The Fifth Head of Cerberus was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1972, and it established Wolfe’s reputation as a writer of extraordinary intellectual ambition. The book consists of three novellas, each formally distinct, set on the twin worlds of Sainte Croix and Sainte Anne — French-colonized planets whose original inhabitants, the abos, were shape-shifters capable of perfectly mimicking any organism they encountered.
The first novella, “The Fifth Head of Cerberus,” is narrated by a young man raised in a brothel on Sainte Croix who gradually discovers that he is a clone of his “father” — one in a series of genetic copies, each created to study the nature of identity. The second, “‘A Story,’ by John V. Marsch,” purports to be a narrative written by an anthropologist studying the abos, told in the voice of an abo reconstructing the history of his people’s encounter with human colonists. The third, “V.R.T.,” consists of the prison journal and interrogation records of the anthropologist Marsch — or is it Marsch? The novella raises the possibility that the real Marsch has been killed and replaced by an abo impersonating him.
The central question the book poses — did the abos replace the human colonists? — is never definitively answered. Wolfe provides evidence on both sides, and the implications ramify: if the abos did replace the colonists, then the narrator of the first novella (who believes himself human) may be a shape-shifter; the society of Sainte Croix may be entirely non-human; and the concept of “human identity” itself may be incoherent.
Collecting The Fifth Head of Cerberus
First edition (Scribner’s, New York, 1972): Cloth binding, dust jacket. Wolfe’s first major work.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $300–$800
- Without jacket: $40–$100
- First UK edition (Gollancz): $60–$150