The Invention of Morel
Encyclopedia
La invención de Morel — translated as The Invention of Morel or Morel's Invention — is a science fiction
novel
by Adolfo Bioy Casares
. It was Bioy Casares' breakthrough effort, for which he won the 1941 First Municipal Prize for Literature of the City of Buenos Aires
. He considered it the true beginning of his literary career, despite being his seventh book. The first edition cover artist was Norah Borges
, sister of Bioy Casares' lifelong friend, Jorge Luis Borges
.
The novel shares some elements with the 1934 novel XYZ by Clemente Palma
and with the better known The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H. G. Wells
, the latter being the more influential of the two (see "Characters" below). In the same way, other works of fiction
share some elements with this novel rather than with the novels that influenced it. For example, fans of the video game Myst
believe this novel is one of its sources of inspiration, while the plot of the episode "Dave
" from the television series Lost mirrors one of fugitive's theories — that he is in a psychiatric hospital dreaming he is on an island. The novel is explicitly referenced in the show's fourth season.
. Tourists arrive, and his fear of being discovered becomes a mixed emotion when he falls in love with one of them. He wants to tell her his feelings, but an anomalous phenomenon keeps them apart.
sentenced to life in prison. He believes he is on the (fictional) island of Villings, a part of the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu
), but is not sure. All he knows is that the island is the focus of a strange disease whose symptoms are similar to radiation poisoning
.
Among the tourists is a woman who sees the sunset everyday from the cliff on the west side of the island. He spies on her and while doing so falls in love with her. She and another man, a bearded tennis player called Morel who visits her frequently, speak French among themselves. Morel calls her Faustine. The fugitive decides to approach her, but she does not react to him. He assumes she is ignoring him, but his encounters with the other tourists have the same result. Nobody on the island notices him. He points out that the conversations between Faustine and Morel repeat every week and fears he is going crazy.
As suddenly as they appeared, the tourists vanish. The fugitive returns to the museum to investigate and finds no evidence of people being there during his absence. He attributes the experience to a hallucination caused by food poisoning
, but the tourists reappear that night. They have come out of nowhere and yet they talk as if they have been there for a while. He watches them closely while still avoiding direct contact and notices more strange things. In the aquarium
he encounters identical copies of the dead fish he found on his day of arrival. During a day at the pool, he sees the tourists jump to shake off the cold when the heat is unbearable. The strangest thing he notices is the presence of two suns and two moons in the sky.
He comes up with all sort of theories about what is happening on the island, but finds out the truth when Morel tells the tourists he has been recording their actions of the past week with a machine of his invention capable of reproducing reality. He claims the recording will capture their souls, and through looping they will relive that week forever and he will spend eternity with the woman he loves. Although Morel does not mention her by name, the fugitive is sure he is talking about Faustine.
After hearing that the people recorded on previous experiments are dead, one of the tourists guesses correctly they will die, too. The meeting ends abruptly as Morel leaves in anger. The fugitive picks up Morel's cue card
s and learns the machine keeps running because the wind and tide feed it with an endless supply of kinetic energy
. He understands that the phenomena of the two suns and two moons are a consequence of what happens when the recording overlaps reality — one is the real sun and the other one represents the sun's position at recording time. The other strange things that happen on the island have a similar explanation.
He imagines all the possible uses for Morel's invention, including the creation of a second model to resurrect people. Despite this he feels repulsion for the "new kind of photographs" that inhabit the island, but as time goes by he accepts their existence as something better than his own. He learns how to operate the machine and inserts himself into the recording so it looks like he and Faustine are in love, even though she might have slept with Alec and Haynes. This bothers him, but he is confident it will not matter in the eternity they will spend together. At least he is sure she is not Morel's lover.
On the diary's final entry the fugitive describes how he is waiting for his soul to pass onto the recording while dying. He asks a favor to the man who will invent a machine capable of merging souls based on Morel's invention. He wants the inventor to search for them and let him enter Faustine's conscience as an act of mercy.
winner in Literature Octavio Paz
echoed Borges when he said, "The Invention of Morel may be described, without exaggeration, as a perfect novel." Other famous Latin American writers such as Julio Cortázar
, Juan Carlos Onetti
, Alejo Carpentier
and Gabriel García Márquez
have expressed their admiration for the novel, too.
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...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Adolfo Bioy Casares
Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, and translator. He was a friend and collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges, and wrote what many consider one of the best pieces of fantastic fiction, the novella The Invention of Morel.-Biography:Adolfo Bioy...
. It was Bioy Casares' breakthrough effort, for which he won the 1941 First Municipal Prize for Literature of the City of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. He considered it the true beginning of his literary career, despite being his seventh book. The first edition cover artist was Norah Borges
Norah Borges
Leonor Fanny Borges Acevedo , better known by the pseudonym Norah Borges was a visual artist and art critic, member of the Florida group, and sister of the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges....
, sister of Bioy Casares' lifelong friend, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
.
The novel shares some elements with the 1934 novel XYZ by Clemente Palma
Clemente Palma
Clemente Palma was a Peruvian writer. He was the son of famous Peruvian author and scholar Ricardo Palma and Cristina Román Olivier...
and with the better known The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells. It is told from the point of view of a man named Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked, rescued by a passing boat, and then left at the ship's destination by the crew along with the ship's cargo of exotic animals...
by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, the latter being the more influential of the two (see "Characters" below). In the same way, other works of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
share some elements with this novel rather than with the novels that influenced it. For example, fans of the video game Myst
Myst
Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
believe this novel is one of its sources of inspiration, while the plot of the episode "Dave
Dave (Lost)
"Dave" is the 43rd episode of Lost and the 18th episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on April 5, 2006 on ABC. In flashbacks, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes is in a mental institution, where he deals with an...
" from the television series Lost mirrors one of fugitive's theories — that he is in a psychiatric hospital dreaming he is on an island. The novel is explicitly referenced in the show's fourth season.
Plot introduction
A fugitive hides on a deserted island somewhere in PolynesiaPolynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
. Tourists arrive, and his fear of being discovered becomes a mixed emotion when he falls in love with one of them. He wants to tell her his feelings, but an anomalous phenomenon keeps them apart.
Plot summary
The fugitive starts a diary after tourists arrive on the desert island where he is hiding. Although he considers their presence a miracle, he is afraid they will turn him in to the authorities. He retreats to the swamps while they take over the museum on top of the hill where he used to live. Through his diary we learn that the fugitive is a writer from VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
sentenced to life in prison. He believes he is on the (fictional) island of Villings, a part of the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu
Tuvalu
Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...
), but is not sure. All he knows is that the island is the focus of a strange disease whose symptoms are similar to radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
.
Among the tourists is a woman who sees the sunset everyday from the cliff on the west side of the island. He spies on her and while doing so falls in love with her. She and another man, a bearded tennis player called Morel who visits her frequently, speak French among themselves. Morel calls her Faustine. The fugitive decides to approach her, but she does not react to him. He assumes she is ignoring him, but his encounters with the other tourists have the same result. Nobody on the island notices him. He points out that the conversations between Faustine and Morel repeat every week and fears he is going crazy.
As suddenly as they appeared, the tourists vanish. The fugitive returns to the museum to investigate and finds no evidence of people being there during his absence. He attributes the experience to a hallucination caused by food poisoning
Foodborne illness
Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as chemical or natural toxins such as poisonous mushrooms.-Causes:Foodborne illness usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or...
, but the tourists reappear that night. They have come out of nowhere and yet they talk as if they have been there for a while. He watches them closely while still avoiding direct contact and notices more strange things. In the aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...
he encounters identical copies of the dead fish he found on his day of arrival. During a day at the pool, he sees the tourists jump to shake off the cold when the heat is unbearable. The strangest thing he notices is the presence of two suns and two moons in the sky.
He comes up with all sort of theories about what is happening on the island, but finds out the truth when Morel tells the tourists he has been recording their actions of the past week with a machine of his invention capable of reproducing reality. He claims the recording will capture their souls, and through looping they will relive that week forever and he will spend eternity with the woman he loves. Although Morel does not mention her by name, the fugitive is sure he is talking about Faustine.
After hearing that the people recorded on previous experiments are dead, one of the tourists guesses correctly they will die, too. The meeting ends abruptly as Morel leaves in anger. The fugitive picks up Morel's cue card
Cue card
Cue cards, also known as note cards or idiot cards, are cards with words written on them that help actors and speakers remember what they have to say. They are typically used in television productions where they can be held off-camera and are unseen by the audience...
s and learns the machine keeps running because the wind and tide feed it with an endless supply of kinetic energy
Kinetic energy
The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion.It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes...
. He understands that the phenomena of the two suns and two moons are a consequence of what happens when the recording overlaps reality — one is the real sun and the other one represents the sun's position at recording time. The other strange things that happen on the island have a similar explanation.
He imagines all the possible uses for Morel's invention, including the creation of a second model to resurrect people. Despite this he feels repulsion for the "new kind of photographs" that inhabit the island, but as time goes by he accepts their existence as something better than his own. He learns how to operate the machine and inserts himself into the recording so it looks like he and Faustine are in love, even though she might have slept with Alec and Haynes. This bothers him, but he is confident it will not matter in the eternity they will spend together. At least he is sure she is not Morel's lover.
On the diary's final entry the fugitive describes how he is waiting for his soul to pass onto the recording while dying. He asks a favor to the man who will invent a machine capable of merging souls based on Morel's invention. He wants the inventor to search for them and let him enter Faustine's conscience as an act of mercy.
Characters
- The Fugitive: He is the only real person on the island as everybody else is part of the recording. The state of paranoia he reflects on the diary opens the possibility that he is hallucinating. He seems to be educated, yet he doesn't recall well Tsutomu Sakuma's final message (see "Allusions/references to actual history" below). He also ignores that Villings could not be part of Tuvalu because the islands of this archipelagoArchipelagoAn archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
are atollAtollAn atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...
s. They are flat, barely above sea level, with no hills or cliffs, unlike Villings. His final speech indicates he went to prison for political reasons. - Faustine: One could say she is the most ambiguous character in the novel or that the fugitive misjudged her the most. She looks like a Gypsy, speaks French like a South AmericaSouth AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n and likes to talk about CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. She is inspired by silent filmSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
star Louise BrooksLouise BrooksMary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
. - Morel: He is the scientific genius who willingly leads a group of snobSnobA snob is someone who believes that some people are inherently inferior to him or her for any one of a variety of reasons, including real or supposed intellect, wealth, education, ancestry, taste, beauty, nationality, et cetera. Often, the form of snobbery reflects the snob's personal attributes...
s to their death. The fugitive dislikes him out of jealousy, but in the end justifies his actions. His name is a salute to the analogous character of The Island of Doctor Moreau. - Dalmacio Ombrellieri: He is an Italian rug merchant living in Calcutta (now KolkataKolkataKolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
.) He tells the fugitive about the island and helps him get there. - Alec: He is a shy orientOrientThe Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
al wool dealer with green eyes. He could be the lover of either Faustine or Dora, or just their confidant. As with the rest of the people from the group, he sees Morel as a messianicMessiahA messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
figure. - Dora: She is a blonde woman with a big head who is a close friend of Alec and Faustine. The fugitive hopes that she, and not Faustine, is Alec's lover. He later considers her as Morel's love interest when he suspects Morel might not be in love with Faustine after all.
- Irene: She is a tall woman with long arms and an expression of disgust that does not believe their exposure to the machine will kill them. The fugitive thinks that if Morel is neither in love with Faustine nor Dora, then he is in love with her.
- Old Lady: She is probably related to Dora, because they are always together. She is drunk the night of the speech, but the fugitive still considers she could be Morel's love interest in case he is not in love with any of the other women.
- Haynes: He is asleep at the time Morel is about to give his speech. Dora says he is in Faustine's bedroom and that no one will get him out of there because he is heavyOverweightOverweight is generally defined as having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is a common condition, especially where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary...
. It is unknown why he is there, but the fugitive is not jealous of him. Morel gives the speech anyway. - Stoever: He is the one who guesses they are all going to die. The other members of the group prevent him from following Morel when he leaves the aquarium. He calms down and the group's fanaticism towards Morel prevails over his own survival instinct.
Major Themes
- Immortality: Within the boundaries of the story the invention of Morel is the invention of physical immortality. Both Morel and the fugitive prefer it to spiritual immortality because they consider it the solution to all problems.
- Love and Loneliness: Loneliness represents death to the fugitive while love represents life. He makes this clear when he says, "I'm no longer dead — I'm in love." It is possible Morel perceives things in a similar fashion.
- Control: The fugitive struggles to regain control of his life after his unfair conviction and fails. When he finds out about a place where he can be in control (the island) he risks his life to get there, but the island is under the machine's control and the fugitive keep struggling in vain. His love for Faustine renews his hope, but when he realizes such a relationship is impossible, he gives up and expects that a hypothetical inventor from the future will give him what he cannot achieve. Morel, on the other hand, is an all-powerful figure that controls everyone around him. When he cannot make the object of his affection love him back, he invents a machine that will put her under his control by forcing her to spend eternity with him.
Allusions/references
- An Essay on the Principle of PopulationAn Essay on the Principle of PopulationThe book An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798 through J. Johnson . The author was soon identified as The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus. While it was not the first book on population, it has been acknowledged as the most influential work of its era...
: Throughout the novel the fugitive cites the views of Thomas Robert Malthus on population control as the only way to prevent chaos if humanity uses Morel's invention to achieve immortality. He also wants to write a book entitled Praise to Malthus. - De Natura DeorumDe Natura DeorumDe Natura Deorum is a philosophical dialogue by Roman orator Cicero written in 45 BC. It is laid out in three "books", each of which discuss the theology of different Roman and Greek philosophers...
: Before he finds out the truth about the island, the fugitive cites CiceroCiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
's book as an explanation of the appearance of two suns in the sky. - "Tea for TwoTea for Two (song)"Tea for Two" is a song from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Irving Caesar. It is a duet sung by Nanette and Tom in Act II as they imagine their future.-Analysis:...
": The tourists like to dance to the song from the Broadway musical No, No, NanetteNo, No, NanetteNo, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
. This foreshadows the fugitive's love for Faustine. - Tsutomu Sakuma: While trapped in the machine's room the fugitive promises himself he will not die like the Japanese folk hero Tsutomu Sakuma, one of the victims of Japan's first submarine accident. The fugitive's recollection of Sakuma's final message is wrong.
Literary significance & criticism
Jorge Luis Borges wrote in the prologue, "To classify it [the novel] as perfect is neither an imprecision nor a hyperbole." Mexican Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner in Literature Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
echoed Borges when he said, "The Invention of Morel may be described, without exaggeration, as a perfect novel." Other famous Latin American writers such as Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
, Juan Carlos Onetti
Juan Carlos Onetti
Juan Carlos Onetti was an Uruguayan novelist and author of short stories.A high school drop-out, Onetti's first novel, El pozo, published in 1939, met with his close friends' immediate acclaim, as well as from some writers and journalists of his time...
, Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier
Alejo Carpentier y Valmont was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Carpentier grew up in Havana, Cuba; and despite his European birthplace, Carpentier strongly self-identified...
and Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
have expressed their admiration for the novel, too.
Allusions/references from other works
- Villings appears in the world of The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
as an island off the coast of South America - The novel appears in the episode "EggtownEggtown"Eggtown" is the fourth episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 76th episode overall. It was aired on February 21, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada...
" from the television series Lost - The movie Bloody New Year shares many similarities with this novel
- The movie Last Year at MarienbadLast Year at MarienbadL'Année dernière à Marienbad is a 1961 French film directed by Alain Resnais from a screenplay by Alain Robbe-Grillet....
may have been inspired by this novel - The movie Man Facing SoutheastMan Facing SoutheastMan Facing Southeast is a Spanish-language motion picture originally released in Argentina in 1986 as Hombre mirando al sudeste.-Summary:...
makes reference to the book as the possible inspiration of Rantes' story of his existence - The movie The Piano Tuner of EarthquakesThe Piano Tuner of EarthquakesThe Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, released in 2005, was the second feature-length film by the Brothers Quay and their first film in over ten years. It features of Amira Casar, Gottfried John and Assumpta Serna.-Plot:...
was originally inspired by this novel - The movie VakondIldikó EnyediIldikó Enyedi is an Hungarian film director and screenwriter. She has directed seven films since 1989. She won the Golden Camera award for Az én XX. századom at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. In 1992, she was a member of the jury at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.-Filmography:* Vakond...
was inspired by this novel - In 1991 artist Katsuhiro Yamaguchi made an installationInstallation artInstallation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
inspired by this novel - In 1996 artist Carlos Boccardo also made an installation inspired by this novel
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- In 1967 it was made into a French movie called L'invention de Morel
- In 1974 it was made into an Italian movie called L'invenzione di MorelMorel's Invention (film)Morel's Invention is a 1974 Italian science fiction film directed by Emidio Greco and starring Anna Karina. It is based on the novel The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares.-Cast:* Anna Karina* Giulio Brogi - The Castaway...
- In 1995 it was made into a puppet show featuring a real life actor as the fugitive
External links
- The opening to The Invention of Morel in English
- Analysis of Ruth Simms' translation of The Invention of Morel
- Review by Seamus Sweeney on nthposition.com
- Review on waggish.org
- Essay on the novel
- English page about the 1995 puppet adaptation
- English page about the 1996 installation
- Its possible influence on Last year at Marienbad