fiction

fiction

Han Ryner, “The Paradox” (1913)

July 21, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
ORIGINAL THE PARADOX By Han Ryner I know a country in which the inhabitants are always clothed. Beside the woman in labor, the priest and magistrate wait and, as soon as the child appears, seizing it, they enclose it entirely, hands and face included, in an elastic material which conforms to the contours of the body and which grows with it. Perhaps, despite its elasticity, the cloth resists, opposing itself to the growth, for the people of that country remain singularly small. The strange garment has holes corresponding to the eyes, nostrils, AND mouth. But it folds a bit, with […]
Contr'un

Han Ryner, “The Secret of Don Juan” (1915)

July 20, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[I’m working my way through the translation of six shorts stories by Han Ryner, published in French in The Smart Set between July 1913 and January 1920. These initial translation are definitely rough, “working” versions, as I get better acquainted with the peculiarities of Ryner’s style. But I think even the rough renditions give a good indication of what is interesting about the works. For those unfamiliar with the Don Juan story, or who need a refresher, this will probably help.] THE SECRET OF DON JUAN By Han Ryner All of the accounts of the interview of Don Juanand the […]
fiction

Han Ryner, “The Little Exile” (1920)

July 19, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
ORIGINAL The Little Exile By Han Ryner On this heavy, stormy summer Sunday, how did I let myself be led to these noisy celebrations? Under a scorching sun, that my companions declared “almost southern,” I had stopped with the crowd at various points of the town of Sceaux and, in front of some minuscule busts, I listened to the buzz of interminable talk. Through the torpor that wove heat and rhetoric around me, some words, doubtless more often repeated, alone reached my mind. But, in the confused speeches of the orators who succeeded and resembled one another like shrill brothers, […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

A Voyage from Pole to Pole by way of the Center of the Earth (1721)

July 16, 2012
An Account of a Voyage from the Arctic to the Antarctic Pole by way of the Center of the Earth. With the description of that perilous Passage, & of the marvelous & astonishing things that were discovered beneath the Antarctic Pole. WITH FIGURES.   Amsterdam M. DCC. XXI   TABLE OF CHAPTERS. I. Departure of the Author from Amsterdam for Greenland; how the Author & his Companions began to realize that they were nearing the dreadful maelstrom which is under the Arctic Pole; description of the maelstrom. II. How the Vessel was swallowed up at the center of the maelstrom; […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

W. M. Stannard, “Mr. Corndropper’s Hired Man” (1900)

July 8, 2012
Mr. Corndropper’s Hired Man. (A Companion to “Ely’s Automatic Housemaid.”) BY W. M. STANNARD. _____ THERE was a mild sensation at the East Slowcombe railway station when a stranger, bearing a two-gallon can, carefully crated, stepped off the 3.30 accommodation, and there were many speculations hazarded as to his identity, business and destination, but, without stopping to question or exchange words with any of the waiting crowd, he stepped across the platform to where Farmer Corndropper was waiting with his gray mare and buggy. He handed the fanner a letter, stepped into the buggy and was driven slowly away. Without […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

Elizabeth W. Bellamy, “Ely’s Automatic Housemaid” (1899)

July 8, 2012
Ely’s Automatic Housemaid. BY ELIZABETH W. BELLAMY. _____ IN order for a man to have faith in such an invention, he would have to know Harrison Ely. For Harrison Ely was a genius. I had known him in college, a man amazingly dull in Latin and Greek and even in English, but with ideas of his own that could not be expressed in language. His bent was purely mechanical, and found expression in innumerable ingenious contrivances to facilitate the study to which he had no inclination. His self-acting lexicon-holder was a matter of admiring wonder to his classmates, but it […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

Edward Page Mitchell, “The Ablest Man In The World” (1879)

July 6, 2012
The Ablest Man In The World.  By Edward PageMitchell. 1879 [Originally published without attribution in the New York Sun May 4, 1879]    It may or may not be remembered that in 1878 General Ignatieff spent several weeks of July at the Badischer Hof in Baden. The public journals gave out that he visited the watering-place for the benefit of his health, said to be much broken by protracted anxiety and responsibility in the service of the Czar. But everybody knew that Ignatieff was just then out of favor at St. Petersburg, and that his absence from the centres of […]
fiction

The Symmesonian Letters and Other Tales of the Hollow Earth

July 6, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
This collection of short fiction and satire about “Symmes’ Hole” is intended as a supplement to the archive on the Hollow Earth theories of John Cleves Symmes and includes texts destined for publication in Principles and Explorations of the Mundane System. “Symmesonian,” Cincinnati Literary Gazette (Feb 28, 1824): 66 Cincinnati Literary Gazette, Mar 6, 1824. p. 76 Cincinnati Literary Gazette, Mar 20, 1824. p. 90 W. L. Alden, “Symmes’ Hole,” Stone 17 no. 5 (October, 1898): 343–346. Symmesonian. No. 1 Having been informed, Mr. Editor, that your countrymen always require of every person when first introduced to them, a regular […]
fiction

Paule Mink, “Poor Old Man” (1894)

February 6, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Panting, along the gray road, which lost itself in the distance in a damp autumn fog, an old man walked, doubled over. Feet bare in worn-out shoes, trousers ragged and dirty, dressed in a thin shirt of blue cloth which covered him without protecting him from the bitter north wind that blew, a cheap cap pulled down over his eyes, an empty beggar’s bag on his back, and in his hand a gnarled stick which he supported his tottering only with great difficulty: his whole aspect inspired a distressing sadness.

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fiction

The Exploits of Ravachol (in progress)

November 29, 2011 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE EXPLOITS OF RAVACHOL  The Man with the Dynamite PART ONE THE CRIME OF CHAMBLES I THE INN OF THE GROTTO In these Exploits of Ravachol, the Man with the Dynamite, we will not write a novel, but a history. Why would we take the trouble to invent, when it is enough for us, in order to make the most riveting, original and dramatic narrative that could be imagined, to let speak only the facts, so strange and so striking, the completely unknown facts that we are going to make known,—and to simply recount the life of the man who, […]