Maurice Renard
Maurice Renard was a French author born on February 28, 1875, in Châlons-sur-Marne, who wrote science fiction-influenced stories from 1900 to 1930, predating the formal naming of the genre. Although not as widely recognized as contemporaries like Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, Renard's works explored themes that intersect with mystery, fantasy, and horror. His most notable work, "Les Mains d'Orlac" (1920), was translated into English as "The Hands of Orlac" and later adapted into several films, including a 1935 version starring Peter Lorre. This story delves into the psychological turmoil of a pianist who undergoes a hand transplant, leading to a series of eerie events. Another significant work, "Le Docteur Lerne, sous-dieu" (1908), addresses ambitious themes like brain transfer between species, echoing Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." While Renard authored numerous novels and short stories, many of which remain untranslated, his contributions to early science fiction merit further exploration. He passed away on November 18, 1939, in Rochefort, France, leaving behind a legacy that has yet to receive full recognition within the genre.
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Maurice Renard
Writer
- Born: February 28, 1875
- Birthplace: Châlons-sur-Marne, France
- Died: November 18, 1939
- Place of death: Rochefort, France
Biography
Maurice Renard was born on February 28, 1875, at Châlons-sur-Marne, France. He was writing science fiction- style stories from 1900 to 1930, even though the genre did not have a name until Hugo Gernsback came up with the term “science fiction” in 1926. It is obvious from work by Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, and Renard that science-fiction stories existed before they were given a genre name. However, Renard has gotten less critical attention, at least outside of France, than these other writers. One reason is that few English translations of his work exist, and those that do are of poor quality. Another reason is that his stories tend to cross lines into mystery, fantasy, and horror.
Renard is best known by English-language readers for Les Mains d’Orlac (1920), translated by Florence Crewe- Jones in 1929 as The Hands of Orlac. The novel was filmed in 1924 as Orlac’s Hands and in 1935 and 1954 as Mad Love. The 1935 film starred Peter Lorre as a pianist whose hands had been badly burned in a plane crash and who accepts a doctor’s offer to transplant new hands for him. A series of stranglings that subsequently occur lead the pianist to suspect his new hands might be involved, and his search for their donor becomes a race to maintain his sanity.
Renard’s similar story, Le Docteur Lerne, sous- dieu (1908), translated in 1923 as New Bodies for Old, is less well known than Les Mains d’Orlac but is in some ways more ambitious. It describes the transfer of brains from human into animal bodies and from animals into humans, a device dating back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), arguably the first science-fiction novel. Renard’s untranslated works, mostly shorter stories, touch on such science-fiction themes as time travel, cloning, invisibility, space-time paradoxes, and even a civilization of life forms living atop the atmosphere as though living on the sea.
Besides writing fiction for many pulp magazines of his time, Renard worked as a journalist. His father and grandfather were prominent lawyers, and his family was rich in property. He lived a pampered childhood but had an impetuous and rebellious nature that would sometimes upset his elders. When he discovered a translation of the works of Poe, he became obsessed with tales of the fantastic and his literary destiny was set. However, his family wished him to become a lawyer, and he graduated from a law school and then began a legal practice. He served in the military, and after he returned to civilian life he decided to trade the legal profession for writing.
He worked with others on plays, wrote poetry, held literary salons in his home, and wrote numerous novels and hundreds of short stories right up to his death. Renard died on November 18, 1939, in Rochefort, France. He has never gotten proper credit for his early work in what was to become the science-fiction genre.