L. W. Currey, Inc.

Döblin, Alfred. BERGE MEERE UND GIGANTEN. ROMAN. Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag, 1924. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-6 [7-10] 11-588 [589] [590: blank] [591: ads] [592: printer's imprint], original blue-gray boards with gray linen shelf back, front and spine panels stamped in red, top edge stained red. First edition, first printing. “A strange, hectic and visionary chronicle of future European history, spanning several centuries ... Thematically similar to Stapledon, the novel is closer in spirit to the work of Cordwainer Smith, who is said to have admired it greatly.” - Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 6-8. "... a stark and wild vision of the coming wars in Europe, the clash of ideologies and races, and the titanic attempts of humankind to refashion genetically the human body. In the breadth of its scope and vision, the book is sometimes reminiscent of Olaf Stapledon, but it is much more powerful." - Rottensteiner, "German SF" in Anatomy of Wonder (1987), p. 382. "The most celebrated of the writers who occasionally experimented with SF themes was Alfred Doblin (1878-1957), who went into exile in France in 1933 and then the USA in 1941. Two of his books are surreal, metamorphic SF of very considerable power: WADZEKS KAMPF MIT DER DAMPFTURBINE (1918) and BERGE MEERE UND GIGANTEN (1924) ... In the latter, somewhat earlier than Olaf Stapledon, with whom he has been compared, Doblin deals with genetic engineering as a means of evolving the capacities of a future race of humans. His work was a potent influence on Cordwainer Smith's SF." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 487. Doblin was not satisfied with this version of his novel and published a revised text as GIGANTEN, EIN ABENTEURBUCH in 1932. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 487. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 151-56. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 53. Survey of Science Fiction Literature I, pp. 163-67. Bloch (2002) 746. Lexikon 2, pp. 73-5. Nagl, p. 254. A fine copy. (#132485).

Price: $350.00