DIABLERIES
The New Complete Edition
Brian May, Denis Pellerin, Paula Fleming
In France, around 1860, from the loins of a traditional national fascination with all things diabolical, was born a new sensation – a series of visionary dioramas depicting life in a strange parallel universe called ENFER – Hell – communicated to an eager audience by means of stereoscopic cards, to be viewed in the stereoscopes, which had already become popular in the 1850s. This 3-D phenomenon, which fascinated a nation for 40 years, is yours to share.
This book, the fruit of half a lifetime’s study by three impassioned authors, brings every single one of the published Diableries into the 21st Century for the very first time. Some of them are so rare that at the time of writing there is no known full collection of the originals of these masterpieces.
In the first edition of this book, published in 2013, there were two stereo cards missing from the Diableries series! In 2018, after a worldwide search, finally the last card was found, and is published for the very first time in this new edition of Diableries, along with the story of its discovery.
The final dimension in this unique study is the original research, which unearths the hidden meanings in these tableaux. Never before have these secrets been revealed – clues to the conflicts in France in a period of great unrest, suffering, shame and suppression – a period which, even in French schools is seldom part of the curriculum. The Diableries are impudent, funny, sad, riotously inventive, satirical and dangerously seditious. Their wickedness awaits you.
Hardcover: 280 pages, 500 photographs. Includes a complementary full original fold-out OWL 3-D viewer inside a gilt-lettered envelope, all included in the sturdy slipcase with lenticular (3-D image viewable without glasses) applied.
Size: 325 x 240 mm
ISBN / Price (UK edition) : 978-1-9996674-3-6 / £60
Distributor: Combined Book Services
orders@combook.co.uk
Published: 31 October 2019
Publisher: The London Stereoscopic Company
UK Representation: Compass Independent Publishers Ltd. sales@compassips.london
“The monster hardback tome collects together a series of diableries (devilments) – photographs of ghoulish ‘stereo’ cards featuring devils, skeletons and satyrs, originally printed in France in the 1860s. These stereo cards are best viewed in 3D. As a consequence, May, who has held a lifelong passion for stereoscopic imagery, has set about designing his own 3D viewer – a pair of plastic spectacles known as the OWL – a pair are given away with the book.” – Esquire
“However, perhaps his most singular achievement is to become one of the world’s leading experts in a 19th-century French fad for creating visions of Hell.” – The Times
“Gothic Victorian underworld of temptation, seduction, retribution and devilish fun brought alive in colour and 3D.” – Amateur Photographer
“Brian May is still raising hell with Diableries, a book of demonic 3D images from the 19th century.’ – Daily Telegraph “Rock star Brian May reveals the hidden world of the crinoline in magnificent Victorian 3D.” – Art Newspaper
“Full of stunning pictures of 19th century studies in devilment.” – Huffington Post ‘”Who says dinosaur rockers can’t raise hell?” – Wall Street Journal