Frritt-Flacc

Frritt-Flacc
An Illustration by Georges Roux (1886)
Author(s)	Jules Verne
Original title	Frritt-Flacc
Country	France
Language	French
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Publication date	December 1884
Published in English	1892, The Strand Magazine

"Frritt-Flacc" is a horror short story by Jules Verne. It was first published in December 1884 in the magazine Le Figaro illustré and then in 1886 together with the novel The Lottery Ticket as a part of The Extraordinary Voyages series. The first English translation was published in 1892 in The Strand Magazine.

Plot summary

Frritt expresses the sounds of a roaring hurricane and flacc the sound of falling streams of water during a rainstorm.

Trifulgas, a physician, lives in unnamed coastal area. He is rich and works only for the rich. One night, during a storm, a girl knocks at the door. Her father, a poor fisherman, is dying. Since she has no money Trifulgas goes back to sleep. Soon someone knocks again. It is a woman whose husband is dying. She has some money but not enough so the doctor goes back to sleep. The storm becomes worse when another one knocks. The mother of a fisherman with heart attack has enough money—their house was sold shortly ago. The doctor follows her. A look on the dying man horrifies Trifulgas—it is he who lies in the bed. In spite of all effort, Trifulgas dies under his own hands.

Publication history

as "Dr. Trifulgas: A Fantastic Tale" (trans. unknown)

• July–December 1892 – The Strand Magazine No.19
• 1975 – in Before Armageddon, ed. Michael Moorcock, New York: W.H. Allen
• 1999 – in Jules Verne The Eternal Adam, and other Stories, ed. Peter Costello, London: Phoenix
• 1999 – in Enigmatic Tales, ed. L. H. Maynard & M. P. N. Sims, Maynard Sims Productions

as "The Ordeal of Dr. Trifulgas" (trans. Willis T. Bradley)

• July 1957 – in Saturn magazine

as "Frritt-Flacc" (trans. I.O. Evans)

• November 1959 – The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
• 1965 – in Jules Verne, Yesterday and Tomorrow, ed. I.O. Evans, London: Arco

as "The Storm" (trans. Alberto Manguel)

• 1983 – in Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature, New York: Clarkson N. Potter

External links

• Illustrations by Georges Roux (1886)
• "Frritt-Flacc" available at Jules Verne Collection (French)