The Human Microbes

by Louise Michel, Brian M. Stableford (Translator)

In The Human Microbes, a man unjustly accused of a murder by an evil mastermind manages to escape the guillotine and embarks on a quest for revenge that will draw in its wake a cast of characters, including mad doctors, lost children, strange gypsies, Irish revolutionaries, Russian anarchists and Utopians. In 1883, the notorious anarchist Louise Michel (1830-1905) was sentenced to six years of solitary confinement; effectively deprived of communication, she had had no refuge but writing. It is during that time that she penned The Human Microbes (published in 1887), as a distraction from her awful circumstances. It was followed by a sequel, The New World, published in a truncated form in 1988, due to Michel being shot in the head that year. Both are modeled on the classic feuilleton serials of the 1840s and were intended to be part of a six-novel series, in which Mankind would build a new utopia on Earth before moving out into space.

Genres: Literature

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1886

About the author

Clémence-Louise Michel, dite Louise Michel, alias «Enjolras», était une institutrice, militante anarchiste, franc-maçonne, aux idées féministes et l’une des figures majeures de la Commune de Paris. (Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is bonkers and unedited and mostly an outline and often makes no sense and almost laugh out loud in many places because of its crochety zingers and really very weirdly enjoyable

[Maddie (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very silly and disjointed, but has some good anecdotes and is very atmospheric.