Berthet, Élie
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1815-1891) French author, who specialized over his prolific career mostly in tales of criminal life set in Paris, publishing more than 100 novels over his long career; he is perhaps best known in English translation for L'homme des bois (1861; trans anon as The Wild Man of the Woods: A Story of the Island of Sumatra 1868), the family of whose human protagonist is threatened by the eponymous advanced orang-utan (see Apes as Human); it is a text which may have been one of the influences on Edgar Rice Burroughs's creation of Tarzan. Out of his huge oeuvre, titles like Les Catacombes de Paris ["The Catacombs of Paris"] (1854) or Les Crimes du Sorcier ["The Crimes of the Wizard"] (1880) also published several works involving significant episodes of Prehistoric SF including "Romans préhistoriques: le monde inconnu" (first appeared 1876 Dentu; part trans Mary J Safford as The Pre-Historic World 1879; rev vt Paris avant l'histoire: Romans préhistoriques coll 1885) [for details see Checklist below]. [JC]
Élie Bertrand Berthet
born Limoges, France: 8 June 1815
died Paris: 3 February 1891
works (highly selected)
- Les Catacombes de Paris ["The Catacombs of Paris"] (Paris: Potter, 1850) [date is insecure: binding unknown/]
- L'homme des bois (Paris: Bureaux du "Siècle", 1864) [pb/]
- The Wild Man of the Woods: A Story of the Island of Sumatra (London: Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, 1868) [trans anon of the above: illus/hb/]
- "Romans préhistoriques: le monde inconnu" [four part serial 1876 Dentu] [mag/]
- The Pre-Historic World (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Porter and Coates, 1879) [trans by Mary J Safford of undetermined portion of the above: hb/]
- Paris Avant l'Histoire: Romans préhistoriques: Un Rève – Les Parisiens à l'Âge de la Pierre – La Cité Lacustre – La Fondation de Paris ["The Crimes of the Wizard"] ["Paris Before History: Prehistoric Tales: A Dream: Parisians in the Stone Age: The Lacustrine City: The Founding of Paris"] (Paris: Jouvet et Cie, 1885) [rev vt of the above: binding unknown/]
- Les Crimes du Sorcier (Paris: Roy, 1880) [coll: binding unknown/]
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