Charlemagne Ischir Defontenay
Charlemagne Ischir Defontenay was a French physician and an early pioneer of science fiction, born in 1814. He contributed significantly to the genre with his 1854 work, *Star: Ou, Psi de Cassiopée*, which explored life on an alien world through a compelling narrative framed as the discovery of documents in the Himalayas. These documents described a complex star system with multiple planets inhabited by humanoid species who had developed advanced technologies. Notably, the inhabitants coexisted with intelligent creatures called repleus, who performed labor that the humanoids deemed undesirable. Defontenay's storytelling intertwined poetry and prose, reflecting the literary culture of the fictional aliens, and included dramatic elements that enriched the narrative. Despite the intriguing biological and anthropological themes, the English translations of his work have been criticized for their lack of clarity. Defontenay passed away in 1856, shortly after the publication of his significant contributions, leaving many to speculate how his legacy might have compared to that of Jules Verne had he lived longer. His work remains a fascinating glimpse into the imagination and creativity of early science fiction literature.
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Charlemagne Ischir Defontenay
Writer
- Born: 1814
- Birthplace: France
- Died: 1856
Biography
Charlemagne Ischir Defontenay was born in France in 1814 and was one of the early pioneers of French science fiction. He was a physician by profession, and wrote a number of technical papers on tuberculosis and on the earliest beginnings of plastic surgery. He also dabbled in plays, publishing the collection Études dramatiques in 1854. In that same year he wrote Star: Ou, Psi de Cassiopée—Histoire merveilleuse de l’un des mondes de l’espace (translated into English as Star by P. J. Sokolowski), a story in which he imagined in great detail life on another world.
Like many writers of his time, Defontenay used a framing device to help readers suspend disbelief in his tale of the fantastic. In his case, the account was supposed to have been discovered in a box found by an adventurer high in the HimalayaMountains who witnesses a meteor fall. Within the box are a small bundle of documents in an alien language, which the explorer proceeds to laboriously translate, revealing them to be the library of an alien bibliophile. They detail a complex multiple system, Psi Cassiopeia, made up of multiple stars of various colors and planets that circle them in complex orbits.
As a result of the multiple colored suns (at the time of Defontenay’s writing, it was known that stars came in multiple colors, but little or nothing was understood about the temperature and life-cycle processes that underpinned these differences), the worlds of the system enjoy strange color combinations. Each of the planets is more or less earthlike and inhabited by humanoids, who have attained an advanced technological society. They also share their world with small creatures known as repleus, who are intelligent enough to do all the work the humanoids find distasteful, but not so intelligent that the humanoids feel uncomfortable about exploiting them. The documents tell the story of these people from the dawn of their civilization through their world’s takeover by a suicide cult, forcing the few survivors to take refuge on the various other worlds of their system, until they are finally able to return home and reclaim their birthright. Although the biological and anthropological speculation are fascinating, particularly given the time in which he was writing, few English readers can gain much appreciation of his work due to the general clumsiness of the only available English translation.
The French original mixed poetry with its prose, and even drama, presented as examples of the literature of the people of his imaginary world. One of these brief plays deals with a young man who was left behind during the escape and who reestablishes a relationship with an old lover, while the other deals with a villainous repleu/human hybrid who spitefully tries to murder a man in hopes of stealing his bride, but is thwarted when the family’s noble totem-bird sacrifices itself in order to unveil his treachery. Defontenay died in 1856, only two years after the publication of his monumental work. Many lovers of early science fiction may wonder whether his fame might have rivaled that of Jules Verne, had he not perished at so young an age.