Janin, Jules
Entry updated 25 November 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1804-1874) French author, active from the 1820s, who first came to prominence for L'Âne mort et la Femme guillotinée (1829; trans Terry Hale as The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman 1993), a very early example of what would become known as the conte cruel [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. In its counterintuitive lightheartedness – the plot of the tale is grim – it prefigures the short stories, some of them almost readable as hoaxes, assembled as Contes Fantastiques et contes littéraires (coll 1832; incomplete trans Brian Stableford plus other material as The Magnetized Corpse 2014). Most of his work shows the influence of E T A Hoffmann. In his introduction to The Magnetized Corpse, Stableford compares him to Edgar Allan Poe; the collection, which gathers together tales of the fantastic from the whole of Janin's career (circa 1824-1868), may be definitive. [JC]
Gabriel-Jules Janin
born Saint-Étienne, Loire, France: 16 February 1804
died Paris: 19 June 1874
works (highly selected)
- L'Âne mort et la Femme guillotinée (Brussels, Belgium: Dumont, 1829) [binding unknown/]
- The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman (Chislehurst [ie London]: Gothic Society at the Gargoyle's Head Press, 1993) [trans by Terry Hale of the above: pb/]
- Contes Fantastiques et contes littéraires (Paris: A Lavavasseur/A Mesnier, 1832) [coll: binding unknown/]
- The Magnetized Corpse and Other Paradoxical Tales (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2014) [coll: trans by Brian Stableford of stories from the above, plus other work: pb/Mariusz Gandzel]
links
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Project Gutenberg
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Conte Cruel
- Picture Gallery
previous versions of this entry