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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-author"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Villiers de L'Isle-Adam </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 18 November 2024. Tagged: Author, Theatre.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=villiers_de_lisle-adam'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=villiers_de_lisle-adam'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=villiers_de_lisle-adam'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> <span><input class="button PNI" type="button" value="Checklist" onclick="window.location.hash='chklst'" ></span> <span><input class="button PNI" type="button" value="Alpha" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=villiers_de_lisle-adam&abc'" ></span> <span><input class="button PNI" type="button" value="Chron" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=villiers_de_lisle-adam'" ></span> <span style="cursor: pointer;" onclick="window.open('/gallery.php?link=villiers_de_lisle-adam');"> <img alt="Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com" style="margin: 0; position: relative; top:-2px;" src="/images/icon-gal.gif"></img></span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=149306.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/149306.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>Working name of French poet, playwright and author Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, Comte de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (1838-1889); he was an extremely impoverished member of a minor branch of the Villiers de L'Isle-Adam family, long prominent in Brittany. Active as a poet from about 1859, even his first work, <i>Premières poésies</i> (coll <b>1859</b> chap), expressing the extremist <a href="/entry/decadence">Decadence</a> that governed his contrarian stance as regards his career, his philosophy, and his life; his friendship with Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was defining. </p> <p>Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's best-known prose work remains the <b>Contes Cruels</b> series of tales, <i>Contes Cruels</i> (coll <b>1883</b>; trans Robert Baldick as <i>Cruel Tales</i> <b>1963</b>) and <i>Nouveaux Contes cruels</i> ["New Contes Cruels"] (coll <b>1888</b>; trans Hamish Miles, with selections from both volumes, as <i>Sardonic Tales</i> coll <b>1927</b>); his title itself came to designate a category of the French <i>conte</i> or moral fable which emphasizes the punitive twists of fate, the arbitrary chill of the world. The first volume of the sequence in particular contains a number of bizarre fantasy stories, several of them sf, including "Appareil pour l'analyse chimique du dernier supier" (12 May 1874 <i>La Semaine Parisienne</i>; in <i>Contes Cruels</i>; trans Hamish Miles in <i>Sardonic Tales</i> coll <b>1927</b> as "Apparatus for Chemical Analysis of the Last Breath") and "L'Affichage céleste" (first version 30 November 1873 <i>La Renaissance</i> as "La découverte de M Grave"; trans Hamish Miles in <i>Sardonic Tales</i> coll <b>1927</b> as "Celestial Publicity", new trans Robert Baldick in <i>Cruel Tales</i> <b>1963</b> as "Celestial Publicity"); in the latter story <a href="/entry/advertising">Advertising</a> slogans are projected onto the night sky by electric light. An early work, <i>Claire Lenoir</i> (13 October-1 December 1867 <i>La Revue Des Lettres et des Arts</i>; in <i>Tribulat Bonhomet</i>, coll <b>1887</b>; trans Arthur Symons <b>1925</b>), applies similar ornate twists to a horror tale involving possession and hideous paroxysms of female guilt; a more complete translation appears in <i>The Vampire Soul and Other Sardonic Tales</i> (coll <b>2004</b> trans Brian <a href="/entry/stableford_brian_m">Stableford</a>;). Other relevant collections include <i>L'Amour Suprême</i> ["Supreme Love"] (coll <b>1886</b>) and <i>Histoires Insolites</i> ["Strange Tales"] (coll <b>1888</b>).</p> <p>Of more direct sf interest is <i>L'Ève future</i> (first 14 instalments 1880 <i>Le Galois</i> as "L'Eve Nouvelle"; <b>1886</b>; trans Florence Crewe-Jones 25 December 1926-22 January 1928 <a href="/entry/argosy_the">Argosy</a> as "The Future Eve"; new trans Marilyn Gaddis Rose as <i>The Eve of the Future</i> <b>1981</b>; new trans Robert M Adams as <i>Tomorrow's Eve</i> <b>1982</b>) [for further details see Checklist below], in which the handsome young Lord Ewald despairs when his fiancée turns out to be a physically irresistible dotard (see <a href="/entry/women_in_sf">Women in SF</a>). He carries her off to America, to visit his great friend Thomas Alva <a href="/entry/edison_thomas_alva">Edison</a> in Menlo Park, which Villiers describes in exaggeratedly mythopoeic terms (see <a href="/entry/edisonade">Edisonade</a>). After suggesting that young Alicia Clary seems to be an ideal female, Edison creates for Ewald an impeccable <a href="/entry/androids">Android</a> duplicate named Hadaly, who he fits up with internal mechanical mentalisms, including twenty hours of pre-recorded conversational patter, designed to make her far more interesting than poor Alicia. There are obscure hints that Hadaly is capable of having <a href="/entry/sex">Sex</a>. Seen as an important contribution to the Symbolist movement, the novel is philosophical, ironic and mockingly contorted. Two compilations translated by Brian <a href="/entry/stableford_brian_m">Stableford</a>– <i>The Scaffold and Other Cruel Tales</i> (coll <b>2004</b>) and <i>The Vampire Soul and Other Sardonic Tales</i> (coll <b>2004</b>) – are assembled from all collections mentioned above, except for <i>Contes Cruels</i> [for details see Checklist below]. </p> <p>The ecstatic play and prose-poem <i>Axel</i> (1885-1886 <i>Jeune France</i>; rev <b>1890</b>; trans H P R Finberg <b>1925</b>; separate trans Marilyn Gaddis Rose and June Guicharnaud, both <b>1970</b>), is by far Villiers de L'Isle-Adam's best-known play, a dramatization of the Symbolist inturning of the imagination that inspired the famous study of early Modernism (see <a href="/entry/modernism_in_sf">Modernism in SF</a>), <i>Axel's Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930</i> (<b>1931</b>) by Edmund Wilson (1895-1972). The eponymous count – an unimaginably wealthy Rosicrucian savant whose supernaturally impregnable <a href="/entry/keep">Keep</a> staves off the armies of the world, and who remains adamant in his refusal to taste the desolations reality imposes on dreams – is a figure who has influenced generations of writers, including almost certainly the 1980s sf and fantasy creators of <a href="/entry/dying_earth">Dying Earths</a> heavily populated by aesthetic aristocrats weary unto death of vulgar sensation [for Knight of the Doleful Countenance see <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/encyclopedia_of_fantasy_the">Encyclopedia of Fantasy</a> under <b>links</b> below]. Axel's near-final declaration – <i>"Vivre? les serviteurs feront cela pour nous"</i> ("Live? Our servants will do that for us") – is a brilliant epigraph to the gesture he represents. [JC/PN]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/absurdist_sf">Absurdist SF</a>; <a href="/entry/adam_and_eve">Adam and Eve</a>; <a href="/entry/france">France</a>; <a href="/entry/history_of_sf">History of SF</a>; <a href="/entry/humour">Humour</a>; <a href="/entry/satire">Satire</a>; <a href="/entry/scientists">Scientists</a>.</p> <h3 id="chklst">Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, Comte de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam</h3> <p><b>born</b> Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, France: 7 November 1838</p> <p><b>died</b> Paris: 19 August 1889</p> <p><b>works</b></p> <p><input type="button" value="Alphabetical" class="button PNI" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=villiers_de_lisle-adam&abc'"> <input type="button" value="Chronological" class="button PNI" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=villiers_de_lisle-adam'"></p> <p><b>series</b></p> <p><b>Contes Cruels</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Contes+Cruels&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Contes Cruels</a></em> (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, <b>1883</b>) [coll: <b>Contes Cruels</b>: pb/nonpictorial] <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Cruel+Tales&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Cruel Tales</a></em> (London: Oxford University Press, <b>1963</b>) [coll: trans by Robert Baldick of the above: <b>Contes Cruels</b>: hb/Susan Einzig]</li> </ul></li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Nouveaux+Contes+cruels&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Nouveaux Contes cruels</a></em> (Paris: Librairie Illustrée, <b>1888</b>) [coll: <b>Contes Cruels</b>: binding unknown/] <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Sardonic+Tales&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Sardonic Tales</a></em> (New York: Alfred A Knopf, <b>1927</b>) [coll: trans by Hamish Miles from the above two: <b>Contes Cruels</b>: hb/nonpictorial]</li> </ul></li> </ul> <p><b>individual titles</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=La+Revolte&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">La Révolte</a></em> (Paris: Lemerre, <b>1870</b>) [play: binding unknown/]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=LEve+future&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">L'Eve future</a></em> (Paris: M de Brunhoff, <b>1886</b>) [play: first 14 instalments 4-18 September 1880 <em>Le Galois</em> as "L'Eve Nouvelle": incomplete continuation 14 December 1880-4 February 1882 <em>L'Étoile Francaise</em>: complete version first appeared 18 July 1885-27 March 1886 <em>La Vie Moderne</em>: binding unknown/] <ul class="x"> <li>"The Future Eve" (25 December 1926-22 January 1928 <a href="/entry/argosy_the">Argosy</a>) [trans by Florence Crewe-Jones of the above: mag/]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Eve+of+the+Future+Eden&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Eve of the Future Eden</a></em> (Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado, <b>1981</b>) [trans by Marilyn Gaddis Rose of the above: hb/]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Tomorrow+Eve&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Tomorrow's Eve</a></em> (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, <b>1982</b>) [new trans by Robert Martin Adams of the above: hb/uncredited]</li> </ul></li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=LAmour+Supreme&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">L'Amour Suprême</a></em> ["Supreme Love"] (Paris: Brunhoff, <b>1886</b>) [coll: binding unknown/]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Tribulat+Bonhomet&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Tribulat Bonhomet</a></em> (Paris: Tresse et Stock, <b>1887</b>) [coll: binding unknown/] <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Claire+Lenoir&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Claire Lenoir</a></em> (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, <b>1925</b>) [trans by Arthur Symons of "Claire Lenoir" included in the above: first appeared 13 October-1 December 1867 <em>La Revue Des Lettres et des Arts</em>: hb/]</li> </ul></li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Histoires+Insolites&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Histoires Insolites</a></em> ["Strange Tales"] (Paris: Maison Quantin, <b>1888</b>) [coll: binding unknown/]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Axel&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Axël</a></em> (Paris: Maison Quantin, <b>1890</b>) [play: first version appeared 1885-1886 <em>Jeune France</em>: binding unknown/] <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Axel&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Axel</a></em> (London: Jarrolds Publishers, <b>1925</b>) [trans H P R Finberg of the above: introduction by William Butler <a href="/entry/yeats_william_butler">Yeats</a>: illus/hb/T Sturge Moore]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Axel&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Axel</a></em> (Dublin, Ireland: The Dolmen Press, <b>1970</b>) [play: trans by Marilyn Gaddis Rose of the above: hb/nonpictorial]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Axel&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Axel</a></em> (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, <b>1970</b>) [play: trans by June Guicharnaud of the above: hb/Janet Anderson]</li> </ul></li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=LEvasion&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">L'Evasion</a></em> (Paris: Tresse et Stock, <b>1891</b>) [play: binding unknown/] <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Revolt+And+The+Escape&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Revolt; And, The Escape</a></em> (London: Duckworth and Company, <b>1901</b>) [omni of the above plus <em>La Révolte</em> above: trans by Theresa Barclay of both titles: hb/]</li> </ul></li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Scaffold+and+Other+Cruel+Tales&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Scaffold and Other Cruel Tales</a></em> (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, <b>2004</b>) [coll: trans by Brian <a href="/entry/stableford_brian_m">Stableford</a> from <em>L'Amour Suprême</em>, <em>Histoires Insolites</em> and <em>Nouveaux Contes Cruels</em> above: pb/Ladrönn]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Vampire+Soul+and+Other+Sardonic+Tales&field-author=Villiers+De+Lisle+Adam" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Vampire Soul and Other Sardonic Tales</a></em> (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, <b>2004</b>) [coll: trans by Brian <a href="/entry/stableford_brian_m">Stableford</a> from <em>L'Amour Suprême</em>, <em>Tribulat Bonhomet</em> and <em>Nouveaux Contes Cruels</em> above: pb/Ladrönn]</li> </ul> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?19935">Internet Speculative Fiction Database</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6262">Project Gutenberg</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/"><em>The Encyclopedia of Fantasy</em></a>: <a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/conte_cruel">Conte Cruel</a>; <a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/knight_of_the_doleful_countenance">Knight of the Doleful Countenance</a>.</li> <li><a target="_blank" 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