HOMCHEN. EIN TIERMARCHEN AUS DER OBEREN KREIDE ... 3. und 4. Tausend. "NIE UND IMMER" Erster Band. Leipzig: Verlag von B. Elischer Nachfolger, n.d. [1908]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 1-205 [206-208: ads], original pictorial bevel-edged blue cloth (Art-Nouveau decorations), front and spine panels printed in black and gold, top edge stained gray, gray endpapers. First separate edition. A reprint of the short novel (Humanoid) that comprised the second part of NIE UND IMMER (1902). HOMCHEN is "a Darwinian novel [about] a marsupial, an ancestor of man, who is braver than the other animals and also more intelligent, even discovering the uses of fire ..." - Rottensteiner, "Kurd Lasswitz: A German Pioneer of Science Fiction," Riverside Quarterly, August 1969, p. 14. But he fails to interest the other marsupials in his discoveries. Like the humanoid cloud in Lasswitz's later novel ASPIRA, the advanced marsupial learns that, as the old show-biz adage has it, "pioneering doesn't pay." Genius alienates such visionaries from their fellow beings (perhaps reflecting on the author's own situation as a literary pioneer). In addition to other levels of personal, social and political meaning, the novel can be seen as a companion to the work of Verne and Wells in popularizing scientific material. According to Rottensteiner (Riverside, p. 15), the author's "most rewarding" stories are found in NIE UND IMMER and SEIFENBLASEN. Kretzmann, The Pre-War German Utopian Novel (1890-1914), Ph.D. diss., Brown University, May, 1936, p. 213. Lexikon 1, p. 166. Bloch (2002) 1867[b] (dating 1907). Nagl, p. 249 (dating 1907). Tiny water spot on front cover, lower corner tips rubbed, a bright, nearly fine copy. Scarce. (#132507).
Price: $150.00
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