Fergus Hume (1856-1932)
French authors and authors translated from the English both feature, albeit in different proportions in Tallandier’s original series “Les Romans Mystérieux” (1910-1919). For eight authors in the Series writing in French, eleven write in English. Among the latter, two authors hail from Ireland, Henry de Vere Stacpoole, from Dún Laoghaire, and Lillie Thomas Meade, from Cork.
(With thanks to Philippe Aurousseau, & Courtesy of Oncle-Archibald.blogspot.fr)
Starting more than hundred years ago, in 1910, this series of “mysterious novels” is one of the great ancestors of Modern Crime Fiction Series. At a time when the booklet format was very widespread, these books were instead large volumes of 250 to 300 pages. They were beautifully illustrated by Félix-Pol Jobbé-Duval (1879-1961) and Robert Salles (1871-1929). Continue reading
Vic St Val is both the main character in the eponymous series narrating his adventures, and the pseudonym under which authors Patrice Dard and Gilles Morris-Dumoulin published them. This excellent and very documented series was well-liked by its readers. The books were informed and informative, politically and scientifically. Vic Saint-Val is still familiar to many, as it probably influenced a famous Belmondo movie (Bob Saint-Clair, in Philippe de Broca’s Le Magnifique, 1973). St Val’s considerable output formed an important part of the Series “Espiomatic” (Fleuve Noir). Author Morris-Dumoulin claimed that his hero’s Adventures are a plea in 64 volumes for the protection of the environment, of the planet, and of human rights. The following is a visual story of Vic St Val in 7 illustrations. Continue reading
Exhibition
26 February 2015 – 21 June 2015
183 Euston Road, Bloomsbury, London NW1 2BE
http://wellcomecollection.org/forensics
Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime is the Wellcome’s Collection new exhibition. The display of original evidence, archival material, photographic documentation, film footage and forensic instruments is destined to challenge the familiar views of forensic medicine shaped by crime fiction. Crime writer Val McDermid will, on this occasion, present her book, also titled Forensics: The anatomy of Crime, tomorrow ( the 26th) at 19 :00.
Bullitt, the movie with Steve McQueen features a scene often seen as the mother of filmic car chases. Certainly, cars speeding at full force of their engines, as an ambivalent proxy for escape and death, industrial perfection and doomed individual freedom are a token of many classic film noirs. There are memorable ones in Fritz Lang, Becker, Jules Dassin, Melville, to name but a few. Among what sets Bullitt’s chase apart from the preceding ones and makes it so influential for subsequent directors (and striking for us), is certainly the sense of time and location it is embued with. It was filmed in San Francisco and close surroundings in the spring of 1968.
Covering so much space through its streets, the movie maps in effect San Francisco. But of course, and this is one of the sources for its fascination now, it is a San Francisco which does no longer exist. Mapping the film, in return, is akin…
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(With thanks to Laurentiu Bala and Didier Poiret)
The first recorded translation of a book by San-Antonio was apparently in the English language. The book translated was the 1953 novel Du Plomb dans les Tripes, and it was translated in English as early as January 1954, under the title A night in Boulogne, published by Harborough Publishing, without indication of the translator’s name. The same publisher published in the same month another book by the author of San-Antonio. This one, titled The Ardent lover, was signed Frédéric Charles, another alias used by Frédéric Dard at the time. Again, the English translation played with entirely different connotations and generic horizons than the original French. The French Title was Dernière mission.
More than sixty years later, the industry of translating San-Antonio abroad is still dynamic. This is especially the case in Romania and Italy. In Italy, E/O Edizioni are currently republishing San-Antonio novels translated by Bruno Just Lazzari and originally published by Mondadori; to date, 13 books have been published there, since the summer of 2013.
In Romania, the publisher Univers started around the same time, in 2013 to re-market San-Antonio novels in Romania. Ten books have already been published since.
San-Antonio, Certaines l’aiment chauve, Gart, A.O. Printest, Tallin, 1992
(Thanks to Didier Poiret)
Two of the most successful second generation hardboiled detectives, Mike Hammer and San-Antonio were invented respectively in 1947, by Mickey Spillane, and in 1949 by Frédéric Dard. Both authors were kings of the alluringly, garishly covered paperbacks (Signet and Fleuve Noir) and both sold tens of millions of copies (with more than 230 Millions usually estimated for Spillane, and a probably wildly exaggerated 220 millions often quoted for San-Antonio). Continue reading
(Thanks to Philippe Aurousseau)
Stick is a series of Crime Fiction booklets published in France during WWII. It was published by Agence Parisienne de Distribution, under the aegis of the Ventillard group, an influential name in the history of French noir. Continue reading
The 2015 Berlinale – one of the world’s top international film festivals – closes today in Berlin. As ever, a host of wonderful films have been shown during the packed ten-day programme, with the Iranian film Taxi, directed by dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi, awarded the coveted Golden Bear.
While reading coverage of the festival, I was interested to see that some international TV dramas were premiered as part of the programme, and that a number of these had a pronounced crime/thriller/spying dimension. Alessandra Stanley’s excellent article in the New York Times provides a good overview, and also discusses how such series are beginning to be picked up in the States (and not always to be remade in English either), which is a very good sign.
Here are a few of the series in question:
Deutschland 83. There’s quite a lot of buzz about this spying drama in Germany and beyond, and it has now also been picked…
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