Derennes, Charles
Entry updated 18 November 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1882-1930) French author who served as a medic during World War One; he was initially associated with the Mercure de France, a relatively avant-garde journal whose book-publishing arm released his first novel of sf interest, Le peuple du Pôle (1907; trans Brian Stableford in The People of the Pole 2008), which gave the tale unusual prominence for an ostensible entertainment. The story told – in a traditional Hollow Earth venue, which is reached by Balloon via the North Pole, explorers discover a Utopia created by an "iguanodon" civilization isolated from Homo sapiens for millennia – was not perhaps easy to distinguish from the works of other authors directly influenced by Jules Verne and H G Wells. After the fashion of the Scientific Romance, the iguanodons' long history provides Evolutionary perspective, and various contrasts between them and us seem markedly to favour this alternate version of the upward course, for here the development of high Technology has not been disastrous. Also in the same volume of translated work, "Les conquérants d'idoles" (see Checklist for details) is a Lost World tale set in the Andes. [JC]
Charles Derennes
born Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Charente, France: 4 August 1882
died Paris: 27 April 1930
works (highly selected)
- Le peuple du Pôle (Paris: Mercure de France, 1907) [binding unknown/]
- Les conquérants d'idoles et autre aventures ["The Conquerors of Idols and Other Adventures"] (Paris: Editions G Crés, 1919) [coll: illus/Charles Genty: binding unknown/]
- The People of the Pole (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2008) [coll: trans by Brian Stableford of Le peuple du Pôle above plus title story of Les conquérants d'idoles: pb/Gil Formosa]
links
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