It is mysterious - and perhaps even unfair - that René Barjavel is considered to be the inventor of science fiction in France;
but after all the story is made like this, it needs landmarks.
Didn't the Vikings discover America long before Christopher Columbus?
Sure, but back then, no one really cared.
Thus of Barjavel and its precursors: Jules Verne was in the eyes of his contemporaries an author of “scientific novels”, Rosny or Robida, of “novels of anticipation”.
Moreover, we first spoke, at the publication of
Ravage
, of
an "extraordinary novel"
.
It was not later, when post-war American literature had popularized the term, that Barjavel would be granted the title of science fiction author - which would be valid, retroactively, for all his work.
Not that he was the first to describe a fantasized future based on the imagination of what the progress of science could one day allow.
But Barjavel did it when this fantasy…
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 88% left to discover.
Cultivating your freedom is cultivating your curiosity.
Keep reading your article for €0.99 for the first month
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Login