Laurent Bordelon


Laurent Bordelon, was a 17th/18th-century French abbot, doctor in theology, playwright, polygraph and progressive utopian. He wrote "a hundred hasty volumes or compilations on all subjects."

Works

Satirical fantasies

In Mital; ou Aventures incroyables, Bordelon satirizes unreliable works of science and history. The title character travels widely and discovers places where "fishes live on land, chickens wear hair instead of feathers, men possess four eyes, and women wear beards... men do not walk, but glide on their bellies like serpents... children are never weaned from their nurses" and so on, among hundreds of other unusual phenomena. An extensive collection of end notes details the source material in which similar observations had been presented as non-fiction.
In L'histoire des imaginations extravagantes de monsieur Oufle, originally published in 1710, Bordelon satirizes the occult. As a consequence of reading too many works on "Magick, the Black-Art, Daemoniacks, Conjurers, Witches," etc., the title character deludedly believes that he is a werewolf, that his birth date suggests he will be successful at romance, that others around him are demons, and so on. Much as in Mital, annotations reveal the original sources in which similarly fanciful material had been presented as non-fiction.
In Gomgam, ou l'Homme prodigieux transporté dans l'air, sur la terre et sous les eaux, Bordelon satirizes vacuous pedantry and learning only from books. The title character attends college, reads encyclopedias, and expounds on topics he believes he understands. But an old man takes Gomgam on a magical journey to see a rainbow up close, the Red Sea from above, and the ocean from below, in each case dispelling his misconceptions and showing him the truth.

Selected publications

  • 1689: Entretiens curieux sur l'astrologie judiciaire, Paris,
  • 1692:, comedy
  • 1694:, comedy
  • 1709:
  • 1712: Les coudées franches — online :
  • 1724: Nouveautés dédiées à gens de différent états, depuis la charrue jusqu'au sceptre, 2 vol., Paris,
  • 1736:, La Haye, Pierre de Hondt