"Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde" (R. L. Stevenson - 1886)

Kind of literature : Science Fiction

Landscape :

A little street in London, a big house with a laboratory. A lot of sceneries behind the doors, nearly none outside.

The story :

Mr Utterson, a notary, has a walk in London with a friend. They walk near a strange black door, and the notary tells his friend the story of who was inhabitting behind this door, the Dr Jeckyll.
It was a Doctor specialised in medecine, Rights, a member of the Science Royal academy, who gained a certain notoriety.During his work, he discovered that some crystals are able to make the human's black side materialise in a kind of malefic entity.

Trying that on himself, the good Dr Jekyll turns into the bad Mr Hyde, who steal, cheat, and so on.There is next a hide-and-seek-game between Mr Hyde and the policemen. The Dr Jekyll, once in the Dr Hyde shoes feels free like he never was in his life and begins to appreciate this life where he can break all the rules.Then, the Dr Jekyll become weaker and weaker to escape from Dr Jekyll, and he understand that he will no longer be able to produce the strange crystalls allowing the transformation, because the strange event the transformation-was due to a mistake in chemical manipulations.The only solution for him to escape to Mr Hyde is to die, so does he.

The topics :

- The dualism of human beings : Half angels, half demons

- The fight to stay on the good side

- God punishes human who try to take his place in changing the human Nature by Science

- The hideous aspect of Dr Hyde symbolises the Evil, the bad side, the Beast

Context :

Stevenson founded the idea for this book in a nightmare !! Of course, we can draw a parallel between the chemical side of this story and the Industrial Revolution, that happened at that period...

Comments :

The intrigue rythm is flat, monotomn. In fact, this story could have been told only with the first and the last chapter, the most interesting one, where the Doctor gives his point of view on this strange experience. The other chapters are more like a crime story , not SF or fantastic, and I am not very found of this style. Moreover, as we all know what this story is about (a worldwide myth) , there is no surprise when you read it, and it's a pity....By chance, the book is not very thick...

"The Horla and Other tales" ( Maupassant - 1881 / 1890)

Kind : Fantastic

Landscapes :
A little house in front of the river called "La Seine" near Paris , in a quiet street, just like in this paint by Sisley...

"The Horla" :
They are all beginning in the "normal" life. Then, a strange phenomenon happens. In the "Horla", it is an invisible presence, which follows everywhere the main character who becomes mad...In fact, Maupassant lets the reader decide if the character has really become mad, or if this strange presence really exists....

Other stories :
An écorché hand who belonged to a murderer, and who still kills, even without being linked to a body, the ghost of a beloved woman who appears to his husband , a woman who has a special receipt to give birth to abnormal childs to sell them to circus, an antics's buyer who falls in love with hairs founded in an old furniture.
In the "Endormeuse", Maupassant devellops an interesting idea which could be used in our epoch where the euthanasia is unfortunately the only charitable solution for the patients "cured" with palliatives cares waiting for death to come : A company which proposes to his customers to leave peacefuly this world in smelling the scent of his favorite flower...


Comments :
The writing is very pleasant, and gives a sensation of "luxurious", by his "ancient" side, when you are in a very comfortable armchair, with the tic tac of a horloge, just like your grand parent's house. We feels like home in this writing style, maybe just because the sceneries depicted are simple and usual....
For me, the only mistake in those texts is to begin aways the same way : "I think I am becoming insane, whereas I was a healthy person before. I will explain you what happened to me...." I find it a little bit boring....
By chance, these short stories become after that intro colourful and very "tasty".They give to the reader a lasting impress.... Maupassant really knows how to create a tension in his stories, from clichés : ghosts, monsters,.....
It is as simple as that : When you begin to read these very short stories, you just can't stop until you have finished the book......
Congratulations, Mr Maupassant, for these little jewels....

"Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus" (M. Shelley - 1818)

Who is Prometheus ? According the Greek mythology, Promethée is a god who created the human kind from a piece of clay, despite Zeus (the God of gods) disapproval. Promethee learned them the metallurgy and fire. To punish Promethee, Zeus enchained him on a hill and let the Caucasian eagle eat his liver....Indeed, in the book, we could understand that God punished the scientist for having imitated him in giving life - by science...In other words, the scientist took the place of God...

Category : Science - fiction...

Landscapes : French Alps, gardens, forests, ...

The story :

A scientist, Victor Frankenstein, creates from dead bodies parts, a living creature, good in his heart. This creature escape from the laboratory where he was created, and unaware of his awful aspect, go to meet the Human kind. He hides some long months in a small shed in a garden , study how the inhabitants of the house are living and learn to speak in hearing to them talking.

One day, he decides to meet these persons and is violently chased. He understands that he will never have love or friendship from the humans, and becomes aware of his hideous aspect. He promises hell to his creator if he refuses to built him a female of his kind,in aim to never be alone again. The Dr Frankenstein refuses to do it and sees all the beloved people around him dying, whom his future spouse, strangled by the creature.

The doctor tries to find him all around the world to kill him but fail. He dies of exhausement and pain. The creature learns that his creator has died by his fault and realises the harm he has done , and killed himself.

The original manuscript is housed in the Bodleian Library of Oxford.

Topics :
- The responsability of a man for his creation
- Is the man good at the beginning of his life ?
- What does motivate a creature to do harm to someone else ?

historical context :
1820 : The Electricity has just been discovered. Lightning is particulary enlighted in the James Whale 's film during the creation of the creature process.

Reviews made when the book was first published :
One the one hand, "Frankenstein" was considered as an original and audacious story, but on the other hand, most of the reviews founded it blasphemous and not really plausible. But all agreeded to call it a "gothic" story, because of its frigntening aspect. ( Whereas nowadays, it is labelled as "Science fiction" - I hate labels !.... )

What the public thaught about it in 1818 :
The book was very well perceived, and Frankenstein has become a worldwide myth. A great success : The novel was adapted the first time for a play in 1823 in England, and the first film based on that story was a silent film, achieved in 1910 by Edison.

Comments :
I fouded it interesting to read this book to chase two set ideas :
- The creature, at the beginning is not bad. It is the men'sintolerance which made him wicked
- Frankenstein is not the name of the creature, but of his creator

The writing style is very easy to follow, you are not bored with the rythm of action....The book proposes both the scientist point of view, and both the creature's , which is very interesting. Moreover, Mary Shelley made a very subtle psychological analysis of the creature...When we know she wrote this novel at only 19 !!! She was surely very mature....

"The fall of the house of Usher" ( E. A. POE - 1839)

Kind of literature : Fantastic

Landscape : An isolated house plus a very glaucous pool in front of it, both able to give the shivers to anyone...

Story :
In the 19 th century, a man comes to visit an ill relative called Mr Usher, whose sister is ill too. Unfortunately, she dies during the visit of our man. Later, one night, our man comes back to read Mr Usher some frightening stories (why not, in a so lovely place...). Suddenly, they heard some scratches in the house, downstairs... We discover it is the so-called dead sister, burried alive by mistake...

Our visitor, scared to death, rushed out of this hellish house, and once outside, he turned back and saw a huge crack in front of the house, that collapsed in the dark watered pool...

Topics :
- Wrong diagnoses of death ? Very possible, considering that at that epoch, medecine knowledge was less advanced that nowadays... It could have been easy to diagnose death instead of coma...

- Death (and all that has to deal with it) is the man's biggest fear

Comments :

The writing is very gloomy, it makes me think about Lovecraft...delightfully out of date, capable of creating a sick feeling to the reader, thanks to a very special athmosphere. This text is very short but really forceful. A brilliant work...My advice : Read it, but not when you are alone in the house by a stormy evening...

"War of worlds" (H.G. Wells - 1898)

Kind of literature :

Classical SF

Landscapes :

The english countryside in the area of London, where small towns are scattered, green hills....and the streets of London destroyed by the ray of death of invaders...

The story :
The martians land on Earth in aim to dominate our world, because theirs is dying. They destroy all they touch, letting no chance to the human beings. All kind of weapons are tried to destroy them but it's a failure. The writer describe how some humans try to survive in hiding in cellings. The martians are finaly destroyed by bacteria, naturally living on Earth...

Topics :
- The humans are so proud (at that time, at least), that they believe to be alone in the Universe.
- They are also able of a lot of courage (to rebuilt a completely destroyed world)
- The aliens are the bad guys (Is there a parallel with the communists ? Who knows...)
- The biological danger of a world for another

Historical context :
The story is written at the time of Churchill, the First Minister of Great Britain from 1940 to 1945 and 1951 to 1955, who was a famous well known anti communist. But I don't know Well's political feelings, so...

Comments :
As mad as it seems, teleportation does exist. Yes indeed... When I opened this book, Wells took me by the hand and I was just in the middle of a report, right in the heart of the action. The writter succeeds, with a very living writing style, to make us follow events decribed with a very plausible way, it is amazing...

The human and mass reactions face to fear and terror are wery well described, and could happen this days, because if we are very evolved in a technological point of view, ourselves doesn't change....Imagine you are lost in a very black and deep forest.....Even if you are the president of the United States or the best scientist on Earth, you will be scared to death (me too !!!), before recovering your temper...
To conclude, a very very good book, in which you can nearly smell the odour of trees burned by the extraterrestrials, you can hear the crowd scream for fear..... an incredible travel !!!

DUNE (F. Herbert - 1965)

Kind : Space opera

Landscapes : Sand and sandhills, as far as the eyes can see.

The story :
On the Caladar planet, there is 2 clans : The Atreides, the good ones, leaded by the duke Leto, and the Harkonnens, the bad ones,managed by the baron Vladimir Harkonnen.
To move away the duke Leto, who starts to have too much influence on that planet, the emperor, the supreme leader of Caladar, make him a poisonned gift in making of him the king of the Dune planet, in the place of the Harkonnens, who ruled - badly - this planet for 80 years.

Dune is a planet completely covered with sand, where each drop of water brought by humans is a real richness, such as the Spice, strange and natural substance which give to the one who eat it some ability to know the future. Giant worms are the only animals living on this hostile Earth.

Keeping far away from these 2 clans, The Fremen live a life near the Nature, succeeding in taming the giant worms and making of them transportantion means. Most of all, they have a secret goal which is to bring back water on Dune, to no more being dependant from the Guilde, the only transportation company which brings on the planet the precious liquid.You can see here a paint of Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen :

The duke Leto's son, Paul, gains some fabulous mental abilities, thanks to his education and to the Spice, and discovers he has become the Kwisatz Haderach, the messie whom talk all the Fremen legends, the one who will lead the Fremen towards the Power on Dune.It is indeed what happens next, the Atreides joins to the Fremen to fight against the Harkonnens - which killed the duc Leto - and win the fight.You can admire here a giant worm, with a wide open mouth, ready to catch the first spaceship which will land on Dune...

Main Topics :
- Ecology : How to take care of the natural ressources of a planet
- The fight for the power
- Mental abilities of the human being ( to know the future, reincarnation,...)

Comments :
Even if the main topics of this book - ecology and power - are feartured in an imaginary world, they are described in a very realistic way, and correspond exactly to the actual concerns of our society.

This book is not badly written, but I didn't like it a lot.
Why ?

- Dune is really to long : More than 900 sheets for the 2 parts, in pocket edition ! I believe that on these 900 sheets, 1/3 settles the landscapes, figures and main ideas. The rest is only intrigues, and so on ( imagine the feuilleton "Dallas", in a space opera version )
The reading of Dune has been for me a long and painful thing to do, who longed about 2 months, but I really wanted to finish it by curiosity, to compare my point of view with the ones of SF encyclopedias, which worship Dune.

- The text, or the writing style smells dust and old style, there is no moves in this writing style, it is just as if we were watching the action through a very thick window pane.

- 2 strange things in this novel, which discredit seriously the story's credibility : Do you know that on the Caladar planet St Augustin ( Earth inhabitant, philosopher and christian theologian, dead in 400 after JC ) is known ? And that on Dune, people drink coffee ???? ( All that is not very serious, Mr Herbert ! )

For those who loved this universe-book, go and see this link, you will find again the Dune universe in numerous followings to this first parts :
http://www.dunenovels.com/

"The vampire : Analysis of a myth" (E. Valls de Gomis - 2005)

Dear readers, fond of vampires,

This wonderful book will join sooner or later your bookshelf (as soon as an editor will translate it in english, I don't think it is the case at present), because it will for sure become a "classic" in the vampire literature.

Written on the basis of a defence of thesis at Toulouse II university, in France, this big book - 470 pages - will amaze you for 2 reasons :

1) OK, it is a really big book, but not at all boring, as you could fear, considering the fact that it is coming from a university work. It is written in a so clear and simple style that you will read it as a very good novel...and will not realise the time flies.

2) The richness of the content is really incredible : From the farest origins of the vampire in religions all around the world, then presenting the most famous vampires in History, we continue the visit with the so called "real vampires", next, a very interesting chapter about the birth of the vampire in literature ( there is here a very interresting and precise explanation of the text of the "Dracula" written by Stocker ). Next, The writter introduce us some famous vampires places, gives some explanations about why the vampires seems so fascinating to us, simply humans, and to finish, presents us the various mediums having used - and still do - the vampire's image : Movies, advertising, theatre, music, painting, television,...Well, as you can observe it, this book is a real encyclopaedia, full of references ( see the very long list of information sources in the end of it, for those who want to know more ).

The intro is written by Jean Marigny, one of the most serious specialist about vampire in the world. And, as a bonus, the writter features some of her paints about vampires....This book costs 24 € here in France, and it is worth buying, believe me.

"Fiction" (1953 - 1990 and from 2005)

"Fiction" is a french science fiction magazine, edited by Opta. The first issue was published in october 1953 (see the picture of this issue below), at the moment when the science fiction has just arrived in France, and in the world, in a large scale :

At the beginning, this magazine was composed only with translations of texts published in the american "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", then his field became wider in publishing short stories coming from other magazines, and also texts from french writers today well- known, such as Klein, Curval, or Andrevon. Alain Dorémieux was the editor during some long years.

The very good quality of the texts chosen for this magazine made of Fiction the french SF magazine with the longest lifetime in his field. Indeed, the last issue was published in february 1990, that is to say 37 years after his first publication. Here is the last copy published :

To know more about the content of this magazine during his "first life", here is an interresting link : http://www.noosfere.com/heberg/ericb33/Fiction.htm

In 2005, a young publisher, "Les moutons éléctriques"http://www.moutons-electriques.com/ , gives a second life to this magazine and published the first issue " new version" the 10 th of march, 2005 :

As you can see, the visual aspect of this "Anthology of Fantasy and Science Fiction", published twice a year, wishes to give a modern image of the SF, avoiding all the classical icons linked with the SF : Flying saucers, monsters, pin-ups, imaginary worlds, and so on.This work is in fact closer of a "beautiful book", than of a magazine. Printed on a cream-coloured paper, very comfortable to read, and equiped with a cover with a flat. It is a very beautiful object for the lovers of books.

About the content, there is short stories extracted from the magazine "The american magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", but also unpublished texts of young writers of all countries, essays, interviews and portfolios.This anthology is avalaible in good bookshops.The editor is André François Ruaud, also founder and manager of the "Moutons éléctriques" :

FICTION N°4 (2006)

Cover by Moebius

Content :

- Alexis Irvine "The Golems of Detroit" : A very good idea : a factory producing Golems !

- Frederic Jaccaud "Adagio pour un reflet" : The thaughts of the "Silver Surfer" (Yes, the same one than in the Marvels comics !), lost in a human world, feeling unadapted to it...very subtle writing.

- Esther Friesner "Last Man Standing" : I really loved that one : It is the story of an aegyptian slave during the Pharaons era : At that period, when a Pharaon died, his slaved had to follow him in Death, in aim to serve him in the "other world" as we say here in France. He is waiting to die when suddenly a godess arrives, and funny things happens...

- Delila Sherman "Miss Carstairs and the Merman" : a mental communion between a human and a Merman, very nicely decribed.

- Laurent Herron " Les peluches" .

- Martin Gardner "No sided professor" : The Moebius concept, applied to a human being, funny...

- Thierry Smolderen : An essay about Moebius.

- Laurent Queyssi : An essay featuring "Métal Hurlant", very well written and interresting for those knowing this magazine only by name, like me.

- A portfolio by the drawer Ashley Wood : black and white drawings.

- Rhys Hugues : "Crystal Cosmos" : The Earth would have in the universe many other clones, where life happens the same way, except some little details... (It reminds me "Ring around the sun" by Clifford Simak)

- Steven Utley : "Promised Land" : The dust of a dead man scattered on a desert island, according to his wishes before dying, not really interresting...

- James Stoddard : "Starwatch" : A very good and poetic story about a young man who would like to become an astronomer, knowing that the astronomers of this story have the ability to move the stars...

- Xavier Mauméjean "Notre Dame d'Heisenberg" : Sorry I really disliked this story and writing style, The main lines of the story were too long to appear and I gave this text up at about 2 pages from the beginning...

- A strip cartoon by Alexis Segarra

Close shot of the cover by Moebius

- David Calvo "Instruction au sosie" : A brilliant story and writing style : vivid, precise,...I liked it a lot.

- Jeffrey Ford "The fantasy writer's assistant" : Being myself an assistant I founded this text very pleasant to read : An assistant helps his boss (and writer) to find details in the huge imaginary world he created for his books, and she succeed in realy "entering" in this world...

- Poul Anderson "The shrine for Lost Children"

- Some comic strips taken from "El Corriere dei Piccoli"

To conclude, a very good bunch of SF stories scattered on 335 pages...rather oriented on ideas than on action (No laser rays here...)

This magazine is only written in french language, but about 60 % of the writers featured are english or american, so I am sure you could find their texts in your own coutry....