Edmond Haraucourt (1856-1941) was amongst the pioneers of French scientific romance influenced by H. G. Wells, easily ranking alongside the better-known Maurice Renard and J.-H. Rosny Aine. In this collection of nine ground-breaking science fiction stories, published beween 1888 and 1919, he describes the rise of the Antichrist, the cataclysmic consequences of the discovery of an immortality serum, a journey across the ruins of Paris in the Year 6983, the fall of the Moon upon the Earth, the last of the Great Wars that ends all life on Earth, and even a futuristic "Planet of the Apes" where...

In "Timeslip Troopers" (1923), a squadron of World War I soldiers from the trenches is transported back to the Spanish town of Valencia in the 14th century where they ally themselves with the Moors to fight the Spanish Inquisition.

Henri de Regnier (1864-1936) was by far the most prolific and the most popular of the Symbolist writers. His high fantasy stories, collected in La Canne de jaspe (1897) and Histoires Incertaines (1919), both included in this volume with several additional genre tales, were best-selling books, reprinted numerous times and still in print today. A Byronesque man born out of his time, spiritually anchored in the 18th century, Regnier updated classic fairy tales and told stories of ghosts, monsters and creatures from Faerie, all set against the cold palaces and enchanted forests of the past...