Barillet-Lagargousse
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of the unidentified French author (? -? ) of a Future War novel, La guerre final, histoire fantastique (1885; trans Brian Stableford as The Final War: A Fantastic Story coll 2014), whose name on the title page is expanded to Barillet-Lagargousse, Ingénieur destructeur ["Engineer of Destruction"]. The English translation also includes a twenty-part feuilleton, "Batailles navales de l'avenir" ["Naval Battles of the Future"] (1895 La Science Illustre) by Maurice Loir (1852-1924), describing warfare in the Mediterranean. The Final War is set within a 1934 frame story, though it begins in a near Near Future 1890s world, and climaxes in the portrayal of a vast armaments factory, a "Utopia" according to its owner, whose Inventions are numerous enough to warrant his setting out to conquer the troubled world, in order to bring peace. The conflicts depicted are premonitory of – though they do not accurately anticipate the Weapons or nature – of World War One; The Final War is one of the first novels to give some sight of the abyss to come. [JC]
"Barillet-Lagargousse"
born
works
- La guerre final, histoire fantastique (Paris: Berger-Levrault and Company, 1885) as by Barillet-Lagargousse, Ingénieur destructeur [binding unknown/]
- The Final War: A Fantastic Story (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2014) [coll: trans by Brian Stableford of the above: also contains "Batailles navales de l'avenir" ["Naval Battles of the Future"] (1895 La Science Illustre) by Maurice Loir (1852-1924): introduction by Brian Stableford: pb/Arnaud Sohyer-Budow]
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