Sorel, Charles
Entry updated 31 August 2018. Tagged: Author.
(?1602-1674) French lawyer, secretary to noble houses and author whose large oeuvre contains little that might reflect an inclination toward Proto SF; the 1602 year of birth, often given, would have him publishing multi-volume novels by his late teens, and birth dates in the 1590s have been suggested. Of some interest, however, are three tales which incorporate elements of the Fantastic Voyage, generally with Satirical intent. The three protagonists of Description de l'isle de Portraiture et de la Ville des Portraits ["Description of the Isle of Portraiture and the City of Portraits"] (1659) travel to the mysterious Island of portraiture, a Utopia where even the climate is organized around the Art of making likenesses. Relation véritable de ce qui s'est passé au royaume de Sophie, depuis les troubles excités par la rhétorique et l'éloquence. Avec un discours sur la Nouvelle Allégorique ["A True Account of What Happened in the Kingdom of Sophie through Troubles Caused by Rhetoric and Eloquence"] (1659) is less interestingly fixed in time and place, and the events depicted are allegorical rather than genuinely fantastic. In Relation de ce qui s'est passé dans la Nouvelle Découverte de Frisquemore ["A True Account of What Happened During the Discovery of Frisquemore"] (1662), a Lost World is discovered in the far north of Scandinavia, inhabited by Israelites and Gauls. Their civilization is mapped and described. [JC]
Charles Sorel, Sieur de Souvigny
born Paris: ?1602
died Paris: 7 March 1674
works (highly selected)
- Description de l'Isle de portraiture et de la ville des portraits ["Description of the Isle of Portraiture and the City of Portraits"] (Paris: Charles de Sercy, 1659) [binding unknown/]
- Relation véritable de ce qui s'est passé au royaume de Sophie, depuis les troubles excités par la rhétorique et l'éloquence. Avec un discours sur la Nouvelle Allégorique ["A True Account of What Happened in the Kingdom of Sophie through Troubles Caused by Rhetoric and Eloquence"] (Paris: Charles de Sercy, 1659) [binding unknown/]
- Relation de ce qui s'est passé dans la Nouvelle Découverte de Frisquemore ["A True Account of What Happened During the Discovery of Frisquemore"] (Paris: no publisher given, 1662) [binding unknown/]
links
previous versions of this entry