Star (Psi Cassiopeia) (The Gregg Press science fiction series)

Gregg Press, 1976, cloth. Translated from the French by P. J. Sokolowski. New introductions by Pierre Versins and Marc Angenot. Text offset from the 1975 DAW Books edition. A masterpiece of nineteenth century science fiction, STAR (1854) is one of the earliest space operas and the first work of its scale in the science fiction genre. The story describes the earth leveled by plague, the flight of a few survivors to other planets, and the settlement of Star. ...a flamboyant early example of space opera... by the obscure Charles Defontenay, stands out quite prominently, not only as an intriguing literary curiosity but as a novel well ahead of its time. - Anatomy of Wonder (1987).