Gsell, Paul
Entry updated 21 November 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1870-1947) French critic and author, much of whose critical output concerned the life and work of Anatole France. He is of sf interest for L'Homme qui lit dans les âmes (1928; trans Brian Stableford with added material as The Man Who Could Read Minds, coll 2019), a tale featuring Telepathy achieved through mechanical means (eyeglasses capable of rendering brain waves in graphic form). Their inventor (see Inventions) Jean Pilgrim initially encounters moments revelatory of human foibles (see Satire), but his conspectus soon broadens, and he becomes aware of the ineluctably hypocritical nature of culture at large; World War One is viewed with a cold eye. Eventually, a distant Island Utopia is founded by those aroused to action after he promulgates his findings about Homo sapiens in Europe. [JC]
Paul Valentin Gsell
born Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France: 24 January 1870
died Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France: 19 April 1947
works (highly selected)
- L'Homme qui lit dans les âmes (Paris: Grasset, 1928) [binding unknown/]
- The Man Who Could Read Minds (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2019) [coll: trans by Brian Stableford of the above plus other material: pb/Phil Cohen]
links
previous versions of this entry