Human Prehistory in Fiction

Charles De Paolo, the author of numerous books, is a professor of English at Manhattan Community College, the City University of New York. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey.

“comprehensive...interesting...recommended”—Choice; “an academically solid study”—Interzone; “fascinating and innovative...exemplary...highly recommend[ed]”—SFRA Review; “a fascinating casestudy of the relationship between individual works of fiction and their scientific context”—Science Fictions Studies; “fascinating...an important contribution...thoroughly readable and highly recommended”—Public Library Quarterly; “a fascinating read, demonstrating a detailed knowledge of fictions dealing with human prehistory...should be considered an important contribution to Wells studies...De Paolo captures Wells’s importance as a thinker as well as his skill and commitment as a storyteller...readable and highly recommended”—The Wellsian.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments     Abbreviations     Introduction     1 Heterogony and H.G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau     2 “A point in common”: Pierre Boulle’s The Planet of the Apes     3 Chains and Links: Jules Verne’s The Village in the Treetops     4 Phylosynthesis in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot    5 H.G. Wells’s “The Grisly Folk”: The Struggle for Legitimacy     6 Lester Del Rey’s “The Day Is Done” and the Tasmanian Analogue     7 William Golding’s The Inheritors: The Great Divide     8 Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: “the promise of humanity”    9 H.G. Wells’s “The Lord of the Dynamos” and Related Works: “a god among the heathen”   10 Jean Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear: “defining the point”     11 J-H Rosny-Aîné's Quest for Fire: The Archaic Twilight     12 H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine: The Days of Triumph     13 The Paleoanthropologist as Literary Critic     Works Cited     Index