Machines infernales, le roman de 1987

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Machines infernales, le roman de 1987

Messagepar Greenheart » Mer 27 Avr 2016 09:21

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Infernal Devices (1987)
Traduction du titre original : Mobiles infernaux.
Sous-titre : A Mad Victorian Fantasy (Une folle fantaisie victorienne).

Noter que ce roman a pour suite Fiendish Schemes (Plans diaboliques)

Sorti aux USA en avril 1987 chez ST MARTIN PRESS US (grand format).
Sorti aux USA en novembre 1987 chez SIGNET US (poche)
Sorti en Angleterre en 1988 chez GRAFTON UK (poche)
Sorti en France le 13 décembre 1988 chez J'AI LU FR (poche, traduction de Pierre K. Rey)
Sorti en France le 20 décembre 1999 chez J'AI LU FR (poche, traduction de Pierre K. Rey)

De K. W. Jeter.

Résumé à venir.

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***

(texte original)

1

Mr Dower Receives a Commission


On just such a morning as this, when the threat of rain hangs over London in the manner of a sentence neither stayed nor pardoned, but rather perpetually executed, Creff, my factotum, interrupted the breakfast he had brought me only a few minutes earlier and announced that a crazed Ethiope was at the door, presumably to buy a watch.

Reader, if the name George Dower, late of the London borough of Clerkenwell, is unfamiliar to you, I beg you to read no further. Perhaps a merciful fate – merciful to the genteel reader's sensibilities, even more so to the author's reputation – has spared a few souls acquaintance with the sordid history that has become attached to my name. Small chance of that, I know, as the infamy has been given the widest circulation possible. The engines of ink-stained paper and press spew forth unceasingly, while the even more pervasive swell of human voice whispers in drawing room and tenement the details that cannot be transcribed.

Still, should the reader be such a one, blessedly ignorant of recent scandal, then lay this book down unread. Perhaps the dim confines of the sick-room, or the wider horizons of tour abroad, far from English weather and the even darker and more permeating chill of English gossip, have sheltered your ear. There can be only small profit in hearing the popular rumours of that dubious scientific brotherhood known as the Royal Anti-Society, and the part I am assumed to have played in its resurrection from that shrouded past where it had lain as mythological shadow to Newton's Fiat live.

Such happy ignorance is possible. Only the sketchiest outline has been made public of Lord Bendray's investigations into the so-called Cataclysm Harmonics by which he meant to split the earth to its core. Even now, the riveted iron sphere of his Hermetic Carriage lies in the ruins of Bendray Hall, its signal flags and lights tattered and broken, a mere object of speculation to the attendants who listen patiently to the tottering grey-haired figure's inquiries about his new life on another planet.

The discretion that sterling can purchase has saved the heirs of the Bendray estate further embarrassment. Not for the purposes of spite, but to remedy the damage done to my own and my father's name, will I render a complete account of Lord Bendray's fateful musical soiree in these pages.

***

(traduction de Pierre K. Rey de 1988)

PREMIÈRE PARTIE

A LA RECHERCHE DE SAINT MONKFISH

Mr Dower reçoit une commande


C'est par un matin comme celui-ci, quand l'orage menace, suspendu au-dessus de Londres comme une sentence qui n'attend ni sursis ni pardon et se plait au contraire à perpétrer son exécution, que Creff, mon factotum, vint interrompre le petit-déjeuner qu'il m'avait servi quelques minutes auparavant, pour m'annoncer qu'attendait à ma porte un éthiopien à l'air quelque peu dérangé, venu sans doute pour acheter une montre.

Lecteur, si le nom de George Dower, résident de la commune londonienne de Clerkenwell, ne t'est pas familier, je t'adjure de ne pas lire plus en avant...

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...d'un G qui veut dire Greenheart !
Greenheart
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