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.
THE BLACK CUPBOARD to be a masterpiece of surreal horror, and one of the most fascinating and confounding such publications of the 20th Century.
The altogether outrageous account of a pithecanthrope, or ape-man.
Theophile Gautier (1811-1972) is one of France’s most famous authors, and AVATAR, a two-part anthology comprised of the titular 1856 novella and the same year’s “Jettatura,” contains pretty much everything that comes to mind (mine at least) at the mention of French literature: sappy romance, excessively florid descriptions (“their heaving bosoms swelled out beneath their curling fringes of foam”) and an overall atmosphere of opulent refinement.