Haraucourt, Edmond
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1856-1941) French author who seems to have begun publishing Scientific Romance tales with "L'Immortalité, conte philosophique" (1888 Revue Bleue) which, like much of his work, treats Immortality as a pernicious illusion, and "La Fin du Monde" (1893 Revue Hebdomadaire), both assembled with other work as L'Effort ["Effort"] (coll 1894). More radically, the later Le Gorilloïde (January 1904 Le Journal; 1906 chap) expressed within the constraints of the feuilleton a scathing sense of the transitoriness of life and culture – the Ruins and Futurity view of a desolated Paris that climaxes the tale raises the Evolutionary pessimism of writers like the early H G Wells to an extremely grim pitch. All these tales, and some others, were posthumously assembled as Le Gorilloïde et autre contes de l'avenir (coll 2001; trans Brian Stableford plus further stories as Illusions of Immortality 2012). Of them, "Le Découverte du docteur Anguérande" (circa 1910 Le Journal) is of interest for its reversal of the usual image of the Mad Scientist: the doctor is a good man; his Invention, which will increase the well-being of humanity, is clearly benevolent; but the world, in a frenzy, persecutes him. Daâh, le premier homme ["Daâh, the First Man"] (1914; trans Brian Stableford as Daâh: The First Human 2014) is Prehistoric SF whose protagonist embodies in his idealized life a principle of constant Evolution. [JC]
Edmond Haraucourt
born Bourmont, Haute-Marne, France: 18 October 1856
died Paris: 17 November 1941
works
- L'Antéchrist (Paris: Académie des beaux livres, 1893) [chap: pb/]
- L'Effort ["Effort"] (Paris: Les Bibliophiles contemporains, 1894) [coll: binding unknown/]
- Le Gorilloïde ["The Gorilloid"] (Tours, France: E Arrault, 1906) [story: chap: first appeared January 1904 Le Journal: binding unknown/]
- Le Gorilloïde et autre contes de l'avenir (Paris: Éditions Apex, 2001) [omni: containing the above plus L'Antéchrist plus stories from L'Effort plus other work: binding unknown/]
- Illusions of Immortality (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2012) [omni/coll: trans by Brian Stableford of the above plus further stories: pb/Vincent Laik]
- Le Gorilloïde et autre contes de l'avenir (Paris: Éditions Apex, 2001) [omni: containing the above plus L'Antéchrist plus stories from L'Effort plus other work: binding unknown/]
- Daâh, le premier homme ["Daâh, the First Man"] (Paris: E Flammarion, 1914) [first appeared with breaks December 1912-June 1914 Le Journal: binding unknown/]
- Daâh: The First Human (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2014) [coll: trans by Brian Stableford of the above plus further stories: pb/Juan Miguel Aguilera]
- Dieudonat (Paris: E Flammarion, 1906) [fixup: binding unknown/]
- Dieudonat (Paris: E Flammarion, 1912) [exp of the above: binding unknown/]
- Dieudonat (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2018) [trans by Brian Stableford of the above: pb/Adam Tredowski]
- Dieudonat (Paris: E Flammarion, 1912) [exp of the above: binding unknown/]
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