Daumal, René
Entry updated 14 July 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1908-1944) French poet and author, his early poetry similar to but in some ways oppositional to late 1920s Surrealism, perhaps through narrative impulses that well up through his work. He is specifically of sf interest for his unfinished second novel, Le Mont Analogue: Roman d'aventures alpines, euclidiennes et symboliquement authentiques (1952; trans Roger Shattuck as Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing 1959), which describes a Fantastic Voyage towards the eponymous mountain, the hidden continent it dominates being identified through anomalies in Earth's gravitational field (see Gravity), and only perceivable (see Perception) through an occult understanding of the science involved in ascertaining its existence. The continent is chock-full of unknown flora and fauna. To reach the top of the mountain may be to reach God (see Transcendence). [JC]
René Daumal
born Boulzicourt, Ardennes, France: 16 March 1908
died Paris: 21 May 1944
works (highly selected)
- Le Mont Analogue: Roman d'aventures alpines, euclidiennes et symboliquement authentiques (Paris: Gallimard, 1952) [binding unknown/]
- Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing (London: Vincent Stuart, 1959) [trans by Roger Shattuck of the above: hb/uncredited]
links
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