What do you think?
Rate this book
Nouvelles 1953-1959
Un zoo dont les pensionnaires servent de garde-manger pour nourrir une créature terrifiante...un professeur d'université qui voyage dans le temps pour affermir sa foi vacillante...dans ce deuxième tome, le talent de l'auteur est à son zénith. Orfèvre de l'effroi, maître du macabre, grand manipulateur des déviances de la réalité, il s'offre aussi quelques savoureuses incursions dans le western ou dans l'humour le plus débridé. La démonstration parfaite du génie fertile dont fait preuve Richard Matheson, que Stephen King salue ici à juste titre comme son père spirituel. L'édition intégrale de ces nouvelles - présentées dans l'ordre de leur composition et dans des traductions nouvelles ou soigneusement revues - comportera trois tomes.
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Richard Matheson
743 books4,888 followersBorn in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of whom (Chris, Richard Christian, and Ali Matheson) are writers of fiction and screenplays.
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...
His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.
Several of his stories, like "Third from the Sun" (1950), "Deadline" (1959) and "Button, Button" (1970) are simple sketches with twist endings; others, like "Trespass" (1953), "Being" (1954) and "Mute" (1962) explore their characters' dilemmas over twenty or thirty pages. Some tales, such as "The Funeral" (1955) and "The Doll that Does Everything" (1954) incorporate zany satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, and are written in an hysterically overblown prose very different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" (1954) and "Steel" (1956), portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the then nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House" (1953), "The Curious Child" (1954) and perhaps most famously, "Duel" (1971) are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
He wrote a number of episodes for the American TV series The Twilight Zone, including "Steel," mentioned above and the famous "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"; adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman and Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out for Hammer Films; and scripted Steven Spielberg's first feature, the TV movie Duel, from his own short story. He also contributed a number of scripts to the Warner Brothers western series "The Lawman" between 1958 and 1962. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson that preceded the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) starring Talullah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers.
Novels include The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay), and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend, which has been filmed three times under the titles The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth and once under the original title. Other Matheson novels turned into notable films include What Dreams May Come, Stir of Echoes, Bid Time Return (as Somewhere in Time), and Hell House (as The Legend of Hell House) and the aforementioned Duel, the last three adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror, including "Prey" with its famous Zuni warrior doll.
In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a nonfantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II.
He died at his home on June 23, 2013, at the age of 87
http://us.macmillan.com/author/richar...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 6, 2025
2.5 J’avais vraiment beaucoup aimé le premier recueil de nouvelles de cet auteur, qui contient des histoires fantastiques et horrifiques originales, et qui m’avait tenu en haleine. Je me souviens de plusieurs textes qui me restent encore en tête aujourd’hui.
Pour ce deuxième tome, ça a été la douche froide. Ici l’horreur et le fantastique se font beaucoup plus banals, très peu de textes m’ont marqué pour leur originalité, je me suis plus ennuyé. L’écueil de ce recueil (!) est qu’il démarre avec 2 longues nouvelles assez plates, il faut attendre la 6ème histoire («Le conquérant») pour que l’intérêt se réveille. S’ensuit une alternance de flops anecdotiques (« Miss Poussière d’étoiles», «Une tripotée de donzelles», «Le haut et gentil lieu») et de bons textes, mais pas aussi brillants que d’autres de cet auteur.
Je retiendrai 3 nouvelles qui m’ont captivé : «L’examen» pour sa douce tristesse qui permet un focus sur l’émotion quand le reste est plus concret, «Le voyageur» pour sa réflexion sur la foi et «Cycle de survie» pour sa nostalgie apocalyptique.
Un recueil très mitigé pour ma part, pas sûr qu’il soit essentiel de lire toutes les histoires qu'il contient. Sauf si vous êtes monomaniaques comme moi.
Pour ce deuxième tome, ça a été la douche froide. Ici l’horreur et le fantastique se font beaucoup plus banals, très peu de textes m’ont marqué pour leur originalité, je me suis plus ennuyé. L’écueil de ce recueil (!) est qu’il démarre avec 2 longues nouvelles assez plates, il faut attendre la 6ème histoire («Le conquérant») pour que l’intérêt se réveille. S’ensuit une alternance de flops anecdotiques (« Miss Poussière d’étoiles», «Une tripotée de donzelles», «Le haut et gentil lieu») et de bons textes, mais pas aussi brillants que d’autres de cet auteur.
Je retiendrai 3 nouvelles qui m’ont captivé : «L’examen» pour sa douce tristesse qui permet un focus sur l’émotion quand le reste est plus concret, «Le voyageur» pour sa réflexion sur la foi et «Cycle de survie» pour sa nostalgie apocalyptique.
Un recueil très mitigé pour ma part, pas sûr qu’il soit essentiel de lire toutes les histoires qu'il contient. Sauf si vous êtes monomaniaques comme moi.
May 8, 2016
As good as the first volume.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews