Synopses & Reviews
With a name like Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur de Perthes, it ought to be easy to become a hero. Yet, how to go about it? A real-life nineteenth-century paleontologist and explorer, excavated here by Christine Montalbetti to serve as her protagonist, Jacques has tried everything: fighting off pirates, writing poetry, becoming a dandy, a man of culture . . . all without ever quite feeling he fits the bill. At last, when Jacques decides he’ll make his name by discovering evidence of early man, it seems we, his audience, will be treated to a novel about mankind itself—unless, of course, our putative hero gets shanghaied into a love story along the way. The Origin of Man is the story of one man—and all humanity—waging a war against oblivion without ever quite winning the day. It’s also a comedy about being immersed in heroic and fantastical events without one’s ever noticing.
Synopsis
is the story of one man--and all humanity--waging a war against oblivion without ever quite winning the day.
Synopsis
The Origin of Man is the story of one man—and all humanity—waging a war against oblivion without ever quite winning the day.
About the Author
A novelist, playwright, literary critic, and theorist, Christine Montalbetti is also a professor of French literature at the University of Paris VIII. She has written five novels.Betsy Wing is a writer and translator whose fiction collection Look Out for Hydrophobia appeared in 1991. She is the translator of Western and The Origin of Man by Christine Montalbetti, as well as works by Assia Djebar, Paule Constant, and Édouard Glissant.