الرجل الشفاف

by Edward Page Mitchell, لبنى أحمد نور (Translator), إدوارد بيدج ميتشل

يَبدأُ كلُّ شيءٍ فِي لَحظةِ اصطِدامٍ عِندَ مُفترَقِ طُرق، وتَتتابَعُ أَحداثٌ يَلُفُّها الغُموضُ والتَّشوِيق، تَبلُغُ ذُرْوتَها حِينَ يَجِدُ الرَّاوي نَفسَه واقِعًا فِي حَيرةٍ عَظيمةٍ مِن أمْرِه. كلٌّ مِن أُذُنَيْه ويَدَيْه والمَنطِقُ يَدعَمُ مَا لا تَدعَمُه عَيْناه، لكِنَّه يُقرِّرُ بشَجاعةٍ أنْ يُصدِّقَ مَا لا يَرَاه، ليسَ لأنَّه يُؤمِنُ بالأَشباحِ والخَوارِق، ولكنْ لأنَّه رَجلُ عِلم، وحَدْسُه العِلميُّ يُنبِئُه بأنَّ الكائِنَ غَيرَ المَرْئيِّ الذِي يَتلاعَبُ بِه — يُلاحِقُه حِينًا، ويَهرُبُ مِنه حِينًا — مَوجُود، بدَليلِ أنَّه يَشعُرُ بِه ويَتكلَّمُ مَعَه ويَرَى أَفْعالَه، حتَّى لَو لَم يُبصِرْه بِذاتِه. فمَا سِرُّ هَذا الكائِنِ الخَفِي؟ وهَلْ كانَ مَرئيًّا يَومًا؟

للتحميل مجانًا
https://www.hindawi.org/books/57904081/

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Audiobook, Short Story Collection

20 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

"Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927) was an American editorial and short story writer for The Sun, a daily newspaper in New York City. He became that newspaper's editor in 1897, succeeding Charles Anderson Dana. Mitchell was recognized as a major figure in the early development of the science fiction genre. Mitchell wrote fiction about a man rendered invisible by scientific means ("The Crystal Man", published in 1881) before H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, wrote about a time-travel machine ("The Clock that Went Backward") before Wells's The Time Machine, wrote about faster-than-light travel ("The Tachypomp"; now perhaps his best-known work) in 1874, a thinking computer and a cyborg in 1879 ("The Ablest Man in the World"), and also wrote the earliest known stories about matter transmission or teleportation ("The Man without a Body", 1877) and a superior mutant ("Old Squids and Little Speller"). "Exchanging Their Souls" (1877) is one of the earliest fictional accounts of mind transfer. Mitchell retired in 1926, a year before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The gradual rediscovery of Mitchell and his work is a direct result of the publication in 1973 of a book-length anthology of his stories, compiled by Sam Moskowitz with a detailed introduction by Moskowitz giving much information about Mitchell's personal life. Because Mitchell's stories were not by-lined on original publication, nor indexed, Moskowitz expended major effort to track down and collect these works by an author whom Moskowitz cited as "the lost giant of American science fiction".

Mitchell's stories show the strong influence of Edgar Allan Poe. Among other traits, Mitchell shares Poe's habit of giving a basically serious and dignified fictional character a jokey name, such as "Professor Dummkopf" in Mitchell's "The Man Without a Body". Since Mitchell's fictions were originally published in newspapers, typeset in the same format as news articles and not identified as fiction, he may possibly have used this device to signal to his readers that this text should not be taken seriously."

-- Wikipedia

Reviews

[AhmEd ElsayEd · Rating 2 out of 5]

عالم أنسجة جعل محور اهتمامه مقتصرًا حول تعديل المواد الصبغية في الجسم، بل وإزالتها بغرض الوصول لتجربة "الرجل الشفاف". الرجل الشفاف حلم قديم راود البشر، تجلي هذا الحلم في التراث الشعبي والروايات والقصص والأفلام. جدل كبير حول أخلاقية الأمر، من الناحية العلمية والأخلاقية، بل وحول أحقية العلم في اختراع هذا السلاح الخطير!

[Christophe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good collection, still readable today. Some of the stories stand comparison with those by HG Wells.

[Dr.Abdulwahab Alnaif · Rating 3 out of 5]

قيمتها ٣ من ٥ كونها قصيرة جداً اما من ناحية الجمال فهي جميلة جداً تتكلم عن رجل شفاف

[Ath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Forked Radish · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original invisible man. Unfortunately, more natural law BS. Did H.G. Wells plagiarize it? Of course, why not? Wells was, conveniently, a moral nihilist.
"The Balloon Tree": rated separately
"The Ablest Man in the World": ibid
"The Tachypomp": ibid
"The Man Without a Body": ibid
"The Clock that Went Backward": ibid
"The Senator's Daughter": ibid
"Old Squids and Little Speller": ibid
"The Facts in the Ratcliff Case": ibid
"The Story of the Deluge": ibid
"The Professor's Experiment": ibid
"The Soul Spectroscope": ibid
"The Inside of the Earth": ibid

[Ad Basset · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصة قصيرة ممتعة و مدهشة كتبت بأسلوب مباشر و سلاسة في طرح الأحداث ووصف دقيق مختصر .
نسخة مؤسسة هنداوي للكاتبة/المترجمة لبنى أحمد نور جد رائعة .
بالطبع سيكون لي لقاء آخر مع إدوارد بيدج ميتشل لأنه بالفعل أديب مدهش و مميز.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories within are very simply structured and run an average of about 10 pages in length. Most are somewhat boring and seem to me as satirical pieces valid in their day but very obtuse now. There were a few stories that did peak my interest though. These mentionable stories being: The Crystal Man, the Balloon Tree, the Facts in the Ratcliffe Case, An Uncommon Sort of Spectre, The Case of the Dow Twins, and An Extraordinary Wedding.

The Crystal Man is only notable (aside from its potential historical significance) because its single twist, most of these tales have only a single twist near the end mind you, is just weird depending on the lone female character dumping the invisible man because he’s a freak thus prompting his suicide. The Balloon Tree is just weird, a group of men track through the jungle in the hopes of discovering a semi-mythical tree and one becomes lost only to lose consciousness and wake up back at the beach with his comrades who had given up the search and hope. Together they see the balloon tree floating away off in the distance.

The Facts in the Ratcliffe Case involves some lady with a poisonous or drugging gaze but the real centerpiece here is a scene in an 1880’s medical theater involving an old woman’s calcified knee, utterly gross but definitely worth the read. I truly wish all of these stories had a scene like that; they would have been much improved. An Uncommon Sort of Spectre is definitely interesting and deals with a strange conversation about the logistics of ghosts from the future. The Case of the Dow Twins was readable, it was okay overall and involves a mysterious spiritual/mental link between a good and evil twin type thing. An Extraordinary Wedding was definitely interesting with its single twist at the very end and made for a fun a little capper to this odd story involving spirit mediums and an art exhibit.

What I really did not like about this book was the tedious introductory essay. The Biographical Perspective by Sam Moskowitz was 63 pages long and really did not have much to do with Edward Page Mitchell until the last dozen pages only mentioning him briefly at the beginning and about halfway through. It was very uninteresting throwing out names and dates rapid-fire style especially near the beginning. To be honest, you can skip it unless you really, really have to know some basic details about Edward Page Mitchell and the place his work occupies in the bigger picture of early American science fiction according to Moskowitz.

I would not really recommend this book but for maybe experiencing the roots of science fiction and weird tales. However, The Facts in the Ratcliffe Case should be read just to experience that medical theater scene which is more akin to a straight gothic horror tale. Was it worth reading in the first place? I think so. It definitely felt different from most things I’ve read but that could be due to the stories’ origin as 100-year old newspaper filler.

[Suzanne Abou Reslan · Rating 2 out of 5]

قصة ممتعة أقرب للرعب، لكن لم أشعر به.
تتحدث عن رجل غير مرئي مغرم بفتاة، وكونه غير نرئياً بسبب عالم يقوم بالتجارب عليه.
تأخذنا الأحداث لنرى ماذا سيحصل بكل من الرجل الشفاف وعشيقته والرجل الضيف.
احببتها قليلا والسبب أن نهايتها تجعلك تتسائل، تتسائل ماذا؟ بالطبع لن أجيب لكي تدركها حين تقرأها.

[Monishan' · Rating 1 out of 5]

مقاله قصصية خفيفه عجيبه 😄

[Shaimaa أحمد · Rating 4 out of 5]

أحب قصص الخيال العلمي

[Steve Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost Giant of American Science Fiction - A Biographical Perspective by Sam Moskowitz 5+ (excellent, exhaustive write-up that's almost worth tracking this book down by itself)

The Crystal Man 5+
The Balloon Tree 4+
The Ablest Ma in the World 5
The Tachypomp 4
The Man Without a Body 5
The Clock That Went Backward 4
The Senator's Daughter 5
Old Squids and Little Speller 5+
The Facts in the Ratcliff Case 5
The Story of the Deluge 5+
The Professor's Experiment 4
The Soul Spectroscope 4
The Inside of the Earth 4
An Uncommon Sort of Spectre 5
The Cave of the Splurgles 5
The Devil's Funeral 5
The Wonderful Corot 4
The Terrible Voyage of the Toad 5+ (especially hit my funny bone)
The Devilish Rat 4
Exchanging Their Souls 5
The Case of the Dow Twins 5
An Extraordinary Wedding 3
Back From That Bourne 4
The Last Cruise of the Judas Iscariot 5
The Flying Weathercock 3
The Legendary Ship 3
The Shadow on the Fancher Twins 3
The Pain Epicures 4
A Day Among the Liars 5+
Our War With Monaco 4

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think my favorite of all is possibly "The Devil's Funeral." Quite a boggling bit, that.

[FIRST READING: * * *
Generally fun. The guy is pretty stylistic and has a good sense of humor (like it said in the intro). A regretable tendency to give symbolic Bunyanesque names to people. Like with 19th century science fiction, the technological breakthrough is usually the point of the story--whereas later it just became the background for the people involved. Achieves his most intriguing mind-spanning effect with "The Pain Epicures," I think--more than just a framework for some new theory. Since the guy wrote for newspapers, his stuff is pretty topical in places.]

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short sci-fi stories starts out strong, but the latter tales are almost redundant and quite bizarre. To my cousin Eddie: you would definitely enjoy the early stories here, and appreciate Mitchell's creativity - his stories about an invisible man and time travel preceded H. G. Wells by six years. Anyone who enjoys science fiction should pick up a copy if they can find it.

[Mahmoud Moftah · Rating 4 out of 5]

أن تكون غير مرئياً لرُبما هي قدره خارقه يطمح الكثيرين في إمتلاكها ولكن هنا في تلك القصه هي نِقمَه علي صَاحبها !

بناءاً علي تجاربي الثلاث السابقه مع الكاتب كان لدي إنطباع دائم بـ "الملل" والذي بإمكاني الأن تغييرُه بكل ثقه فالقصه هُنا شبه مُكتمله العناصِر (الفكره) والقليل من المتعه والفلسفه مع سَرد جيد ، أظنها واحده من أفضل ما كتبْ

[Shimaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ممتعة بشكل!

[Ignacio Kaplan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Librito de ciencia ficción que encontré usado por mil pesos. Son interesantes la mayoría de relatos la verdad y más por la época en que los escribieron.