Rediscovery of Louis Dumur's 'Un coco de génie' Raises Questions on Plagiarism and Genius

Éditions Tristram has republished Louis Dumur's 1902 novel 'Un coco de génie', a satirical work that explores unconscious plagiarism and the nature of literary genius. The novel follows Frédéric Loiseau, who discovers that his friend Charles Loridaine unknowingly rewrites masterpieces by Hugo, Baudelaire, and Flaubert. Dumur, a Swiss writer born January 5, 1863 in Vandœuvres, Geneva, studied at the Sorbonne, worked as a tutor in Russia, and contributed to Mercure de France. The reissue includes a postface by scholar Jean-Jacques Lefrère. The novel anticipates surrealist ideas about subconscious creation and questions intellectual property, originality, and the possibility of a single writer manifesting across centuries.