Created by: Norbert Sévestre (1879-19??)

Of all the pulp serials launched in France in imitation of the popular dime novels, the "
Sar Dubnotal" series, created by prolific adventure writer Norbert Sévestre, and published by Eichler in 1909-1910, was the only one to embrace a full range of larger-than-life super-heroics.

The
Sâr Dubnotal was the "Great Psychagogue", the "Napoléon of the Intangible", the "Master of Psychognosis", the "Conqueror of the Invisible". He also used the aliases of "El Tebib" (meaning the Doctor in Arabic), or merely that of "the Doctor", implying that he was a learned master of the occult.

In spite of his stylish oriental guise, Dubnotal was in fact a western man, who had grown in the Rosicrucian tradition, and then had learned the ancient secrets of the Hindu yogis, and had mastered their fantastic paranormal abilities. Dubnotal was capable of telepathy, lévitation, and hypnotism. In spite of its beautiful covers, the series, which was probably ahead of its times, lasted only twenty issues.


TO FIND OUT MORE, BUY THESE BOOKS



The Books


(all published by Eichler, starting in January 1909)

1. Le Manoir Hanté de Creh'h-ar-Vran (The Haunted Manor of Creh'h-ar-Vran)
2. La Table Tournante du Docteur Tooth (Dr. Tooth's Turning Table)
3. Le Puits Fatal (The Fatal Well)
4. Le Médium Tragique (The Tragic Medium)
5. La Grêve Sanglante (The Bloody Beach)
6. La Détraquée du Passage Rimbaut (The Madwoman of Passage Rimbaut)
7. Tserpchikopf, le Sanglant Hypnotiseur (Tserpchikopf, the Bloody Hypnotist)
8. La Piste Astrale (The Astral Trail)
9. L'Écartelée de Montmartre (The Quartered Woman of Montmartre)
10. Jack l'Éventreur (Jack the Ripper)
11. Haine Posthume (Posthumous Hatred)
12. La Fiancée de Gibraltar (The Fiancée from Gibraltar)
13. Les Vampires du Cimetière (The Vampires of the Cemetery)
14. L'Empreinte Rouge (The Red Mark)
15. La Somnambule du Gué Sanglant (The Somnambulist of the River of Blood)
16. L'Affaire Azzef-Poloukhine (The Azzef-Poloukhine Case)
17. Un Complot Terroriste (A Terrorist Plot)
18. Dans l'Enfer Sibérien (In the Siberian Hell)
19. Azzef, le Roi des Agents Provocateurs (Azzef, King of the Agents Provocateurs)
20. Double-Taf, le Dernier des Pentyerns (Double-Taf, Last of the Pentyerns)



Many thanks to Marc Madouraud.