The Alteration
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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
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| Author | Kingsley Amis |
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| Cover artist | Tom Adams |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternative history novel |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
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Publication date
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1976 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 208 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 2896009 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.A517 Al PR6001.M6 |
The Alteration is a 1976 alternative history novel by Kingsley Amis, set in a parallel universe in which the Reformation did not take place. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1977.
In his biography of Kingsley Amis, Richard Bradford devotes a chapter to The Alteration, its origins and context within the author's life. In 1973, Amis had heard a reproduction of the voice of Alessandro Moreschi, the last known European castrato. Amis disagreed with the proposition that Moreschi's performance could be considered "great art," because Moreschi had been castrated, and "true" art centred on the celebration of human sexuality.
Bradford argues that this was a matter of considerable importance for Amis himself, as he may have been suffering from impotence or sexual dysfunction in his marriage, due to advancing age. Thus, he took exception to Roman Catholic teaching, based as it was in a magisterium of celibate men who had never experienced sexual pleasure within their lives.
The main character, ten-year-old Hubert Anvil, is a chorister at St George's Basilica, Coverley (real world Cowley), for whom tragedy beckons when his teachers and the Church hierarchy, all the way up to the Pope himself, decree that the boy's superb voice is too precious to sacrifice to puberty. Despite his own misgivings, he must undergo castration, one of the two alterations of the title. Insight into this world is offered during Anvil's abortive escape from church authorities, with references to alternative world versions of known political and cultural figures. Hubert's mother carries on an illicit affair with the family chaplain, and his brother, Anthony, is a liberal dissident from repressive church policies.
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