MONSTERS & MONSTROSITY

In his skillful and lively account of how the monster evolved into the monstrous, Laurent Lemire traces the
link that leads from the marvelous to the horrifying.

Starting with ancient mythological hybrids such as the birdheaded man with bison depicted in the Lascaux cave, going on to real monsters like the Jurassic's giant headless mollusks, and without neglecting demons and vampires, Laurent Lemire draws up a select bestiary of these creatures. But venturing beyond mere
appearance, the author also focuses on the monstrosity of the human mind (Jack the Ripper) and society's ostracized the mirror of its aberrations.

Reflecting our fears, the monster is the one who reveals and warns. He thus holds a special place, indicating the limits of human nature. Infiltrating every field – literary, artistic, scientific and religious – the monster fascinates and can be an object for study or a freak show attraction.

Laurent Lemire is a journalist at the magazine Nouvel Observateur. He has written biographies in which he combines history, culture and popular science : Marie Curie (Perrin, 2001) Le siècle d'Albert Einstein (Albert Einstein's century, Perrin, 2008), Alan Turing (Fayard, 2012 ) and Ces savants qui ont eu raison trop tôt (The scholars who were right too soon, Tallandier 2013).