The Tower of Destiny

Joseph Méry (1798-1866) was the nearest French equivalent to Edgar Allan Poe as a ground-breaking pioneer of speculative fiction. The title piece is a significant exercise in alternate history, in which Méry imagined that Napoleon's life took a different turn in Egypt in 1799. The Truth About Creation argues in a mock-serious manner that there is nothing supernatural about God's creation of the world. The Lunarians, inspired by the New York Sun's famous "moon hoax" of 1835, offers a colorful picture of a Selenite civilization. The Explorations of Victor Hummer describes the rediscovery of a mythical city in Egypt. What We Shall See outlines the Utopian prospects of future human progress and includes some striking imagery of a future Paris, also featured in the classic The Ruins of Paris.