Enrique Gaspar
Enrique Lucio Eugenio Gaspar y Rimbau (2 March 1842 in
Biography
Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau was born to parents who were well known actors. Upon the death of his father, Juan, he moved to
He had already written his first zarzuela by the age of 13, and at 14 he was writer at the La Ilustración Valenciana. When he was 15 his mother put on a performance of his first comedy. He moved to Madrid when he was 21 to dedicate himself to writing.
His peak years as a writer were 1868 to 1875, when he wrote operas for the consumption of the bourgeoisie rather than the aristocracy. During this time, he also wrote historical dramas, and he became a pioneer of social theatre in Spain. He had huge success for his comedies, but his real passion was social commentary, promoting the education of women and meaningful marriage. These plays were less successful because they were before their time.
When he was 23, Gaspar y Rimbau married Enriqueta Batllés y Bertán de Lis, a beautiful aristocrat, to the displeasure of her parents. After the birth of their second child, he entered the diplomatic corps, at the age of 27.
He spent time in Greece and France, then Madrid, and eventually served as consul in China, first in Macau, and then in Hong Kong. During this time, he continued to write and mount operas, in addition to writing for El Diario de Manila.
Upon his return to Europe, he moved to
El anacronópete
Published in 1887 in Barcelona, El anacronópete (a neologism for "who flies against time") has become one of Gaspar y Rimbau's most important works. It is a Spanish science fiction novel. This predates the publication of The Chronic Argonauts by H. G. Wells in 1888, his first story involving time travel using a machine, but is six years after Edward Page Mitchell's 1881 story The Clock that Went Backward.
The novel, in the format of a zarzuela, is one of the first to feature a machine that travels through time: the "anacronópete". The anacronópete is an enormous cast iron box, propelled by electricity, which drives four large pneumatical devices ending in tubes for travel, as well as powering other machinery, including something that produces the García fluid, which causes the passengers not to grow younger as they travel backwards in time. The machine's interior also contains all kinds of conveniences including, among other marvels, brooms that sweep by themselves.
The machine provided the setting for a story in three acts, in which the following group of characters travels in time: don Sindulfo García, a scientist from Zaragoza and the inventor of the device; his friend and assistant Benjamín; Clara, don Sindulfo's niece and ward; a maidservant; Captain Luis, Clara’s beloved; several Spanish hussars; and a number of old French women of "loose morals" that the mayor of Paris wants to rejuvenate so that they "regenerate" themselves.
In the first act, don Sindulfo explains his theory of
In the second act, they again travel into the past, seeking the secret of
The characters have evolved, with Benjamín becoming obsessed with eternal life, don Sindulfo crazy with jealousy over Clara, and Clara in love with Captain Luis. Benjamín discovers that the disappearing hussars have reappeared again because their immortal spirits had not left the anacronópete and that Sindulfo's first wife was the same as the empress through metempsychosis. While they leave, Tsao Pi founds the Ouei dynasty.
In the third act, after a stop in
Don Sindulfo wakes up. He has slept while watching a theatre play by Jules Verne, with the just-married Luis and Clara.[2]
It was written during Gaspar's mission to China[3] (1878–1885). The novel fits with the spirit of the age, in which the works of Jules Verne were very successful. It was undoubtedly influenced by his personal friend[3] Camille Flammarion and Flammarion's story Lumen, in which spiritual time travel is featured. El Anacronópete, written in 1881, also predates Mouton's L'historioscope, and therefore could not have been influenced by that work.
The original edition by
Selected works
- La nodriza, Madrid 1876
- Atila, Madrid, 1876
References
- ^ "Autores en la BNE | Biblioteca Nacional de España". www.bne.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 May 2023.
- ^ page 41 introduces Clara by the name of Clara, not Clarita
- ^ Universidad de Alicante. Del Romanticismo al Realismo : Actas del I Coloquio de la S. L. E. S. XIX , Barcelona, 24–26 October 1996 / edited by Luis F. Díaz Larios, Enrique Miralles.
- ^ Dirda, Michael (19 September 2012). "'THE TIME SHIP A Chrononautical Journey,' by Enrique Gaspar". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
- ISBN 978-0819572936.
- ^ El anacronópete, English translation (2014), www.storypilot.com, Michael Main, accessed 13 April 2016.
- Various writers (2002). La ciencia ficción española. Madrid: Ediciones Robles. ISBN 84-931827-3-7.
- This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of 30 March 2006.
External links
- Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau, in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- Works of Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau, in Open Library, Internet Archive
- Works by Enrique Gaspar at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Bibliography of Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau, in Internet Speculative Fiction Database, Al von Ruff