Jonathan the Visionary
JONATHAN THE VISIONARY
by X.B. Saintine
adapted by Brian Stableford
cover by Mandy
“Jonathan!” he cried. “God save me! Yes, it’s him! I was very young when I saw you, but your features remain engraved here, and have not changed at all. You’ve come back again!”
US$36.95/GBP 24.99
5x8 tpb, 504 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1-61227-751-6
X. B. Saintine (1978-1865) was a prolific dramatist who collaborated in more than 200 plays with Eugène Scribe and a noted figure of the Romantic Movement.
Jonathan the Visionary (1823) is a collection of fantasy tales told by a mysterious immortal called Jonathan (who is only featured as an active narrator in a few of them). It includes The Story of an Antediluvian Civilization, which retells the history of a civilization from Ethiopia, only a few distant echoes of which survive today. Ranging from prehistorical fantasy to post-apocalypse, it provides a prophetic indication of the manner in which our own civilization might degenerate. The fact that scientific and technological progress is presented here as a symptom of social disease makes Saintine’s vision more modern and radical than any of his contemporaries.
L’Histoire de Jonathan le visionnaire, 1823
Introduction and Notes by Brian Stableford.