Before Adam [Hardcover]

Jack London (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1967 | ISBN-10: 1588277704 | ISBN-13: 978-1588277701 | Edition: First Edition

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! Often, before I learned, did I wonder whence came the multitudes of pictures that thronged my dreams; for they were pictures the like of which I had never seen in real wake-a-day life. They tormented my childhood, making of my dreams a procession of nightmares and a little later convincing me that I was different from my kind, a creature unnatural and accursed. In my days only did I attain any measure of happiness. My nights marked the reign of fear - and such fear! I make bold to state that no man of all the men who walk the earth with me ever suffer fear of like kind and degree. For my fear is the fear of long ago, the fear that was rampant in the Younger World, and in the youth of the Younger World. In short, the fear that reigned supreme in that period known as the Mid-Pleistocene.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

London is far from the Yukon in this story, which was first serialized in 1906. In a way, it's London's take on the jungle man theme made popular first by Kipling's The Jungle Books and Burroughs's Tarzan. The story follows a California man who experiences visions of a prehistoric society led by Big-Tooth, who actually is the protagonist. This edition contains a map of Big-Tooth's world as well as numerous illustrations.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

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--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish.com; First Edition edition (September 1967)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588277704
• ISBN-13: 978-1588277701
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,966,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book has made a Jack London fan out of me., March 23, 1999

By 

R. Beach "[e-mail]" (Kyushu, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Before Adam (Paperback)

This is a fascinating, fast-paced story about Man just before he became Man. I loved being taken back to our origins by the totally plausible "time-machine" of genetic memory as presented by Jack London. The story literally shows us the stuff our dreams and we ourselves are made of. This is the first Jack London I've ever read and I'm looking forward to more. I somehow missed having to read Call of the Wild in my school days. I find the style crisp and concrete, and the "far out" premise of the story very believable. I would recommend this to any thoughtful junior high school student and to all adults.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very unusual, very interesting, March 10, 2000

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Before Adam (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

I have never read a book quite like Jack London's "Before Adam." It would be interesting to learn what his target audience for this book was -- young teens, high school students, adults? In it, London sets the premise for the reason of common dreams we all have, such as the dream of falling through space. He attests that it comes from our pre-man existence when we lived and slept in trees and falling meant almost sure death. He takes this theory a giant step forward through the narrator of the book who claims he has pre-historic dreams in which he sees himself as a pre-historic tree and cave dweller named Big Tooth. He creates a fascinating world for Big Tooth to inhabit, and delves into early evolution and survival of the fittest. There are a few holes in his logic, but mostly the story holds together well with several exciting chase sequences. The world of Big Tooth is horrifying, and I think for young teens who are susceptible, it could induce additional nightmares beyond falling. There are dramatic scenes of killing, torture, wife beating, and mass exterminations which are quite explicit. I'm glad I read it, for the book has given me much to think about.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Sleep, Perchance to Remember, October 8, 2001

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Before Adam (CD-ROM)

Nightmares plague the narrator's childhood. In these dreams he relives the pre-stoneage life of one of his proto-human ancestors. Each night is a different episode from his ancestor's life, and the episodes are lived and relived in a jumbled, non-chronological order. The narrator places the episodes in chronological order and tells his ancestor's biography. What emerges is an action-packed, engaging saga of adventure and romance at the dawn of humanity.

London got the science of genetics wrong as he tried to explain how the narrator could have such memories, but he seems to have gotten one thing right. Modern paleo-anthropology posits that for most of prehistory, the earth contained several coexisting species of hominids. London peoples his world with three hominid species. His description of the interaction between these species probably gives an accurate depiction of ancient man's inter-species interaction.