Atlantida
Original title: L'Atlantide (1919). Also known as The Queen of Atlantis.
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Pierre Benoît
Pierre Benoît (1886–1962) was a French novelist and member of the Académie française.
Pierre Benoît, born in Albi (southern France) was the son of a French soldier. Benoît spent his early years and military service in Northern Africa, before becoming a civil servant. His first novel, Koenigsmark, was published during 1918; L'Atlantide was published the next year and was awarded the Grand Prize of the Académie française. Benoît became a member of the Académie during 1931.
Reviews and Comments
Atlantida by Pierre Benoit Even though this is a bit of a classic I enjoyed reading it. It reminded me of those old Tarzan movies. What it is though is more of an example of the old Trope about the beautiful, seductive, feminine character whom the protagonists all fall in love with. It seems there was once some argument that Pierre plagiarized this from H.R. Haggard's SHE. Though it does use the same template for lost world and has Africa as a setting and a lovely irresistible woman as the centerpiece the similarities end there. Where She, Alesha, the centerpiece of H.R. Haggards story is an almost tragic woman trapped in her own tragic love story, the centerpiece of Alantida, Antinea, is more of a sinister siren that would be a complete opposite to Alesha. Alantida seems in many ways much more short on being an examination of morals and ethics as She is. It's still an interesting read but as I mentioned it reads more like some of the movies I have seen long ago where the players are under the influence of an obvious though hideously seductive evil. I would recommend this to anyone who has read SHE and I'd recommend to anyone who reads this and hasn't read SHE to do so. J.L. Dobias