(1912-1994) French writer who trained as an electrical engineer and spent eight years in Malaysia as a planter and soldier. His experience of the Orient permeated much of his early work, which was generally not sf; Le pont sur la rivière Kwaï (1952; trans Xan Fielding as The Bridge on the River Kwai 1954) remains his best-known novel. Boulle uses moral fable to pinpoint human absurdities, and his relatively large body of work in the sf genre is a good illustration of this method. La planète des singes (1963; trans Xan Fielding as Planet of the Apes 1963; vt Monkey Planet 1964) is a witty, philosophical tale à la Voltaire, full of irony and compassion, quite unlike the later film adaptation, Planet of the Apes (1968), which used only the book's initial premise and lost its Satirical point, which is most effectively conveyed when the astronaut protagonists of the tale, who reminisce about the events portrayed, turn out themselves to be apes, in a reversal of the implications of the usual Apes as Human narrative. The late Le malheur des uns (1990) is a slight but science-fictional fable about a man who discovers a cure for AIDS. [MJ/AR]

see also: Computers; Devolution; France; Moon; Rockets; Scientists.

Pierre Francois Marie-Louis Boulle

born Avignon, France: 20 February 1912

died France: 30 January 1994

works

• Contes de l'absurde (Paris: Julliard, 1953) [coll: pb/]
• E = mc² (Paris: Julliard, 1957) [coll: pb/]
  • Time Out of Mind and Other Stories (London: Secker and Warburg, 1966) [coll: trans by Xan Fielding and Elisabeth Abbott of stories from the above two: hb/]
• La planète des singes (Paris: Le Cercle du nouveau livre, 1963) [binding unknown/]
  • Planet of the Apes (New York: Vanguard Press, 1963) [trans by Xan Fielding of the above: hb/]
    • Monkey Planet (London: Secker and Warburg, 1964) [vt of the above trans: hb/Margaret Eastoe]
• Le jardin de Kanashima (Paris: Julliard, 1964) [pb/]
  • The Garden on the Moon (London: Secker and Warburg, 1965) [trans by Xan Fielding of the above: hb/]
• Histoires charitables ["Charitable Tales"] (Paris: Julliard, 1965) [coll: pb/]
• Quia Absurdam (Sur la Terre comme au Ciel) (Paris: Julliard, 1970) [coll: pb/]
  • Because it is Absurd: (On Earth as it is in Heaven) (New York: Vanguard Press, 1971) [trans by Elisabeth Abbott of the above: hb/]
• Les jeux d'esprit (Paris: Julliard, 1971) [Dystopia: pb/]
  • Desperate Games (New York: Vanguard Press, 1973) [trans by Patricia Wolf of the above: hb/]
• Les oreilles de jungle ["The Ears of the Jungle"] (Paris: Flammarion, 1972) [pb/]
• Les virtues de l'Enfer ["The Virtues of Hell"] (Paris: Flammarion, 1974) [pb/]
• Histoires perfides (Paris: Flammarion, 1976) [coll: pb/]
  • The Marvelous Palace and Other Stories (New York: Vanguard Press, 1977) [coll: trans by Margaret Giovanelli of the above: hb/]
• Le bon léviathan (Paris: Editions Rombaldi, 1979) [pb/]
  • The Good Leviathan (New York: Vanguard Press, 1979) [trans by Margaret Giovanelli of the above: hb/]
• Les coulisses du ciel (Paris: Julliard, 1979) [pb/]
  • Trouble in Paradise (New York: Vanguard Press, 1985) [trans by Patricia Wolf of the above: hb/]
• L'energie du désespoir ["The Energy of Despair"] (Paris: Julliard, 1981) [pb/]
• Miroitements ["Mirror Images"] (Paris: Flammarion, 1982) [pb/]
• La baleine des Malouines (Paris: Julliard, 1983) [pb/]
  • The Whale of the Victoria Cross (New York: Vanguard Press, 1983) [trans by Patricia Wolf of the above: hb/]
• Le malheur des uns (xxxx, 1990) [binding unknown/]
• A nous deux, Satan! ["Flight With Satan"] (Paris: Le grand livre du mois, 1992) [pb/]

links

Previous versions of this entry

• 01/01/2005
• 21/12/2011
• 25/06/2012
• 03/07/2012