J. H. Rosny
J. H. Rosny, born Joseph Henri Honoré Boex in Brussels in 1856, was a notable French writer whose contributions to literature span various genres, including fiction and journalism. He initially pursued a career in business at his mother's urging but soon left for England to follow his passion for writing. His prolific output included collaborations with his brother, Séraphin, before he established himself as a solo author. Rosny is perhaps best known for his work "La Guerre du feu," which explores prehistoric life and was adapted into a controversial film in 1981, highlighting themes of human sexuality in ancient contexts. His narratives often delve into the lives of prehistoric humans, laying groundwork for later authors in the genre, like Jean Auel. Additionally, Rosny explored themes of incomprehensible alien beings in his science fiction. Despite his significant contributions, his reputation has diminished over time, overshadowed by contemporaries such as H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, and he is primarily remembered today by specialists in early French science fiction.
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J. H. Rosny
Fiction Writer
- Born: February 17, 1856
- Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
- Died: February 11, 1940
Biography
J. H. Rosny was the pseudonym of Joseph Henri Honoré Boex, a French writer born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1856. From earliest childhood he was an imaginative boy, and began writing stories, poems, and plays almost as soon as he had mastered a pen. However, his mother was concerned that there was no money in writing, and pressured him to be practical and pursue a course of study in business. Although he dutifully followed her advice, life in an office proved too stifling for his spirit. He soon quit work, moving to England to pursue a career in journalism. Such work proved more suitable for his temperament, and he found a modicum of success.
In 1886 he moved to Paris, where he concentrated on writing fiction. In the early part of his career he collaborated with his younger brother Séraphin Justin François Boex, but after his career was established the brothers went their separate ways and he wrote alone. Whether in collaboration or writing solo, he was enormously prolific, and the use of the same pseudonym for both collaborative and solo works has led to some confusion in his bibliography.
Rosny wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including prehistoric humans. One of the best-known of his works is La Guerre du feu, translated into English as Quest for Fire. It was largely the basis for the 1981 motion picture of that title, which raised considerable controversy due to the frankness with which it dealt with the sexual drives and relationships of its prehistoric characters. Rosny’s writings about prehistoric people can be regarded as ancestral to all such fictional reconstructions of prehistoric life, including Jean Auel’s best-selling Earth’s Children series.
In addition to his stories of prehistoric humans, Rosny wrote a number of novels dealing with alien beings so utterly incomprehensible to humans that no communication is possible, and often neither is coexistence. In some of these novels, such as his first, Les Xipéhuz, he combined this theme with his fascination for reconstructing early human life and set the story in ancient Mesopotamia. However, since his death in 1940 he has become almost entirely unknown save to a few specialists in early French science fiction. Many of his works suffer from being overwritten, with a verbosity that was common in the Victorian era but which modern readers find boring. Furthermore, his reputation has largely been overshadowed by the giants H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.