Author: LAFITTE, J.P. [Jean Baptiste Pierre].
Title: The Red Doctor. Translated from the French ... by Huon d'Aramis.
Description: Philadelphia, Lippincott 1866. Octavo publishers patterned cloth. Some natural browning and some splodges; a rather good copy. ¶ First edition in English of this proper sensation novel. It begins with a "frantic and horrible" murder and impersonation in chapter one and picks up speed after that. It is a novel about Mesmer of course, what else could it be after that introduction. The best description is a contemporary review found by Robert Eldridge: "This singular farrago of mystery, murder, and mesmerism belongs to the sensation school of modern French fiction ... it contains an abundance of highly-wrought and exciting passages, which, in spite of their violation of truth, probability, or even possibility, absorb the reader’s attention until, to his surprise, he finds himself at the very last page." (The Nation, Sept 20 1866). Huon d'Aramis, translator of at least one other French book, must be a pseudonym but whose I don't know.

Keywords: literature fiction c19th France America thrillers mesmer mesmerism crime