André Semeur recounts how his wife Albane falls gravely ill and is sent to Nice, while he returns to Paris, troubled by her absence; during a business trip to Berlin he meets Professor Krantz, a distracted but respected scientist, who tells him he is working not to cure disease but to overcome death itself, asks for secrecy, and suggests success may be near; later, Semeur returns to Berlin and visits the modern institution at Grunewald, where he encounters Krantz again, who claims his discovery has been achieved and that he himself is dead yet kept in motion by a mechanical device replacing his heart, producing a regular ticking, though this is later contradicted when Dr. Lautensack explains that Krantz is in fact a patient suffering from delusion, believing a watch against his chest sustains his life, and Krantz subsequently dies when the watch stops.
First Appearance Le professeur Krantz (1932) by Maurice Renard
First Publisher La Petite Illustration
Appearance List Le professeur Krantz (1932) by Maurice Renard — first standalone publication as a nouvelle in La Petite Illustration, no. 571 / roman no. 262, published by Éditions de L’Illustration, Paris, 2 April 1932; El profesor Krantz (1947, Spanish, Zig-Zag in the La Linterna series, no. 45, 108 pages); Romans et contes fantastiques by Maurice Renard (1990) — ed. Francis Lacassin and Jean Tulard; Schmetterling des Todes (1990, German, Das Neue Berlin); 13 fantastiques nouvelles (2014, ebook); Le professeur Krantz (2023) from Culturea
Description André Semeur recounts how his wife Albane falls gravely ill and is sent to Nice, while he returns to Paris, troubled by her absence; during a business trip to Berlin he meets Professor Krantz, a distracted but respected scientist, who tells him he is working not to cure disease but to overcome death itself, asks for secrecy, and suggests success may be near; later, Semeur returns to Berlin and visits the modern institution at Grunewald, where he encounters Krantz again, who claims his discovery has been achieved and that he himself is dead yet kept in motion by a mechanical device replacing his heart, producing a regular ticking, though this is later contradicted when Dr. Lautensack explains that Krantz is in fact a patient suffering from delusion, believing a watch against his chest sustains his life, and Krantz subsequently dies when the watch stops.
Source ○
Britten’s old clocks and watches and their makers p. 125 (1973)
