Rafael Llopis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rafael Llopis
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| Born | 17 April 1933 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | 24 March 2022 (aged 88) Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain |
| Occupation | Essayist, translator, psychiatrist |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Genre | Horror, fantastic |
| Notable works | Historia natural de los cuentos de miedo, Los mitos de Cthulhu, ed., El novísimo Algazife o Libro de las Postrimerías |
Rafael Llopis Paret (born April 17, 1933 – died March 24, 2022) was a Spanish psychiatrist, essayist (a writer of essays), and translator. He was famous for his knowledge of fantasy and horror fiction stories.
Contents
Life and Work
Rafael Llopis studied medicine at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. He worked as a psychiatrist in different health centers around Madrid. He retired from his medical work in 1998.
Discovering Fantasy and Horror
When he was in high school, Rafael Llopis became very interested in fantasy stories. At that time, it was hard to find these kinds of books in Spanish. So, he read them in French.
He also learned English in high school. With an English dictionary, he started reading authors like Sheridan Le Fanu. Le Fanu was one of his favorite writers. Llopis read many other fantasy authors whose books were not available in French.
Rafael Llopis, along with translator Francisco Torres Oliver, helped introduce mystery and scary stories to Spanish readers. They are known for bringing these types of books to Spain.
Introducing H.P. Lovecraft
Llopis was a great expert on H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft was an author who was not well-known in Spain for a long time.
In 1969, Llopis published a famous collection of stories called Los mitos de Cthulhu. This book was the first to bring together many stories by authors connected to Lovecraft. These authors included Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, and Clark Ashton Smith. The book also featured writers who were inspired by Lovecraft, such as Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, and August Derleth.
Other Important Works
Rafael Llopis also created other important books. In 1963, he published Cuentos de terror (Tales of Terror). In 1974, he wrote a long study called Esbozo de una historia natural de los cuentos de miedo (Outline of a Natural History of Scary Stories).
Later, in 1981, he edited a three-volume collection titled Antología de cuentos de terror (Anthology of Terror Tales).
He also wrote a collection called El novísimo Algazife o Libro de las Postrimerías. This book explored new ideas about the Cthulhu myth and ancient Egyptian myths. It mixed vampires, aliens, and haunted Moors in a unique way.
Defining the Weird Tale
In 1985, Llopis published an essay called El cuento de terror y el instinto de la muerte (The Horror Story and the Instinct of Death). This essay was part of a book called Literatura fantástica. Other famous writers like Jorge Luis Borges also had texts in this book.
In his essay, Llopis explained what a "weird tale" is. He said it's a story meant to give you "a nice shiver of supernatural terror." He meant stories where the main topic isn't just death itself. Instead, it's about what might happen after death, like supernatural events or things from beyond.
In 2013, a new and improved version of his book Historia natural de los cuentos de miedo was published. Critic and writer José Luis Fernández Arellano helped him update the book's content.
