- Simon Tyssot de Patot
Simon Tyssot de Patot (Born
1655 -Died1727 ) was a Frenchwriter who penned two very important, seminal works infantastic literature.In "Voyages et Aventures de Jacques Massé" [Voyages And Adventures Of Jacques Massé] , published in
1710 , Tyssot de Patot dispatched his heroes to afictional country located nearSouth Africa . While the book did not range much beyond the confines of the traditionalUtopia s of the times, it did, however, include "living fossils," giant birds and strange flora that survived fromprehistoric eras, arguably making it one of the first modern Lost World novels.In his
1720 "La Vie, les Aventures et le Voyage de Groenland du Révérend Père Cordelier Pierre de Mésange" [The Life, Adventures & Trip To Greenland Of The Rev. Father Pierre de Mesange] , Tyssot de Patot introduced the concept of aHollow Earth . This was the first time that the notion of a journey to the center of theEarth was depicted in a realistic, pseudo-scientific fashion, as opposed to the various mythological journeys toHell , such asDante Alighieri 's "The Divine Comedy ". Tyssot de Patot's book predates that of Danish writerLudvig Holberg "Voyage of Nikolas Klimius" (1741 ) andJules Verne 's classic "Journey to the Center of the Earth " (1864 ).Tyssot de Patot described how his protagonists discover a hidden, underground kingdom located near the
North Pole . That kingdom is inhabited by the descendants ofAfrica n colonists who had left their homeland four thousand years earlier. This proto-Pellucidar is lit by a mysterious fire ball and is inhabited by small man-bat creatures. The novel also featured the character of theWandering Jew .External links
*Fr_icon [http://gallica.bnf.fr Gallica] has works by Tyssot in pdf and tiff format
*isfdb name|id=Simon_Tyssot_de_Patot|name=Simon Tyssot de Patot
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