With a name like Jacques Boucher de Cr癡vecoeur 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��l make his name by discovering evidence of early man, it seems we, his audience, will be treated to a novel about mankind
itself��nless, of course, our putative hero gets shanghaied into a love story along the way. The Origin of Man is the story of one man��nd all humanity��aging a war against oblivion
without ever quite winning the day. It�� also a comedy about being immersed in heroic and fantastical events without one�� ever noticing.
