 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
When my secretary was typing the story she reached the point where the semi-divine king makes a sacrificial breakfast of a lovely lady. I went in to see how she was getting on and found her gibbering in terror. Various people have dramatised this story both for film and theatre production, as they have others that occur in my writings, but, when it has come to the point, no one has been willing to produce them or I have been unwilling to have them produced because of the particular dramatisation, sometimes offensively frivolous.
Source: Bertrand Russell: The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, v.3 chap. 1: Return to England, 1969
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The 'semi-divine king' in this story (Zahatopolk) does not, of course, mean that he is a god from the waist up and a human from the waist down, but a king with half human and half divine elements (laughs). Russell published two novels (Satan in the Suburbs, and Other Stories, 1953 and Nightmares of Eminent Persons, 1954), which were reasonably well received, but have been buried by the multitude of works. Even so, in Japan, the ‘translation powerhouse’, Satan in the Suburb was already published as a collection of Russell's short stories the year after its original publication. Unfortunately, Nightmares of Eminent Persons was not translated into Japanese. The late Kimiyoshi Yura used Nightmares of Eminent Persons in his English classes at Komaba, University of Tokyo, and in the the Bulletin of the Bertrand Russell Society of Japan, No. 11, he wrote as follows:
https://russell-j.com/KAIDAI10.HTM
Mr Russell is renowned for his wit. There were several times when I was so taken in that I and my students burst out laughing in the podium. However, there were times when he was too silly to laugh, and even his cutting jokes lost half their effectiveness, but that is the case even with the serious essays that are used as textbooks in Japan. Even the serious essays that are used as textbooks in our country are like that. In this respect, I always recommend Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories (1954). For a taste of Mr Russell's satirical horseradishness, try this collection of short stories.
When he was over 80 years old, Russell said he ‘didn't know why’, but he suddenly felt the urge to write a novel. The two novels that came out were Satan in the Suburbs (1953) and Nightmares of Eminent Persons, (1954). The former was well received and praised as ‘Voltaire now’. The latter was published in 1954 as a book with illustrations and was even better received, and in 1962 it was included in the Penguin series, making it easily available. There are ten in all, with ‘Zachtpolk’ and ‘Faith and the Mountains’ in the appendix, but ten belong to the original part. ..