Those lucky few who’ve read Arlette Ryvers’ translation of JEANNE’S JOURNAL all seem to exhibit similarly awe-struck reactions, and having finally gotten around to experiencing this pervy masterwork myself, I fully understand the adulation.
In truth, however, only one of the nine Leroux stories collected here is PHANTOM related: “The Real Opera Ghost,” a nonfiction account of the actual crimes that inspired the novel.
As the title promises, this short story collection purports to be a compilation of memories, most of them fantastic and/or macabre in nature.
Now, however, a full 110 years later, John Antoine Nau’s ENEMY FORCE seems quite dull and uninvolving. The fault could be with the English translation–or, as the cover proclaims, “adaptation”–by Michael Shreve, who often seems puzzled by the text (
LES ROIS MAUDITS is a six episode French miniseries adapted from six of the seven novels that make up Maurice Druon’s bestselling ACCURSED KINGS series (which George R.R. Martin has called “the original GAME OF THRONES.”)
Here we have the first-ever unexpurgated English language version of French maestro Maurice Renard’s 1908 masterpiece DOCTOR LERNE, SUB-GOD. It’s the first entry in Black Coat Press’ five volume compendium of Renard’s “Scientific Marvel Fiction,” translated by science fiction legend Brian Stableford. Also contained in this book is Renard’s 1905 novella “Mr. Dupont’s Vacation” and his 1909 manifesto “Scientific Marvel Fiction and its Effect on The Consciousness of Progress.”
This wild and strange novella was initially published in French back in 1931. According to the 1999 introduction by Alastair Brotchie, the accredited authors “Jehan Sylvius” and “Pierre de Ruysnes” are pseudonymous; its actual authors may or may not be the surrealist scribes Robert Desnos and Ernest de Gengenbach. As Brotchie smartly concludes, “Whoever the authors were, they evidently enjoyed themselves.”
The traveling-into-dreams trope has long been a prominent, and problematic, staple of horror and science fiction. This French novel, originally published in 1992, is a stellar example of the format–and, I feel, an overall standout in the field of imaginative fiction. Kudos to Melville House, and translator Edward Gauvin, for putting out this better-late-than-never English language version.
A bio-novel about the 15th Century child murderer Gilles de Rais–read THE DARK PAGEANT instead
This French novel is perhaps the most famous work of gothic surrealism.