Paschal Grousset
Encyclopedia
Corte
Corte is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. It is the fourth-largest commune in Corsica .-Administration:Corte is a subprefecture of the Haute-Corse department.-History:...
– 9 April 1909, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, translator and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. Grousset published under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s of André Laurie, Philippe Daryl, Tiburce Moray and Léopold Virey.
Grousset was born in Corte
Corte
Corte is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. It is the fourth-largest commune in Corsica .-Administration:Corte is a subprefecture of the Haute-Corse department.-History:...
, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, and studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
before commencing a journalistic career. In 1869 he began working for the weekly newspaper La Marseillaise
La Marseillaise (1869 newspaper)
La Marseillaise is a French weekly newspaper created by Henri Rochefort. It was first published on 19 December 1869. The writing staff included Paschal Grousset, Arthur Arnould, Gustave Flourens, Jules Vallès and Victor Noir....
, writing pro-revolutionary articles. As a result of an attempt by Grousset to challenge Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte
Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte
Pierre-Napoléon Bonaparte was born in Rome, Italy, the son of Lucien Bonaparte and his second wife Alexandrine de Bleschamp....
to a duel during 1870, Grousset's second, Victor Noir
Victor Noir
Victor Noir, , was a French journalist who is famous for the manner of his death and its political consequences...
, was shot and killed by Bonaparte during a quarrel. Later the same year Grousset was sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was elected a member of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
, becoming a member of its Executive Committee and Delegate for External Affairs.
After the fall of the Commune, he was arrested and, in 1872, he was deported to New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...
. He escaped, and lived in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, San Francisco, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, making a living by teaching French. He returned to France after the 1880 amnesty, becoming involved in literature and physical culture, but eventually returning to politics and, in 1893, becoming a Socialist Deputy for the 12th arrondissement of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Like Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, he was another discovery of publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Pierre-Jules Hetzel was a French editor and publisher. He is best known for his extraordinarily lavishly illustrated editions of Jules Verne's novels highly prized by collectors today...
. He "collaborated" with Verne on Les Cinq Cent Millions de la Begum (1879), L'Étoile du Sud (1884) and L'Épave du Cynthia (1885). Some scholars believe that these works were based on manuscripts written by Grousset and rewritten by Verne at Hetzel's request.
One of Grousset's most interesting science fiction novels was Les Exilés de la Terre — Selene-Company Limited (1887), probably one of the most fanciful cosmic tales of all times. In it, a consortium which intends to exploit the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
’s mineral resources decides that, since our satellite is too far to be reached, it must be brought closer to the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. A Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese mountain composed of pure iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
ore becomes the headquarters of the newly-established Selene Company. Solar reflectors are used to provide the energy required to convert the mountain into a huge electro-magnet, with miles of cables wrapped around it. A spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
-cum-observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
is then built on top of the mountain. When the experiment begins, the mountain is ripped away from the Earth and catapulted to the Moon. There, the protagonists have various adventures and eventually return to Earth by re-energizing the mountain.
Other notable works by Grousset published under the Laurie pseudonym include De New York à Brest en Sept Heures [New York to Brest In Seven Hours] (1888), which predicted a transatlantic tunnel
Transatlantic tunnel
A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel which would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals.Using advanced technologies, speeds of are envisaged....
; Le Secret du Mage [The Secret Of The Magician] (1890), in which evidence of an advanced prehistoric is discovered; Le Rubis du Grand Lama [The Ruby Of The Great Lama] (1894), which features a steam-powered flying island; Atlantis (1895), which describes how the mythical kingdom has survived under a glass dome at the bottom of the sea near the Azores; Le Maître de l'Abîme [The Master Of The Abyss] (1905), which features a revolutionary submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
, and finally Spiridon le Muet [Spiridon The Mute] (1907), a remarkable novel about a human-sized, intelligent ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
. The character of Spiridon, depicted as a non-human alien, gifted with great knowledge, an insatiable scientific curiosity but no human feelings or emotions, the victim of mankind’s petty jealousies and racial fears, is a striking departure from the Vernian influence that permeated the rest of Laurie’s works.
Selected bibliography
As Paschal Grousset:- 1869: Le Rêve d'un Irréconciliable, as Paschal Grousset
As André Laurie:
- 1879: Les Cinq Cent Millions de la Begum, written with Jules Verne, translated as The Begum's Fortune
- 1884: L'Étoile du Sud, written with Jules Verne, translated as The Southern Star
- 1884: L'Héritier de Robinson (Robinson Crusoe's Heir)
- 1885: L'Épave du "Cynthia", written with Jules Verne, translated as The Salvage of the Cynthia in 1958
- 1887: Les Exilés de la Terre — Selene-Company Limited, translated as The Conquest Of The Moon: A Story of the Bayouda in 1889 (Conquest of the Moon, Black Cat Press, 2010. )
- 1888: De New York à Brest en Sept Heures, translated as New York to Brest In Seven Hours in 1890
- 1888: Le Capitaine Trafalgar
- 1890: Le Secret du Mage, translated as The Secret Of The Magian or The Mystery of Ecbatana in 1892
- 1891: Axel Eberson, translated as Axel Eberson, the Graduate of Upsala in 1892
- 1894: Le Rubis du Grand Lama (The Ruby Of The Great Lama)
- 1895: Un Roman dans la Planète Mars (A Novel On Planet Mars)
- 1895: Atlantis, translated as The Crystal City Under The Sea in 1896 (Crystal City Under the Sea, Black Cat Press, 2010. )
- 1903: Le Géant de l'Azur (The Giant Of The Azure)
- 1903: Le Filon de Gérard (Gerard's Claim)
- 1903: L'Oncle de Chicago (The Uncle From Chicago)
- 1904: Le Tour du Globe d'un Bachelier (A Graduate Around The World)
- 1905: Le Maître de l'Abîme (The Master Of The Abyss)
- 1907: Spiridon le Muet (Spiridon, Adaptation and Introduction by Michael Shreve, Black Coat Press, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-1-934543-61-3)