Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes is a novel by Pierre Boulle, originally published in 1963 in French as La planète des singes. As singe means both "ape" and "monkey," Xan Fielding called his translation Monkey Planet. more...

It is an example of social commentary through dystopia.

Plot summary

The main events of the book are placed in a frame story, in which Jinn and Phillys, a couple out on a pleasure cruise in a spaceship, find a message in a bottle floating in space. The message inside the bottle is the log of a man, Ulysse Mérou, who believes that he may be the last human left alive in all the universe, but has written down his story in hopes that someone else, somewhere, will find it.

The message's writer, our protagonist, begins by explaining that he was friends with Professor Antelle, a genius scientist on Earth, who invented a sophisticated spaceship which could travel at nearly the speed of light. The protagonist, the professor, and a physician named Levain fly off in this ship to explore outer space. They travel to the nearest star system which the professor theorized might be capable of life, the red sun Betelgeuse, which would take them about 350 years to reach. Due to time dilation, however, the trip only seems two years long to the professor and him.

They arrive at the distant solar system and find that it contains an Earth-like planet, which they christen Soror, "because of its resemblance to our Earth." They land on the planet and discover that they can breathe the air, drink the water, and eat the local vegetation. They soon encounter other human beings on the planet, although these others act as primitive as chimpanzees and destroy the clothing of the professor and the protagonist. The protagonist and the professor live with the primitive humans for a few days, hoping to civilize them and learn their language.

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