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Jules Lermina (1839–1915) was a French writer. He began his career as a journalist in 1859. He was arrested for his socialist political opinions, and received Victor Hugo's support.

He published a number of Edgar Allan Poe-inspired collections, Histoires Incroyables (1885), Nouvelles Histoires Incroyables (1888) and a short novel, L'Élixir de Vie (1890) (translated by Brian Stableford and included in Panic in Paris). Le Secret des Zippelius (1893) (translated by Brian Stableford as The Secret of Zippelius (2011) ISBN 978-1-935558-88-0) featured the controlled disintegration of water. His two-volume La Bataille de Strasbourg (1895) was one of the first novels on the theme of the yellow peril.

In L'Effrayante Aventure (1910) (translated by Brian Stableford, ISBN 978-1-934543-83-2), Lermina used Bulwer-Lytton's vril-force to create a vril-powered flying machine. The novel also features the resurrection of prehistoric creatures frozen in ice in caverns under Paris. Mystère-Ville (1905) (translated by Brian Stableford as Mysteryville, ISBN 978-1-935558-27-9), written under the pseudonym of William Cobb, and illustrated by Albert Robida, was about Protestants who had fled France and created a secret, futuristic city in a hidden Chinese valley.

Lermina also penned a proto-Tarzan novel, To-Ho le Tueur d'Or (1905) (translated by Georges T. Dodds as To-Ho and the Gold Destroyers ISBN 978-1-935558-34-7, two sequels to the popular classic The Count of Monte-Cristo: Le Fils de Monte-Cristo (1881) (that in English was divided in two books: The Wife of Monte Cristo and The Son of Monte Cristo), and Le Trésor de Monte-Cristo (1885); and Les Mystères de New York (1874), also written under the pseudonym of William Cobb. He also created the indomitable Toto Fouinard, whose adventures were serialized in 1908–09.

Further reading

• "LERMINA Jules, Hippolyte", Le Maitron (in French), Paris: Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier, 17 December 2019, retrieved 18 March 2023

External links

• Jules Lermina at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Works by Jules Lermina at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Jules Lermina at Internet Archive
• Works by Jules Lermina at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)