Charles Duits
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Duits (1925-1991) was a French writer of the fantastique.
[edit] Overview
Charles Duits belongs to the same rich and colorful tradition of fantasy world-building as Gustave Flaubert and Christia Sylf. With Ptah Hotep (1971) and Nefer (1978), Duits wrote a prodigious heroic fantasy saga that took place on a Earth with two moons -- Athenade and Thana -- during the time of Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. Ptah Hotep is the story of the ascension of a young prince to the throne of Caesar. Nefer, which takes place several centuries later, tells of the adventures of a young Egyptian priest who falls in love with a sacred prostitute.
The supernatural is featured discretely in the novels, as an integral part of Duits’ intensely spiritual "otherworld" rather than an artificial literary device to be exploited for cheap thrills. Even the erotic passages are an integral part of the magic.
Duits was a friend of André Breton and the surrealists. A gifted poet and a man who had experimented with peyote, he was also influenced by the Thousand and One Nights and the Indian Ramayana.
[edit] Bibliography
- Le Pays de l’Éclairement (The Land of Illumination) (1967)
- Ptah Hotep (1971)
- Les Miférables (The Miferables) (1971)
- La Conscience Démonique (Demonic Consciousness) (1974)
- Nefer (1978)
- Fruit sortant de l’Abîme (Fruit From The Abyss) (1993)
