Maurice Renard

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Portrait of Renard with autograph

Maurice Renard (born February 28, 1875 in Châlons-en-Champagne , † November 18, 1939 in Rochefort , Charente-Maritime Department ) was a French writer and lawyer .

Life

Renard was born into a wealthy middle-class family. His grandfather was already a high official and later mayor of Épernay , his father was a judge and court president in Reims , where Renard, by far the youngest of three children and the only boy, grew up practically an only child. In his childhood he spent a lot of time in his grandparents' castle in Hermonville, where he discovered the works of Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe at an early age . He attended boarding school and then studied literature. After three years of military service, during which he came to appreciate HG Wells' books , he began studying law in Paris . After a few semesters he dropped out to devote himself to writing. In Paris he had a literary salon with guests such as Colette , Pierre Benoit , Henri de Régnier , J.-H. Rosny aîné and Henry de Montherlant .

From 1914 to the beginning of 1919 he took part in the First World War as a cavalry officer and died, almost forgotten, in 1939 as a result of a surgical operation. His grave is on the Atlantic island of Oléron , where he owned a house.

plant

Renard was one of the writers of the "Golden Age" of French science fiction literature. He was heavily influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and HG Wells. He dedicated his first novel Le Docteur Lerne - Sous-Dieu to Wells around 1908, because The Island of Dr. Moreau was the inspiration for the book: Renard describes the plot, however, from the point of view of a being who was itself the subject of a transplant experiment.

Renard's works move on the border between science fiction and horror novels . In doing so, he developed a relationship to the supernatural based on logic and rationalism . His novel Le Péril Bleu (filmed in 1975 by Jean-Christophe Averty for French television) describes an invasion of non-human-like aliens, which is ended by the invisible spider-beings when they realize that humans are sentient life forms.

Renard's novel Les Mains d'Orlac from 1920 became better acquainted with the adaptations by Robert Wiene as Orlac's hands in Germany in 1924 and by Karl Freund under the title Mad Love - an American horror film from 1935. Other film adaptations of the material was published in 1960 by Edmond T. Gréville ( Die Unheimlichenehand des Dr. Orlak ) and in 1962 in the USA as Hands Of A Stranger by Newt Arnold. The latest film adaptation of the book is the television film Des voix dans la nuit by Peter Kassovitz (1991).

Works (selection)

Maurice Renard. The blue danger (OT: Le Peril Bleu ). German EA Drei Masken Vlg. 1922
Novels
  • Le Docteur Lerne, Sous-Dieu (1908)
    • German: The Doctor Learn. Hyperion, Munich 1909.
  • Le Péril Bleu (1912)
  • Les Mains d'Orlac (1920)
    • German: Orlac's hands. Three masks, Munich 1922.
  • Le Singe (1924)
  • Lui? Histoire d'un Mystère (1927)
    • German: He? Neue Berliner Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1928.
  • Un Homme chez les Microbes. Scherzo (1928)
    • German: A man among the microbes. Neue Berliner Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1923.
  • La Jeune Fille du Yacht (1930)
  • Le Maître de la Lumière (1933)
  • Le mystère du masque (1966)
Collections
  • Fantômes et Fantôches (1905, as Vincent Saint-Vincent).
  • Le voyage immobile: suivi d'autres Histoires singulières (1909)
    • German: The journey without a journey and other strange stories. Three masks, Munich 1923.
  • M. d'Outremort et autres histoires singulières (1913, also as Suite fantastique , 1921)
  • L'homme truqué (1921) also appeared as:
  • Deux contes à la plume d'oie (1923)
  • L'invitation à la peur (1926)
  • Le carnaval du mystère (1929)
  • Un homme chez les microbes (1956)
  • L'homme truqué (1958)
  • L'invitation à la peur (1958)
  • Le papillon de la mort (1985)
  • Contes des "Mille et un matins" (1990)
  • Les vacances de Monsieur Dupont (1994)
  • L'invitation à la peur (2010)

German compilation:

  • Butterfly of death. Fantastic stories. Edited, translated from French and with an afterword by Bernhard Thieme. Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-359-00494-9 .
Short stories

If only title and year are given, the complete information can be found under collections .

  • Amaryllis (1905, as Vincent Saint-Vincent)
  • La cantatrice (1905)
  • La fêlure (1905)
  • Le bourreau de Dieu (1905)
  • Le lapidaire (1905)
  • Les vacances de Monsieur Dupont (1905)
  • Offrande à Cypris porte-miroir (1905, as Vincent Saint-Vincent)
  • Tokutaro et Murasaki (1905, as Vincent Saint-Vincent)
  • La mort et le coquillage (1907)
    • English: Death and the Shell. In: The ride without a ride and other strange stories. 1923. Also in: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • La singulière destinée de Bouvancourt (1909)
    • English: The strange fate of Bouvancourt. In: Edwin Orthmann (Ed.): In: The journey without a journey and other strange stories. 1923. Also as: The fateful fate of Bouvancourt. The time trial bike. New life, 1974.
  • La statue ensoleillée (1909)
    • English: The statue in the sun. In: The ride without a ride and other strange stories. 1923.
  • Le voyage immobile (1909)
    • German: The ride without a ride. In: The ride without a ride and other strange stories. 1923.
  • Parthénope, ou l'escale imprévue (1909)
    • German: Parthenope or the port of emergency. In: The ride without a ride and other strange stories. 1923. Also in: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • Une légende chrétienne d'Aktéon (1909)
    • English: A Christian Legend of Actaeon. In: The ride without a ride and other strange stories. 1923.
  • Le rendez-vous (1909)
    • German: The tryst. In: The ride without a ride and other strange stories. 1923. Also as: The Rendezvous. In: Butterfly of Death. 1990. Also called: The Rendezvous. JMB Verlag (Cabinet of Fantastics # 63), 2015, ISBN 978-3-944342-70-2 .
  • À la manière de Marcel Schwob: La rencontre (1911)
  • L'homme au corps subtle (1912)
    • English: The man with the volatile body. In: William Matheson (ed.): The best classic science fiction stories. Diogenes (detebe # 21049), 1983, ISBN 3-257-21049-3 . Also as: The Ypsilon spiral. In: Edwin Orthmann (Ed.): The Ypsilon spiral. New life (scientific and fantastic stories from all over the world), 1973.
  • Le brouillard du 26 octobre (1912)
    • English: The fog of October 26th. In: Olaf R. Spittel , Erik Simon (eds.): The dream manufacturer: Stories of amazing inventions and fantastic adventures. Das Neue Berlin (classic science fiction stories), 1985. Also in: Butterfly of death. 1990.
  • L'écharpe gris souris (1913)
  • La gloire du Comacchio (1913)
    • English: The glory of Comacchio. In: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • M. d'Outremort, un gentilhomme physicien (1913)
    • German: Monsieur d'Outremort or Der Edelmann als Physiker. In: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • À l'eau de rose (1914)
  • Château hanté (1916)
  • Le revirement de M. d'Estrailles (1920)
  • La berlue de Madame d'Estrailles (1920)
  • La rumeur in la montagne (1920)
    • English: The murmur in the mountains. In: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • L'homme truqué (1921)
  • Aux écoutes des ténèbres (1921)
  • L'image au fond des yeux (1921)
  • La grenouille (1922)
  • L'homme qui voulait être invisible (1923)
  • Le balcon (1923)
  • La damnation de l '"Essen" (1923)
    • German: The damnation of the "food". In: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • Cambriole (1923)
  • La nuit de Keinestadt (1923)
  • Suzannah (1925)
  • L'affaire du miroir (1926)
  • Elle (1926)
  • L'étrange souvenir de M. Liserot (1926)
    • English: The enigmatic memory of Monsieur Liserot. In: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • Aube d'effroi (Excerpt from Le singe) (1927)
  • L'homme au couteau (1927)
  • Le papillon de la mort (1927)
    • English: Butterfly of Death. In: Butterfly of Death. 1990.
  • Celui qui n'a pas tué (1927)
  • La Belle et la Bete (1928)
  • Alcool (1929)
  • L'épouvantail (1929)
  • L'excellente farce de Bloomstetter (1929)
  • L'homme qui a été mort (1929)
  • La découverte (1929)
  • La grimace (1929)
  • La main morte (1929)
  • La merveilleuse énigme (1929)
  • La sonnette (1929)
  • La vérité sur Faust (1929)
  • La vision (1929)
  • La viste crépusculaire (1929)
  • Le fantôme de Baslieu (1929)
  • Le fils (1929)
  • Le secret de Parcival (1929)
  • Le témoin (1929)
  • Le verre d'eau (1929)
  • Les inconnus (1929)
  • Plus haut que jamais (1929)
  • Qui sait? (1929)
  • Sonia Maniewska (1929)
  • Tout un roman (1929)
  • Un crime (1929)
  • Un masque (1929)
  • Poupées (1929)
  • La photographie de Mme Lebret (1930)
  • Le miracle (1930)
  • À la manière d'Erkmann-Chatrian: Le vampire de Tasselberg (1931)
  • La favorite (1931)
  • L'invention (1931)
  • La marotte (1932)
  • Le professeur Krantz (1932)
    • German: Professor Krantz. In: Gerhard Lindenstruth, Robert N. Bloch (ed.): In: Butterfly of death. 1990. Also in: The Professor Krantz. Arcana, 20. Lindenstruth, 2015.
  • Feu John (1932)
  • "Comme il vous plaira" (1932)
  • La supercherie galante (1933)
  • Le médaillon d'émail (1933)
  • Wanda (1933)
  • Mademoiselle de Saint-Preux (1934)
  • Eux (1934)
  • Dressage (1935)
  • Venetian blind (1935)
  • Le miroir enchanté (1935)
  • À la manière d'Edgar Poe: La fille des Metzengerstein (1937)
  • La chambre du maréchal (1937)
  • Mystification (1937)
  • La nuit bouffe (1937)
  • Le requin (1939)
  • Quand les poules avaient des dents (1939)
  • Sur la planète Mars (1939)
  • La perruque de l'électeur (1981)
Work edition
  • Romans et contes fantastiques . Laffont, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-221-05758-9 (includes: "Fantômes et fantoches", "Le Docteur Lerne sous-dieu", "Le peril bleu", "M. d'Outremort", "Les mains d ' Orlac ”,“ L'homme truqué ”,“ Un homme chez les microbes ”,“ Le professeur Krantz ”,“ Le maître de la lumière ”and“ Contes des Mille et un matin ”).

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Renard, Maurice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Châlons-en-Champagne
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1939
Place of death Rochefort , Charente-Maritime department