The Aesthetics of Artifice

A detailed reading of Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's 1886 novel L'�ve future , this study explores the author's construction of the android woman from two angles: science and art. Marie Lathers shows that the novel is a satire of the era's belief that science would cure the ills of the modern world and redeem the femme fatale. She also exposes Villiers's prescient discussion of technologies that form hybrids of science and art.