Stumbling across this book a reader might stop at the early scene in which an African fraudster has the text of his duplicity burnt onto the soles of his feet — an exact replica of his crime imprinted upon his own body. A typical stereotyped Africa, might be the response, populated with barbarity and grotesques, vain pomp and child-savages. Such a judgement, however, would be wrong-headed. While the early part of the book consists of a parade of unlikely performers only a minority are themselves African, the rest are European; the Breton, Lelgoualch, who plays charming melodies on a flute made from his own tibia; the ichthyologist, Martignon, with his strange fish, the sturgeon-skate; the zither playing Hungarian, Skariofszky; the chemist Bex and his strange inventions; La Billaudière-Maisonnial, with his fantastical fencing machine; the marksman, Balbet, whose marksmanship is so accurate that he can shoot the shell off an egg at distance without perforating the inner membrane. These oddities, and many more, parade past us in quite dizzying succession. It is not until midway through the book that the author reveals the background to his strange narration. He explains how he had embarked at Marseilles on the Lynceus ‘intending to pursue a long journey through the curious regions of South America’.


The bizarre performances mentioned above are staged by his fellow passengers who have all run aground on the coast of Africa. Here they are met by Seil Kor, a young emissary who, as the result of a spell in Europe, speaks fluent French, but who now serves his master Talu VII, overlord of the Empire of Panukele. The Europeans are to be taken into captivity and ransomed.


On their journey towards captivity Seil Kor narrates both his experiences in France and the history of Talu VII and the dynasty of his rival, Yaour IX who rules over nearby Drelskaf. This narrative is wonderful in its richness of detail and leads us to the pinnacle of the story. To escape boredom the captives contrive a gala and set about putting their individual skills towards this end. Meanwhile Talu vanquishes his rival and decides that the Europeans’ displays should be incorporated into his own coronation ceremony. This is the display with which the book begins and is the prelude to the final release of the captives, who, after their fantastic adventure, return to France. With its masterly construction and dazzling imagery this is in many respects a foundational text.


The novelist and anthropologist, Michel Leiris, was to comment on the debt which he owed to Roussel. It was to this work that Leiris as a child owed his own fascination with Africa. An interest that took him to the continent in order to write his own brand of anthropology that rebelled against any of the strictures of objective science. It is this sense of ‘decentred subjectivity’ that many have taken to be the sign of Roussel’s kinship with the surrealist movement, but the book is equally a celebration of story-telling and invention: one which admits no cultural or geographical boundaries.

‘The stage was soon exposed to view once again, for the entrance of the old ballerina, Olga Chervonenkova, a fat Latvian with a moustache, dressed as a dancer and garlanded with leaves, who made her appearance riding on Sladky, the elk, crushing him under her tremendous weight; the graceful creature paced twice up and down the stage, then returned to the wings, relieved of the stout Amazon who took her place for the «Dance of the Nymph».

With a smile on her lips, the erstwhile star began a series of rapid turns, which still showed some trace of her former talent; beneath the stiff folds of her tulle skirt, her monstrous legs, moulded in close-fitting pink tights, performed their skillful movements with sufficient agility and some of her past gracefulness, which occasioned considerable surprise.’ p81