Renard

New Bodies for Old or The Strange Experiments of Dr. Lerne

1923réf. 159253New York: The Macaulay Company 1923. Original American Edition. Hardcover. NF contents; VG covers; Good DJ with some fading to spine a bump to upper outer front corner and small tears to head/tail of spine. Moss green cloth/boards; black lettering. Moss green dj with black lettering including an excerpt from the dedication to H.G. Wells. All edges painted green. 308 pages with no illustrations. A scarce copy of the American English edition of Renard's early sci-fi novel originally published in France as Le Docteur Lerne. "The publication of Renard’s first sf novel in 1908 Le Docteur Lerne Doctor Lerne gained him rave reviews and launched him into the limelight of Parisian literary circles. Although strongly derivative of Wells’ The Island of Dr Moreau 1896—an influence openly acknowledged by Renard in his dedication—Le Docteur Lerne extrapolates the notion of biological engineering much further than Wells all the way into the fantastic. After years of experimentation in grafting animal parts to plants and vice-versa producing at times some quite amazing results Dr. Lerne begins interchanging brains between animals between humans and even between animals and humans. As a result of these experiments he ultimately learns how to project his own mind and spirit into other animate and not-so-animate objects like people trees and even an automobile. The narrative itself is recounted in the first person by Dr. Lerne’s visiting nephew Nicolas: he gradually in detective-like fashion uncovers the truth of his uncle’s experiments and his reactions to them range from morbid curiosity to outright horror. Part of the originality of the tale however is not in the sometimes outlandish plot sequences but in the manner in which they are told. The originality of this novel is two-fold: in its sf eroticism and in how it portrays the mind-body split through narrative point of view. One example: Nicolas is forced to have his brain exchanged with that of a bull. Following the surgery the young man must now struggle to acclimate himself to the alien: not only to his new bovine body and instincts but also to seeing his old self as the "other"—especially when the latter makes overtly sexual advances toward "his" mistress. Another example: later in the text after receiving his own brain back again the narrator is in the throes of a steamy sexual interlude with his aforementioned mistress when he suddenly feels the presence of another person’s identity intruding into his mind and taking over his body: it is Dr. Lerne who gazing through a peephole nearby decides to become a more-than-first-hand observer to the proceedings. Such risqué subject matter and offbeat points of view in Le Docteur Lerne—continually oscillating as it does between the vicarious and voyeuristic—make it a quite original sf text and one that foreshadows other erotic science-fiction works by writers like Philip José Farmer Robert Silverberg and Kate Wilhelm published over a half century later. Of course if one were to judge Renard’s Le Docteur Lerne from its only-available English translation New Bodies for Old one would never have the opportunity to read such passages. They are not there. In fact this translation seems to aptly exemplify the marketplace strategy known as "bait-and-switch." On its intentionally provocative dust jacket after the title "Maurice Renard’s Startling Novel New Bodies for Old or The Strange Experiments of Dr. Lerne" the publisher chooses to quote the most enticingly suggestive portions of the author’s dedication to Wells: "When Fortune.allowed me to discover the subject of this allegorical novel I felt bound not to set it aside because of a few audacities which a faithful rendering involved. Far from desiring to arouse.instinct in my reader and amuse him with scandalous descriptions my work is addressed to the philosopher." But when one then reads the actual narrative one discovers that all such "audacities" and "scandalous descriptions"—i.e. all passages of sexuality like those I have discussed—have been thoroughly and meticulously excised. Despite its cover’s subtle promises of titillation the content of Renard’s book has been truncated so as not to offend its anglophone audience’s supposed sense of moral propriety." - by Arthur B. Evans. The Macaulay Company hardcover books

Mullen Books, Inc. ABAA / ILAB · États-Unis200,00 $US≈ 178,68 €

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