Louis Boussenard

Louis Boussenard (born October 4, 1847 in Escrennes ( Loiret department ), † September 11, 1910 in Orléans ) was a French writer and science journalist. He wrote mostly scientific adventure novels and is one of the most important representatives of this genre alongside Jules Verne . His literary output includes 41 works as well as numerous smaller articles.

biography

Louis Boussenard was born in Escrennes as the son of the chamberlain and seamstress Héloise Lance and the castle manager Louis-Antoine Boussenard under the full name of Henri Louis François Hilaire Lance . He attended a humanistic grammar school and from 1868 studied medicine in Paris and Strasbourg . During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 he interrupted his studies to fight as a soldier on the side of France - but probably continued after the end of the war. While it is not known if he ever graduated, his novels show a solid medical knowledge.

The first newspaper article, probably from him, was on May 23, 1876 in No. 983 of the newspaper Le Corsaire , for which he worked as a scientific chronicler. His journalistic activities in the following years also developed further characteristics of the later novelist, including his republican attitude, humor, compassion for the common people, enthusiasm for colonialism, strong patriotism and anti-clericalism. In the 1870s and 1880s, he traveled several times and processed his experiences in his reports and novels. He achieved literary success for the first time in 1879 with his first major work A travers l'Australie , which was published as a serial in the weekly Le Journal des Voyages et des Aventures de terre et de mer . Boussenard remained a science journalist all his life and wrote primarily for this magazine. In August 1882 he was awarded by the Académie française for his work.

Louis Boussenard lived with Albertine Delafoy from 1883 and no longer lived permanently in Paris, but in the Loiret. He spent the last years of his life in Orléans, where he married Albertine in 1909 after divorcing his first wife, Rosalie Lechat. She died in the summer of 1910, and Boussenard died two months later after an operation on September 9, 1910.

plant

Boussenard's work comprises a few smaller articles and a total of 41 independent works - from adventure novels to science fiction stories, travelogues, popular literature and letters. Most of the titles can be assigned to the adventure novel, including the adventures of the Parisian street boy Friquet from Le Tour du Monde d'un gamin de Paris (1879), with which Boussenard made his breakthrough. In another cycle about world travel, female characters play the main roles: Voyages et Aventures de Mademoiselle Friquette (1896) and L'Ile en feu (1897).

In his adventure novels, Boussenard also makes reference to historical backgrounds, for example the Crimean War in Le Zouave de Malakoff (1902) or the Risorgimento in Tambour Battant (1909). Three works can be described as science fiction novels in the broadest sense: The first to be mentioned is Les Secrets de Monsieur Synthèse (1888), which is about a scientist who wants to record the development of animal and human life. The novel Les Gratteurs de Ciel (also Les Aventuriers de l'Air , 1907) is devoted to aviation, and in Monsieur… Rien! (1907) an invisible man is at the center of the plot. The Guiana cycle consists of a travelogue, several novels and short stories. In 1880/81 Boussenard traveled around for the Journal des Voyages to collect material for this volume. The novels include Les Robinsons de la Guyane (1881) and its sequel Les Chasseurs de Caoutchouc (1886) and Bras-de-Fer (posthumously 1910).

Boussenards reception

Boussenard's success was mainly based on his second novel, Le Tour du Monde d'un Gamin de Paris , which was published as a serialized novel from 1879 to 1880. At a time when fewer and fewer serialized novels were subsequently published as books, Le Tour du Monde was published in book form just one month after the weekly publication ended. Among other things, the books were published in a high-quality version intended as a livre d'étrennes (New Year's gift) or as a prize for the best students at the end of the school year. The fact that Boussenard was one of the authors whose books were awarded as student prizes shows the high level of appreciation for his works in France towards the end of the 19th century.

By the outbreak of World War II , more than half of his works were regularly reprinted - at that time, Boussenard was one of the most widely read authors in France. A few novels were published in the 1950s, then he was forgotten for a long time before the age of digitization made his texts accessible to a wider public again - be it as a digitized version of the old version or as an e-book . At the international level, Boussenard's popularity is particularly noteworthy in Russia , where some novels were published as early as 1885 in the magazine entitled Um die Welt - magazine for travel and adventures on the mainland and the sea or were published directly as a book edition. In German-speaking countries, Boussenard was apparently only noticed in the context of scientific questions during his lifetime. It was not until 2012 that a novel was translated into German, The White Tiger , the first part of the cycle The Robinsons of French Guiana .

Boussenard as a popular science author

Boussenard's work is permeated with scientific and medical explanations. The imparting of knowledge from various fields in connection with entertainment was the attraction of his novels for the contemporary French criticism. In Boussenard's works the boundaries between fiction and documentation are often blurred. In some cases, the author collected material on long journeys in order to process it in the texts. The combination of information on landscapes, flora and fauna is the reason that his texts have been referred to as "geographical adventure novels".

Catalog of works (chronological)

• À travers l'Australie, relation de voyage - also published under: Les Dix Millions de l'Opossum Rouge (1878)
• Tour du Monde d'un Gamin de Paris - also published in two parts under the titles Le Tour du Monde d'un Gamin de Paris and Les Bandits de la Mer (1879)
• Les Robinsons de la Guyane with the parts Le Tigre blanc , Le Secret de l'Or and Les Mystères de la Forêt vierge (1881)
• Aventures d'un Gamin de Paris à travers l'Océanie with the parts Les Cannibales de la Mer de Corail , Le Rajah de Bornéo and Les Pirates des Champs d'or - also published as a complete edition under: Le Sultan de Bornéo (1882)
• Les Voleurs de Diamants with the parts Les voleurs de diamants , Le Trésor des Rois Cafres and Les Drames de l'Afrique australe - also published as a complete edition under the title Aventures Périlleuses de Trois Français au Pays des Diamants; Le Trésor des Rois Cafres (1883)
• De Paris au Brésil par Terre , Aventures d'un Héritier à travers le Monde and 2,000 Lieues à travers l'Amérique du Sud - also published as a complete edition under: Aventures d'un Héritier à travers le Monde (1884)
• Aventures d'un Gamin de Paris au Pays des Lions , Aventures d'un Gamin de Paris au Pays des Tigres , Aventures d'un Gamin de Paris au Pays des Bisons , La Chasse à Tir mise à la portée de tous and Les Chasseurs de Caoutchouc - also published as a complete edition under: Les Mystères de la Guyane (1885/86)
• Les Secrets de M. Synthèse - The fourth part of the novel was also published under the title Dix mille ans dans un Bloc de Glace . (1888)
• Aventures Extraordinaires d'un Homme Bleu - also published as a complete edition under: Le Maître du Curare ; also published in two parts with the titles: Le Maître du Curare and Yvon le Mousse (1888)
• Aux Antipodes (1889)
• Le défilé d'enfer (1891)
• Les Français au Pôle Nord (1892)
• Aventures, Périls et Découvertes des Voyageurs à travers le Monde (1894)
  • Aventures, Périls et Découvertes des Grands Explorateurs en Afrique, au Pôle Nord et en Océanie (the fourth part about America is missing.)
  • Les Grands Voyages Modernes en Afrique (Only the part about Africa.)
• Le Secret de Germaine (1894)
• Orpheline. Les Combattants de la Vie (the work is co-signed by Henri Malin.) (1894)
• Sans le Sou (1895)
• Voyages et Aventures de Mademoiselle Friquette - also under the title: Vie et Aventures de Mademoiselle Friquette (1896)
• L'Ile en Feu (1897)
• Les Etrangleurs du Bengale. Sans-le-Sou chez les Fakirs (1898)
• L'Enfer de Glace (1899)
• Capitaine Casse-Cou (1900)
• Les Aventures de Roule-ta-Bosse (1901)
• Le Zouave de Malakoff (1902)
• Lettres d'un Paysan (1902)
• Marko le Brigand (ou la Terreur en Macédoine) (1903)
• (Juana), la Fiancée Mexicaine (1904)
• Les Brigands d'Orgères - published under La Bande des Chauffeurs (1905)
• Le Fils du Gamin de Paris (1905)
• L'Archipel des Monstres (1906)
• Monsieur ... Rien. Aventures extraordinaires d'un Homme Invisible (1907)
• Les Gratteurs de Ciel - also published under Les Aventuriers de l'Air (1907)
• Tom le Dompteur (1908)
• Tambour Battant (1909)
• Bras-de-Fer (1910)
• Capitaine Vif-Argent (1911)
• Friquet, Totor et Cie - published under Nouvelles Aventures d'un Gamin de Paris (1912)
• Sans-le-Sou chez les Diables Jaunes - also published under the title La Rose de Moukden (1913)

Web links

• Literature by and about Louis Boussenard in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Louis Boussenard in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Literature by and about Louis Boussenard in the WorldCat bibliographic database

Bibliography

The afterword by Barbara Klose in the German translation of the Boussenard novel Le tigre blanc provides detailed information on Louis Boussenard . The title is: The Robinsons of French Guiana. The white tiger (Avventura mediterranea; vol. 4). Ablit Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-935410-17-5 (the translation was illustrated by Fanny Jacquier).