de Girardin, Delphine
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1804-1855) French poet and author (she was born in the border-city of Aachen during the fourteen years of French rule, 1801-1815), who also wrote under her maiden name, Delphine Gay, as Mme Émile de Girardin and as by Charles de Launay. Neither Le Lorgnon ["The Eyeglasses"] as Delphine Gay (1831) nor La Canne de M de Balzac ["The Cane of Monsieur de Balzac"] (1836) as Mme Émile de Girardin, translated together by Brian Stableford as Balzac's Cane (omni 2015 chap), can be thought of as Proto SF. But both tales fantastically evoke tropes later absorbed into sf: in the first, a pair of eyeglasses confers Telepathy on its user; in the second, the eponymous cane confers Invisibility. [JC]
Delphine de Girardin
born Aachen, France [now Germany]: 24 January 1804
died Paris: 29 June 1855
works (selected)
- Le Lorgnon ["The Eyeglasses"] as Delphine Gay (Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1831) [binding unknown/]
- La Canne de M de Balzac ["The Cane of Monsieur de Balzac"] (Paris: Dumont, 1836) as Mme Émile de Girardin [binding unknown/]
- Balzac's Cane (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2015) [omni of the above two trans by Brian Stableford: pb/Phil Cohen]
links
previous versions of this entry