Before Adam

A compelling but limited exercise of imagination, Jack London's short novel Before Adam sees a modern man plagued by dreams which appear to be the residual genetic/ancestral memory of his pre-human ape-like ancestor Big Tooth. Through this literary set-up, London tells us this caveman's story.

It is as you would expect from London, the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang: Big Tooth's world is a brutal one, in which a violent death is the natural order of things. In fact, Before Adam was closer to his two famous dog/wolf stories than I expected; Big Tooth is more animal than man. This caveman and his tribe have not discovered fire, nor coherent speech (the lack of dialogue makes this short book slower than it appears). This is a show more shame, as the book's best moments come when Big Tooth and his companions show whispers of the humans their descendants will one day become: fire, tools, boats, love, companionship, co-operation and social structure. The animalistic stuff has been done better in London's other books.

Nevertheless, few write more concisely or perceptively about nature and 'the law of tooth and fang' than London, and it is fascinating to follow his primordial characters through their adventure. Despite some disappointments to the book (the story ends rather lamely, and there is the afore-mentioned prioritisation of more animalistic than human traits), Before Adam is a worthwhile obscure read from an author who was prolific in his day but is now known solely for a handful of stories. There is an odd feeling that comes from contemplating our caveman past, something that is part of us just "as my father and my grandfather are parts of me less remote" (pg. 12), and London captures it. show less

My name is Adam so this slim softcover, obviously old and from whence it came, who knows?, had always dimly called out to me, "read me, read me." But I never did, for decades. But happy childhood memories of my dad's reading out loud to me Call of the Wild induced me, finally, to give it a try. I am glad I did. Before Adam is a fantastic tale of a modern homo sapiens who dreams every night of his alter ego, Big Tooth, a kind of proto man, almost apelike, and his friends and enemies, Red Eye, Lop Ear, Swift One, etc. In this earlier life, a distant memory of his ancestor, life is perilous, hard, fearful and often short. But at the same time it has its moments of fun, humor, friendship, and love of a sort for family and mates. London was show more one of the most successful, prolific, and wealthiest writers of his time, despite his relatively short life. You can see why as this book, and other stories of his that appeared in magazines, are real page turners. London's style is crisp and remains fresh even a century later. Like Mark Twain, and unlike someone like Herman Melville, he's an easy read in terms of both grammar, style, and vocabulary. This book deserves to be read and enjoyed and not just sit collecting dust on a bookshelf. Shame on me for taking 40 years to realize this. show less

"Adem'den Önce"yi okudum. Bu kitaptan önce London'dan Vahşetin Çağrısı'nı okumuştum, kitabı beğenmeme rağmen yazarla tarzımızın uyuşmadığını düşüncesine kapılmıştım. Geçenlerde yazarın kitaplarını incelerken diğer kitaplarının konusu hoşuma gidince 4-5 tane London kitabı aldım. İlgimi en çok bu kitap çektiği için okumaya bunla başladım. Doğru seçim yapmışım, yazar bu kitap sayesinde sevdiğim yazarlar arasına girmeyi başardı.

Kitaptan daha farklı bir olay örgüsü bekliyordum ama bu haliyle de hoşuma gitti. Olay örgüsü karmaşık olmamasına rağmen evrim teorisini edebiyata başarıyla yedirmesi sayesinde yazar övgüyü hakediyor.

A brief and interesting "firsthand" account of our ancient ancestor's daily life experiences. I have never found London's works to be sophisticated, and certainly this book is more fantasy than real science based fiction. Nonetheless, an enjoyable and easy read worth your time.

Predates Clan of the Cave Bear by 75 years or so. Same idea, London launches right into human evolution in the 19teens. An amazing work, well-enough done.

it´s surprising this story is about a century old, it could have been written nowadays. Of course it´s not fully scientific. It´s fiction, and nature laws are slightly different from the ones we know. It´s based on the idea that, somehow, experience can de inherited through genes. But that idea (Lamark's like) had already been left as non valid at the time the book was written, being preferred Darwin's theory of evolution (natural selection). The story is entertaining, the author manages to make the reader sympathetic to that half brute/half human predecessor of man who is the main character of the book and even succeed at giving its adventures a look of verity.

A boy has dreams of an ancestral pre-human past when humans were still evolving to the our present state. Still mostly living in trees the Folk as he called them had very limited language and no technology yet, not even fire. Jack London wrote that we have dreams of falling and of running away because those have been carried down to us from earlier times. The reason we dream we are falling and don't land is because if the dreamer hadn't caught something to stop our they would not have become ancestors. The same with dreams of being chased. Those who were caught and eaten by a Saber Tooth Tiger didn't become ancestors either. In the boys dreams the primitive ancestors moved into caves from the trees and then encountered more advanced show more human type who had fire and drove them out of their caves. Only a few survived but those few must have become ancestors. I read this as a boy. The second reading tells that Jack London was one of the greatest story tellers and writers. show less