Edmond Haraucourt (1856-1941) was amongst the pioneers of French scientific romance influenced by H. G. Wells, easily ranking alongside the better-known Maurice Renard and J.-H. Rosny Aîné. In this collection of nine ground-breaking science fiction stories, published beween 1888 and 1919, he describes the rise of the Antichrist, the cataclysmic consequences of the discovery of an immortality serum, a journey across the ruins of Paris in the Year 6983, the fall of the Moon upon the Earth, the last of the Great Wars that ends all life on Earth, and even a futuristic "Planet of the Apes" where evolved gorillas wonder, "Are Apes descended from Humans?"