Henri Martin (1810-1883), a part of the coterie surrounding Honor de Balzac, though largely forgotten today, deserves credit for writing "Isuren," the first significant French contribution to what eventually became a subgenre of "prehistoric fantasy," extensively developed in the belle poque, when the censorious privileges of the Church had finally evaporated, by such neo-Romantic writers as J. H. Rosny and Edmond Haraucourt.

"Isuren," originally published anonymously in 1832, offers a fictional account of the emergence of the human race in the course of the geological evolution of the planet, and it represents that emergence explicitly as an initial "evolution of the soul."

The present volume presents "Isuren" and five other proto-surrealist pieces, all translated for the first time into English by Brian Stableford, and all of which are sure to be read with great enjoyment, especially by connoisseurs of fantastic fiction.