Journey to the Isles of Atlantis and Other Fanciful Excursions

Journey to the Isles of Atlantis is the sixteenth volume in a series of anthologies translating antique items of French roman scientifique. Included in this collection are Fututistic Paris in 5839 (1822), a story for which the editor was fined a thousand francs and sentenced to three months in prison; The Clockmaker of Nuremberg (1882) and The Inventor (1902), which anticipate the age of aviation; King Beta (1905), in which an aeronaut ends up in a kingdom where modern science is unknown and people still believe in the power of enchanters. Optimistic accounts of the human future future are presented in Humans in the Year 3000 (1907), dedicated to H G Wells, and The Discovery of the Earth in 2009 (1909). Finally, the eponymous Atlantis-based fantasy written in 1914 features Plato’s fictitious island, and uses that vanished civilization as a satirical reflection of contemporary France.