7 Rosny inserts a footnote: “The first and crudest vestiges of human industry, attributed to a sort of ape-man or anthropopithecus, a precursor of our ancestors of the Chellean Epoch.” The term anthropopithecus had been coined to refer to a hypothetical “missing link” between apes and men; it was sometimes applied to actual fossil finds, but only briefly, and was discarded when more elaborate classification systems emerged.
8 Rosny’s “espérance organique” (which I have translated as “organic potential”—although “organic hope” would be more crudely literal) is not exactly equivalent to what Henri Bergson would subsequently term élan vital [vital spirit], but has some similarities to it. The implications of the concept are discussed further in the afterword.
9 Rosny is using “tardigrade” to mean sluggish in a general sense, rather than in its stricter biological meaning, which refers to creatures of the sloth family.
10 Serpents and “water-beasts” of various kinds are featured in various creation myths, but this invented myth is only slightly reminiscent of the Vedic myth found in the Mahabharata, presumably recorded by people who shared a common ancestry with the “Orientals” featured here. The association of serpents with evil is, however, much later in origin than the creation-myths that involve them (the association of the serpent in Eden with Satan is, of course, a Christian fancy). Rosny would also have been aware that the Merovingian kings who were the first rulers of the Frankish kingdom that became France traced their ancestry (according to the seventh century Chronicle of Fredegar) back to a Bestia Neptunis [Marine Beast] called the Quinotaur [Five-Horned Bull].
11 Mortillet and other paleoanthropologists of the early 1880s thought that there had been a “hiatus” between the “age of carved stone” and “the age of polished stone,” although the notion had been largely rejected by the early 1890s; Morel and Massé cited Rosny’s references to the hiatus as evidence of the fact that he had not read more recent work in the field, although it is a minor issue of no real significance.
12 The significance of “III” is unclear; there seems to be no possible justification for employing a Roman number, but it cannot possibly be a phonetic improvisation.
13 Although Morel and Massé identify the Immohys with Frédéric de Rougemont’s Semites, the resemblance stops with the mere notion of a particular tribe discovering the secrets of metallurgy and keeping them secret; Rosny’s version is more reminiscent of Teutonic legends of metal-working dwarfs, fused with Greek legends regarding the forges of Hephaestus.
14 i.e., the Indian subcontinent.
15 Paul Gallimard (1850-1929) is nowadays best known as an art collector who helped secure the reputation of the Impressionists, but he was also a prominent member of the Societé des Amis du Livre, along with Gustave Geffroy, and Rosny probably met him at the Grenier. Although Rosny could not have known it when he penned this dedication, Paul’s son Gaston was to go on to become a prominent publisher, founding Editions Gallimard.
FRENCH SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTION
Henri Allorge. The Great Cataclysm
G.-J. Arnaud. The Ice Company
Richard Bessière. The Gardens of the Apocalypse
Albert Bleunard. Ever Smaller
Félix Bodin. The Novel of the Future
Alphonse Brown. City of Glass
Félicien Champsaur. The Human Arrow
Didier de Chousy. Ignis
C. I. Defontenay. Star (Psi Cassiopeia)
Charles Derennes. The People of the Pole
Alfred Driou. The Adventures of a Parisian Aeronaut
J.-C. Dunyach. The Night Orchid; The Thieves of Silence
Henri Duvernois. The Man Who Found Himself
Achille Eyraud. Voyage to Venus
Henri Falk. The Age of Lead
Charles de Fieux. Lamékis
Arnould Galopin. Doctor Omega
Edmond Haraucourt. Illusions of Immortality
Nathalie Henneberg. The Green Gods
Michel Jeury. Chronolysis
Octave Joncquel & Théo Varlet. The Martian Epic
Gustave Kahn. The Tale of Gold and Silence
Gérard Klein. The Mote in Time’s Eye
André Laurie. Spiridon
Gabriel de Lautrec. The Vengeance of the Oval Portrait
Georges Le Faure & Henri de Graffigny. The Extraordinary Adventures of a Russian Scientist Across the Solar System (2 vols.)
Gustave Le Rouge. The Vampires of Mars
Jules Lermina. Mysteryville; Panic in Paris; The Secret of Zippelius
José Moselli. Illa’s End
John-Antoine Nau. Enemy Force
Henri de Parville. An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars
Gaston de Pawlowski. Journey to the Land of the Fourth Dimension
Georges Pellerin. The World in 2000 Years
Henri de Régnier. A Surfeit of Mirrors
Maurice Renard. The Blue Peril; Doctor Lerne; The Doctored Man; A Man Among the Microbes; The Master of Light
Jean Richepin. The Wing
Albert Robida. The Clock of the Centuries; Chalet in the Sky
J.-H. Rosny Aîné. Helgvor of the Blue River; The Givreuse Enigma; The Mysterious Force; The Navigators of Space; Vamireh; The World of the Variants; The Young Vampire
Marcel Rouff. Journey to the Inverted World
Han Ryner. The Superhumans
Brian Stableford (anthologist) The Germans on Venus; News from the Moon; The Supreme Progress; The World Above the World; Nemoville
Jacques Spitz. The Eye of Purgatory
Kurt Steiner. Ortog
Eugène Thébault. Radio-Terror
C.-F. Tiphaigne de La Roche. Amilec
Théo Varlet. The Xenobiotic Invasion
Paul Vibert. The Mysterious Fluid
Acknowledgements: I should like to thank John J. Pierce for providing valuable research materials and offering advice and support. Many of the copies of Rosny’s works and critical articles related to his work were borrowed from the London Library. Also thanks to Paul Wessels for his generous and extensive help in the final preparation of this text.
English adaptation, introduction and afterword Copyright 2010 by Brian Stableford.
Cover illustration Copyright 2010 by Vincent Laik.
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ISBN 978-1-935558-38-5. First Printing. June 2010. Published by Black Coat Press, an imprint of Hollywood Comics.com, LLC, P.O. Box 17270, Encino, CA 91416. All rights reserved. Except for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The stories and characters depicted in this book are entirely fictional. Printed in the United States of America.
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