Jules Lermina


Jules Lermina was a French writer. He began his career as a journalist in 1859. He was arrested for his socialist political opinions, and received Victor Hugo's support.
He published a number of Edgar Allan Poe-inspired collections, Histoires Incroyables , Nouvelles Histoires Incroyables and a short novel, L'Élixir de Vie . Le Secret des Zippelius featured the controlled disintegration of water. His two-volume La Bataille de Strasbourg was one of the first novels on the theme of the yellow peril.
In L'Effrayante Aventure , Lermina used Bulwer-Lytton's vril-force to create a vril-powered flying machine. The novel also features the resurrection of prehistoric creatures frozen in ice in caverns under Paris. Mystère-Ville , written under the pseudonym of William Cobb, and illustrated by Albert Robida, was about Protestants who had fled France and created a secret, futuristic city in a hidden Chinese valley.
Lermina also penned a proto-Tarzan novel, To-Ho le Tueur d'Or , and Le Trésor de Monte-Cristo ; and Les Mystères de New York , also written under the pseudonym of William Cobb. He also created the indomitable Toto Fouinard, whose adventures were serialized in 1908–09.