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Cover of Before Adam by Jack London

Before Adam

  • 137 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 1906
  • 192 editions
  • Free to read

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1 About this book

A young man in modern America is terrorized by visions of an earlier, primitive life. Across the enormous chasm of thousands of centuries, his consciousness has become entwined with that of Big-Tooth, an ancestor living at the dawn of humanity.

Big-Tooth makes his home in Pleistocene Africa, a ferocious, fascinating younger world torn by incessant conflict between early humans and protohumans. Before Adam is a remarkable and provocative tale that thrust evolution further into the public spotlight in the early twentieth century and has since become a milestone of speculative fiction.

The brilliance of the book lies not only in its telling but also in its imaginative projection of a mindset for early humans. Capitalizing on his recognized ability to understand animals, Jack London paints an arresting and dark portrait of how our distant ancestors thought about themselves and their world.

Good for readers who want: a classic, fantasy, and a short read.

  • Evolution
  • Animals
  • Classics
  • Fantasy
  • Science fiction
  • Prehistoric peoples
  • Dreams

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3 About Jack London

1876–1916

John Griffith London (né Chaney; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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