Imagination, Textual Play, and the Fantastic in Mouhy's Lamékis

Abstract

Imagination, Textual Play, and the Fantastic in Mouhy's LamékisPeter Fitting Qu'on se figure, si l'on peut, l'assemblage de tout ce que l'esprit peut concevoir aidé de tout ce que la fiction pourrait suggérer.1 Dans un roman frivole aisément tout s'excuse.2 At 650 pages and several plots, Charles de Fieux, chevalier de Mouhy's Lamékis ou les voyages extraordinaires d'un Egyptien dans la terre intérieure; avec la découverte de l'isle des Sylphides (1735— 38) is a forgotten but rather unusual and even original novel. Set in the distant past (well before the flourishing of Greek civilization), its characters move from ancient Egypt through a number of fantastic countries in a series of adventures reminiscent of Lucian's True Histories or, more probably, Galland's recent translation of the Mille et une nuits (170417 ). The complicated narrative follows very generally the adventures of Lamékis, and consists of a number of different plots and sub-plots, which I have reduced to five and rearranged into chronological order.3 The novel 1 Fieux de Mouhy, Lamékis (1735-38), reprinted in 1788 as vols 20 and 21 of Voyages imaginaires. Songes, Visions, & Romans Cabalistiques, 36 vols (Paris: Gamier, 1787-89), 20:312. References are to this edition. I have preserved the spelling of this edition except for variations in the proper names, which have been regularized. 2 Boileau, Art poétique, cited in Georges May, Le Dilemme du roman au xviif siècle (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1963), p. 17. 3 There are at least two editions before 1788, although there do not seem to be any substantial EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 5, Number 4, July 1993 312 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION begins with his father (also named Lamékis) and his adventures as a high priest in Egypt. We are then introduced to the interlocking stories of two exiles from the neighbouring kingdoms of Abdalles and Amphicléocles— Princess Nasildaé and Prince Motacoa—who have been banished to the underground world and who befriend Lamékis as a boy. The third narrative is that of the young manhood of Lamékis in the now-joined kingdoms of Abdalles and Amphicléocles, and the account of his terrible jealousy; while the fourth describes Lamékis's exile, including his celestial voyage to the Island of the Sylphides. A fifth and concluding narrative relates his final adventures as he returns to Abdalles and Amphicléocles. The novel also includes an account of its composition, beginning with a preface in which Mouhy explains that he was told this story by an Armenian. Half-way through the novel there is a lengthy scene in which the author is visited by various characters who complain to him about his inaccuracies . They are followed by the philosopher Dehahal (from the island of the Sylphides), who had tried unsuccessfully to convince Lamékis to undergo a ritual of purification and who now urges Mouhy to undergo this same initiation. After Mouhy declines, he awakes in his bed clutching a mysterious manuscript which defies all attempts at translation , until six months later, when his pen—on its own—starts to translate the conclusion to Lamékis.* changes in the Garnier edition. The first edition, described in both Silas Jones, A List ofFrench Prose Fictionfrom 1700 to 17S0 (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1939), and Georges May, Le Dilemme du roman au xviif siècle, was published in eight books over a four-year period as follows: 1, Paris: L. Dupuis, 1735; 2, Paris: L. Dupuis, 1736; 3 and 4, Paris: Poilly, 1737; 5, 6, 7, and 8, La Haye: Néaulme, 1738. See Jones, p. 56; May, p. 96. This corresponds to the listing in the National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints (London: Loren Mansell, 1975), 398:135. Pierre Conlon lists all eight volumes as published by Dupuis in Paris (1735-38), but he has only examined the first volume. See Conlon, Le Siècle des lumières: Bibliographie chronologique (Paris: Droz, 1984), 3:467. In L'Interdiction du roman et la librairie 1728-1750 (Paris: Aux Amateurs de livres, 1986), Françoise Weil...