An edition of Before Adam (1906)

Before Adam

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  • 4.0 (4 ratings)
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  • 3 Currently reading
  • 6 Have read


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Last edited by David Scotson
January 13, 2026 | History
An edition of Before Adam (1906)

Before Adam

  • 4.0 (4 ratings)
  • 51 Want to read
  • 3 Currently reading
  • 6 Have read

In Before Adam, an unnamed narrator describes the life of one of his ancestors, who lived during the transition from ape to human being.

Written and published in the early 20th Century, the novel presents ideas that were common for the period, like scientific racism and racial memory, and has elements of eugenic thought. This makes the work outdated both scientifically and socially.

Today, the novel is obscured by Jack London’s more successful works, like Call of the Wild and Martin Eden.

Publish Date
Publisher
Standard Ebooks
Language
English

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Previews available in: Finnish English Dutch Hebrew Swedish

Edition Availability
Cover of: Before Adam
Before Adam
2023, Standard Ebooks
in English
Cover of: Ennen Aatamia
Ennen Aatamia
2018-01-07, Project Gutenberg
in Finnish
Cover of: Before Adam
Before Adam
2014-06-02, LibriVox
in English
Cover of: Vóór Adam's Tijd
Vóór Adam's Tijd
2012-02-29, LibriVox
in Dutch
Cover of: Before Adam
Before Adam
2008-06-29, Project Gutenberg
in English
Cover of: Lifne heyot ha-adam.
Lifne heyot ha-adam.
1922, Stybel
in Hebrew
Cover of: Före Adam
Före Adam
1918, Bohlin
in Swedish - 7. Uppl.
Cover of: Before Adam
Before Adam
1915-05, Macmillan Company
in English
Cover of: before adam
before adam
1915
in English
Cover of: Before Adam
Before Adam
1911, Macmillan.
in English
Cover of: Before Adam
Before Adam
1907-02, Macmillan Company
in English

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Book Details


Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL51733723M
Standard Ebooks
jack-london/before-adam

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL74501W

Work Description

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.

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January 13, 2026 Edited by David Scotson
June 10, 2024 Created by ImportBot import new book