ {{World Fantasy Award Best Novella 1990-1999}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Work of Time}}
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⚫ ]
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Latest revision as of 02:34, 22 September 2024

1989 science fiction novella
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Great Work of Time
Cover of the first edition (1991)
AuthorJohn Crowley
Genre(s)
PublisherBantam Books
ISBN978-0-553-29319-7

"Great Work of Time" is a science fiction novella by American writer John Crowley, originally published in Crowley's 1989 book collection Novelty. A story involving time travel, it concerns a secret society whose aim is to avert World War I to preserve and expand the British Empire.

Plot

Caspar Last uses his newly created time machine to travel to 19th-century British Guiana to obtain the very rare British Guiana 1c magenta stamp. Last plans to sell the stamp, reap the profits, and never again use time travel or let it be used by others. A shadowy group called the Otherhood buys his stamp and takes control of the time machine, which it wishes to use to preserve the existence of the British Empire. In the new timeline, the British Empire survives as a dominant world power throughout the 20th century.

Denys Winterset, a promising young official in the Colonial Service in Africa in the 1950s, travels the Cape to Cairo Railway, where he meets a mysterious stranger, and is invited to join the Otherhood. Winterset is told that he must travel back to the beginning of the group in 1893 and assassinate its founder Cecil Rhodes. Otherwise, in the late 1890s, Rhodes will change his will and dissipate much of his fortune, the Otherhood will never come into being, and the original timeline will be restored.

In another timeline, a different manifestation of Winterset travels into the future, even though such travel had been forbidden by the Otherhood. There, he learns that excessive tinkering with the timelines has generated countless unintended changes. The citizens of this world ask Winterset to go back, prevent the previous Winterset from killing Rhodes, and restore the "true" timeline.

Meanwhile, the other Winterset has arrived in 1893 Cape Town and has no difficulty in gaining Rhodes's trust. At the moment of opportunity, a mysterious force, implied to be the future Winterset, prevents Winterset from pulling the trigger. The mission fails and traps Winterset in the past. Winterset enters the service of Rhodes and witnesses first-hand the ugly and brutal side of Rhodes's independent colony-building. Later on, Winterset can only watch helplessly as "The Original Situation" reasserts itself, the world is convulsed by two World Wars, and the second one is followed by the breakup of the British Empire.

In the final chapter, Winterset, a young man, now living in the "true" 20th-century history, enters the Colonial Service, now a doomed institution, with the Empire's colonies being ceded to new independent nations in Africa. He meets his older self in 1956 in Africa and learns of the truth of time travel. He helps his older self escape from Africa amid the chaos and returns to London, where the story ends with their last meeting many years later.

Winterset notes in The Times newspaper "the sale of the single known example of the 1856 magenta British Guiana" stamp, known to have been owned in 1956 by the Otherhood, and realises that time travel means that his story is still vulnerable to being rewritten.

Analysis

As noted by the critic Susan Young:

Great Work of Time has the same basic outline as Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity - i.e. a secret society of well-meaning time travelers bent on remodeling history, and a young man recruited into the society in order to make a specific change that would bring this society itself into being. The details of what the time travelers do and where in time they operate are much different from those in Asimov's book. However, in both books, the society's operations come to a halt through the influence of people from the future, because the society's actions endanger the existence of the future.

Awards

The story won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1990.

Publication history

  • Novelty: Four Stories, 1989
  • The Great Work of Time, 1992, publisher: Spectra, ISBN 0-553-29319-2
  • Novelties & Souvenirs: Collected Short Fiction, 2004, publisher: Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0-380-73106-0
  • A Science Fiction Omnibus, 2007, edited by Brian Aldiss, publisher: Penguin books, ISBN 978-0-14-118892-8

References

  1. Young, Susan F. "Well-Meaning Do-Gooders and Time-Travel Paradoxes". In Bell, Edward (ed.). The Sociology of Science Fiction.
  2. World Fantasy Convention. "Award Winners and Nominees". Retrieved 20 July 2021.

Further reading

Works by John Crowley
Novels
  • The Deep (1975)
  • Beasts (1976)
  • Engine Summer (1979)
  • Little, Big (1981)
  • The Translator (2002)
  • Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land (2005)
  • Four Freedoms (2009)
  • The Chemical Wedding: by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae in a New Version (2016)
  • Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (2017)
  • Flint and Mirror: A Novel of History and Magic (2022)
Ægypt Cycle
Short fiction
  • "Antiquities" (1977)
  • "Where Spirits Gat Them Home" (1978)
  • "The Single Excursion of Caspar Last" (1979)
  • "The Reason for the Visit" (1980)
  • "The Green Child" (1981)
  • "Novelty" (1983)
  • "Snow" (1985)
  • "The Nightingale Sings at Night" (1989)
  • "Great Work of Time" (novella, originally published in Novelty, 1989)
  • "In Blue" (1989)
  • "Missolonghi 1824" (1990)
  • "Exogamy" (1993)
  • "Gone" (1996)
  • "Lost and Abandoned" (1997)
  • "An Earthly Mother Sits and Sings" (2000)
  • "The War Between the Objects and the Subjects" (2002)
  • "The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines" (2002)
  • "Little Yeses, Little Nos" (2005)
  • "Conversation Hearts" (2008)
  • "And Go Like This" (2011)
World Fantasy Award—Novella
1982–2000
2001–present
Categories: