''Force ennemie'' (1903; English: ''Enemy Force'') is a novel by French author
John Antoine Nau. It won the inaugural
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...
in 1903.
[Nau, John Antoine]
Michael Shreve website.
In 2010 Michael Shreve adapted it into English as ''Enemy Force''.
[ Michael Shreve. ''Enemy Force'', Hollywood Comics, 2010. ]
Plot summary
The main character is a poet who mysteriously wakes up in a rubber room, locked away in a lunatic asylum, apparently at the request of a relative due to alcoholism or perhaps jealousy.
[ He then becomes possessed by an "Alien Force" from another planet, Kmôhoûn, whose crazy voice is constantly screaming in his head.][ He then falls in love with a female inmate, Irene, but she leaves and so he follows her to the ends of the earth, while the Alien Force cohabits his body.][
]
Critical reception
It won the inaugural Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...
in 1903.[ The novel was only a mediocre success, but it did not prevent the president of the academy, ]Joris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel ''À rebou ...
, to say much later: "It is still the best we have crowned." In 1906, Paul Léautaud
Paul Léautaud (18 January 1872 – 22 February 1956) was a French writer and theater critic for ''Mercure de France'', signing his often caustic reviews with the pseudonym Maurice Boissard.
Life
He was born in Paris. Abandoned by his mother, ...
said "The Prix Goncourt has really only been given once—the first time to Nau."["Enemy Force and The Emerald Eyes"]
from ''The Brooklyn Rail'' InTranslation, August 2009.
See also
* 1903 in science fiction
The year 1903 was marked, in science fiction, by the following events.
Births and deaths
Births
* January 3 : René Brantonne, French illustrator and cartoonist (died 1979)
* May 21 : Manly Wade Wellman, American writer (died 1986)
* June ...
References
External links
Excerpt from ''Enemy Force''
from ''The Brooklyn Rail'' InTranslation, August 2009.
*
1903 French novels
1903 science fiction novels
French science fiction novels
Prix Goncourt winning works
{{1900s-sf-novel-stub