Before Adam

Before Adam is a short fantasy novel by Jack London, first serialized in Everybody's Magazine in 1906–1907 and published as a book in 1907. The narrator is a modern, educated man who since childhood has been haunted by recurring dreams: he can clearly see things he has "never seen" yet instinctively knows what they are, as if these scenes were his own experience. He comes to believe he can trace his line back before human civilization, to a remote ancestor. The main body of the novel unfolds from the perspective of that ancestor, "Big Tooth": in a prehistoric world where language has not yet taken shape and tools are extremely crude, he lives with his fellow "Cave People" in caves and trees, eats raw food, and constantly guards against beasts such as the saber-toothed tiger. Around them are the more advanced "Fire People," who already use fire, and the more beastlike, tree-dwelling "Tree People." Danger also lurks within the tribe: the fierce, violent "Red Eye" constantly threatens his companions, while Big Tooth learns to survive and forms bonds amid fear and struggle. With crisp, vivid prose, Jack London weaves his understanding of evolutionary theory and history into the narrative, painting a picture of prehistoric human life and struggle and offering an early artistic imagination of human evolution. The 2011 Foreign Languages Press edition, translated by Liao Meizhen, presents the English original alongside the Chinese translation and commentary on the translation, combining reading value with translation-studies value.