R.J. Dent's Blog
July 3, 2025
R J Dent reads from Stories, Tales, & Fables
Translators Aloud has shared a video of R J Dent reading from his English translation of the Marquis de Sade’s Stories, Tales, and Fables, published by Contra Mundum Press.
The excerpt R J Dent reads is from Some Thoughts on the Novel, a long essay by Sade that is part literary criticism and part writing advice.
The video can be watched here:
The book, Stories, Tales, and Fables (With Selected Non-Fiction) is published by Contra Mundum Press as is available here:
http://www.rjdent.com/stories-tales-and-fables/
Details of all of R J Dent’s works – novels, non-fiction and translations can be found here:
June 3, 2025
R J Dent’s Incunabula Author Page
R J Dent now has an author page at Incunabula Media. The page includes all of the fiction, non-fiction and the translations that R J Dent has published with Incunabula.
R J Dent’s author page at Incunabula Media: https://incunabulamedia.com/r-j-dent
May 23, 2025
The Bridges
Tarjei Vesaas
Translated into English by R J Dent
As strange, unsettling, and memorable as The Seed, The Bridges is a remarkable novel which carries with it all the compassion, human insight, and lyrical power of all of Tarjei Vesaas’s novels. It describes the changing relationships between three teenagers—a young mother who has drowned her newborn child, and Aud and Torvil, a young couple who befriend her. Their individual reactions to the tragedy and their efforts to communicate with each other form the central theme of The Bridges.
This is a brand-new English translation of a spare, powerful, and supremely graceful novel from a giant of Norwegian literature.
Book details:
Title: The Bridges
Author: Tarjei Vesaas
Translator: R J Dent
ISBN: 978-1-300-27138-3
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages 180
Publisher: Incunabula
Publication Date: May 2025
Link to The Bridges at Incunabula Media: https://incunabulamedia.com/fiction-%26-non-fiction
The Seed
by Tarjei Vesaas
Translated into English by R J Dent
Tarjei Vesaas’s The Seed is set on a small, idyllic-seeming Norwegian island which is visited by a stranger during a particularly hot summer. After a young girl is murdered, the stranger is blamed and hunted down by the islanders.
The Seed convincingly portrays the collective madness of a lynch mob and the later collective shame of every individual. Tarjei Vesaas’s taut, spare prose exposes the guilt and mistrust – and the inevitable attempt at expiation that follows every act of violence.
Book details:
Title: The Seed
Author: Tarjei Vesaas
Translator: R J Dent
ISBN: 978-1-300-27154-3
Language: English
Pages: 180
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Incunabula
Publication date: May 2025
Link to The Seed at Incunabula: https://incunabulamedia.com/fiction-%26-non-fiction
April 10, 2025
Stories, Tales, and Fables
With Selected Non-Fiction
by the Marquis de Sade
Translated into modern English by R J Dent
“It is said I present vice as too odious. The reason: I do not want people to be attracted to vice. I am far more moral than those who make their villains attractive. I shall only ever depict crime in the most vivid colours of hell. I want readers to see crime in all its vile nakedness, to fear it and to hate it, and so I show it in all its horror. Woe to those who dress crime in roses! Their intentions are impure, and I will never imitate them.” (The Marquis de Sade)
Written in his Bastille cell in the years between 120 Days of Sodom and Justine, this is the first English translation of the Marquis de Sade’s collection, Stories, Tales, and Fables.
Essential reading for all Sade devotees, Stories, Tales, and Fables is an introduction for those who are not yet familiar with the work of this controversial French literary innovator. The short works in this collection range from the dramatic novella, Dorci, to comic tales such as The Duped Judge. It also includes a modern translation of Sade’s controversial dramatic dialogue: Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man. Whether he is writing bawdy, exuberant comedies, supernatural tales, or human tragedies, Sade is essentially a moralist, and his exploration of the darker side of human nature remains as relevant to our society as it was to his own.
Psychologically perceptive and defiantly unconventional, Stories, Tales, and Fables reveals the compelling force of Sade’s narrative powers. An accomplished and artful fiction writer, Sade, like all great writers, asks penetrating questions about society, life, and humanity. This collection also includes a selection of Sade’s non-fiction, ranging from his insightful survey of the novelist’s art, Some Thoughts on the Novel, to his Last Will and Testament, as well as several essays about Sade’s work by renowned authors including Guillaume Apollinaire, Maurice Heine, Andre Masson, Anatole France and Paul Ėluard.
Product details:
Author: Marquis de Sade
Title: Stories, Tales, and Fables
Subtitle: With Selected Non-Fiction
Translator: R J Dent
ISBN: 978-1-9406-2572-0
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 600
Cover Art: Witches’ Flight (Vuelo de Brujas) (1798) by Francisco Goya
Publication Date: March 2025
Publisher: Contra Mundum Press
Book details (publisher): https://www.contramundumpress.com/stories-tales-and-fables
Purchase link (Barnes and Noble): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stories-tales-fables-marquis-de-sade/1146849335
Purchase link (Herringbone Books): https://herringbonebooks.indielite.org/book/9781940625720
Purchase link (Bookworm of Edwards): https://bookwormofedwards.com/book/9781940625720
Share this:March 16, 2025
Le Scat Noir’s Museum of the Inane
by Various Authors
Edited by Norman Conquest
A little compendium stuffed with inspired infestations of inanity — from subtle emanations to cartoon lunacy. It’s sprinkled with squirmy absurdist specimens. Indeed, this is an anthology to cherish, worship, and drool over, featuring a range of deranged artists & writers, including Ivars Balkits; Tom Barrett; Michael Cheval; Norman Conquest; R J Dent; Boris Glikman; Rhys Hughes; Mark Kanak; Allan Randolph Kausch; Amy Kurman; David Macpherson; Catulle Mendès; T. Motley; David Paddy; Doug Skinner; and Phil Demise Smith.
Absurdist Texts & Documents #50
Product details:
Title: Le Scat Noir’s Museum of the Inane
Author(s): Various
Editor: Norman Conquest
ASIN: B0F1D7JPGZ
ISBN: 979-8-9923-8261-7
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 100
Dimensions: 12.85 x 0.64 x 19.84 cm / 5.06 x 0.25 x 7.81 inches
Weight: 164.4 grams / 5.8 ounces
Publisher: Black Scat Books
Publication date: 12 March 2025)
Purchase Link (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scat-Noirs-Museum-Inane/dp/B0F1D7JPGZ/
Purchase Link (US): https://www.amazon.com/Scat-Noirs-Museum-Inane/dp/B0F1D7JPGZ/
March 2, 2025
The Future’s Eve
by Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s The Future’s Eve (L’Éve Future, 1886) is a visionary interrogation of technology, humanity, and ideal love. When Lord Ewald asks his friend (a fictionized Thomas Edison) to replace Alicia, his flawed lover, Edison births Hadaly, a lifelike android.
Blending science fiction, Gothic romance and Symbolist philosophy, The Future’s Eve attacks the pursuit of perfection and is considered to be the first popular depiction of artificial life. It is celebrated for its prescient themes, poetic language, and its profound commentary on the meeting of human longing and technological innovation.
By reimagining the text in twenty-first century English, R J Dent carefully preserves the novel’s essence while addressing the linguistic complexities and challenges of the original novel. This new translation of The Future’s Eve revitalises L’Isle-Adam’s 1886 text and provides readers with a fresh, accessible, modern English version of this ground-breaking work which reflects the author’s satirical take on science.
Translated into modern English by R J Dent
Book details:
Title: The Future’s Eve
Author: Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
Translator: R J Dent
ISBN: 979-8-2306-3058-6
Language: English
Pages: 417
Format: Paperback/ebook/audiobook
Publisher: Soyos Books
Publication Date: 8th February 2025
Purchase link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-futures-eve-villiers-de-lisle-adam/1146970946
Purchase link (US): https://www.amazon.com/Futures-Eve-Villiers-LIsle-Adam/dp/B0DWQVLTZQ/
Purchase link (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Futures-Eve-Villiers-LIsle-Adam/dp/B0DWQVLTZQ/
February 21, 2025
Emily Dickinson’s Sexual Personae
by R J Dent
Constantly portrayed as the reclusive spinster, the dressed-in-white Belle of Amherst, Emily Dickinson has always been regarded as the epitome of American Victorianism…
However, during her lifetime she wrote poems full of erotic imagery, many dealing explicitly with the subject of sex. Defying the conventions of her era, Dickinson adopted a series of sexual personae to write poems that explored themes of sexuality.
Her refusal to publish allowed her to write with impunity. Consequently, her personae included male and female heterosexuals, lesbians, autoeroticists, masochists, sadists and necrophiles.
Emily Dickinson’s Sexual Personae is R J Dent’s in-depth study of the transgressive nature of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
Book details:
Title: Emily Dickinson’s Sexual Personae
Author: R J Dent
Cover Artist: Jennifer Allan
ISBN: 978-1-3005-9584-7
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 370
Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches / 229 x 152 x 12.5 mm
Publisher: Incunabula
Publication date: 22nd February 2025
Purchase link (Incunabula): https://incunabulamedia.com/the-world
February 9, 2025
The Future’s Eve
by Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
Translated into English by R J Dent
A world-renowned inventor agrees to create an ideal woman for his friend, a young English aristocrat – and the first female android is created.
Originally published in 1886, The Future’s Eve is a symbolist novel and a key text of the Decadent movement, notable for its literary experimentation, as well as for being the first novel to popularise the word and concept of the ‘android’. Situated somewhere between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, The Future’s Eve centres on a fictionalised version of the great inventor, Thomas Edison, who creates an ideal mechanical woman.
R J Dent’s new modern English version of The Future’s Eve is the first 21st-century translation of this important work of 19th-century science fiction.
Villiers de l’Isle Adam was one of the greatest symbolist writers of the 19th century. Originally published in 1886, The Future’s Eve is a stunning work, noted for popularizing the term ‘android’.
Book details:
Title: The Future’s Eve
Author: Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
Translator: R J Dent
ISBN: TBA
Format: Paperback/ebook/audio book
Language: English
Pages: 345
Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.45 inches
Publisher: Soyos Books
Publication date: February 2025
January 25, 2025
TYPO 9
The International Journal of Prototypes
Like a robot assembled in a subterranean laboratory, this issue contains prototypical pieces from around the world. Many contributors were previously seen in so-called Obscure Publications. Others have been freshly translated from rare French, Belgian, and Russian books and magazines. Some authors are well-known in avant-garde or fantasy circles. Some artists & writers are just breaking through. But all have been brought together to create this sublime issue for your pleasure.
FEATURING: Alphonse Allais; Chiara Ambrosio; Robert Archambeau; Pierre Bettencourt; Greg Boyd; Terry Bradford; H.V. Chao; Lynn Crawford; Caroline Crépiat; R J Dent; Mark Ducharme; Jean-Luc Garneau; Edward Gauvin; Vasilisk Gnedov; Kirpal Gordon; Michael Gould; André Hardellet; Jordan Jones; Amy Kurman; Joel Lipman; Emilia Loseva; Stephen-Paul Martin; George MacLennan; Henri Michaux; Claudio Parentela; Angelo Pastormerlo; Gabriel & Marcel Piqueray; Bernard Quiriny; Doug Skinner; Renée Vivien; Danny Vinkler; Bill Wolak.
Product details:
Title: TYPO 9
Subtitle: The International Journal of Prototypes
ISBN-13: 979-8992-3826-00
ASIN: B0DV3ZK6QV
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 152
Publisher: Black Scat Books
Publication Date: January 24, 2025
Item Weight: 10.1 ounces
Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.38 inches
Journal Details: https://blackscatbooks.com/2025/01/25/typo-9-a-fusion-of-avant-garde-literature/
Purchase Link (US): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DV3ZK6QV/
Purchase Link (UK): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DV3ZK6QV/
