British, French and American traditions of speculative fiction developed
separately for more than a hundred years, with only slight overlaps
prior to 1926, and continued to develop thereafter in accordance with
different foci of interest and narrative methods, until the importation
of the American label of "science fiction" initiated a process of fusion
that was still not complete even at the end of the twentieth century.
Like its closest English language analogue, "scientific romance," the
phrase roman scientifique first made its appearance in the French
language in the latter half of the eighteenth century, when it was
initially used to refer to ideas in science that were thought to be, or
turned out be, chimerical scholarly fantasies. The history outlined here
chronicles the evolution and development of scientifically-influenced
fiction in France from its seventeenth-century foundation-stones to the
late 1930s, including interplanetary fantasies, futuristic fantasies,
and attempts to produce a reasoned account of such evolution, paying
heed to the differences between it and the parallel processes going on
in Britain and America. The Plurality of the imaginary Worlds reviews
over 300 works from 1657 to 1939 and illustrated with nearly 200 cover
reproductions. Brian M. Stableford has been a professional writer since
1965. He has published more than 70 science fiction and fantasy novels,
as well as several authoritative non-fiction books. He has also
translated many of the works reviewed herein for Black Coat Press.
