Enemy Force (1903) is a ground-breaking, surrealistic novel about a poet who is locked in a lunatic asylum and who mysteriously becomes possessed by an "Enemy Force," possibly an alien being from a hellish planet orbiting the star Aldebaran. Both tragic and satirical, emotional and visionary, it is considered by many scholars to be a forgotten masterpiece of early science fiction. John-Antoine Nau (1860-1918) was himself an eccentric French poet and writer who led a marginal existence and whose works remained mostly unpublished until long after his death. FIRST WINNER OF THE PRESTIGIOUS LITERARY GONCOURT AWARD (1903). "The best [novel] that we ever crowned." Joris-Karl Huysmans. Michael Shreve is a writer and translator currently living in Paris. His credits include translations of Jacques Barberi, Andre Laurie and Marcel Schwob.