Le Docteur Lerne, sous-dieu ("Doctor Lerne, Demi-God") is a fantasy novel by the French writer Maurice Renard, published in 1908.
Inspired by The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells, Renard adds a significant twist: the narrator himself finds himself the object of a transplant experiment by a mad surgeon, Doctor Lerne. In a preface to the novel, Renard dedicated it to Wells. The book has been translated into numerous languages.
The novel is now in the public domain.
French publication
- Mercure de France, Paris, 1908,
- Editions G. Crès (ill. Joseph Hémard), Paris, 1908.
- Illustrated French edition, Paris, 1919.
- Editions Tallandier, Paris, 1958.
- Belfond Editions, Paris, coll. "Domaine fantastique" No. 3, 1970.
- Marabout, Verviers, coll. "Marabout Fantastique" No. 567, 1976.
- Éditions Robert Laffont, in the collection Maurice Renard, Romans et contes fantastiques, Paris, 1990. ISBN 2-221-05758-9.
- Editions José Corti, Paris, 2010. ISBN 978-2-7143-1026-2.
English publication
An English translation of the book was published in New York by The Macaulay Company in 1923, as New Bodies for Old.
An adaptation by Brian Stableford was published in 2010 under the title Doctor Lerne.
Television
An adaptation by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, under the title L'étrange château du docteur Lerne, was broadcast on French television on Antenne 2, on December 28, 1983.
External links
- Entire text of original 1908 publication, in French, on Wikisource
- Text of 1923 English edition, published as New Bodies for Old, on Project Gutenberg