Planet of the Apes (Penguin Modern Classics) - Tapa blanda

A witty, ironical tale à la Voltaire, full of sharp views about the relationship between men and animals. Boulle depicted a world where humankind has lost its position at the dominant species and apes rule over human savages. The story is set in theyear 2500. In the spirit of Gulliver's Travels, a French journalist travels to another planet, where the apes are intelligent and humans are exhibited in zoos. The book differs in many ways from the film. When Boulle wanted to question our superiority above other animals, the film reveals in the climax the past and destroyed glory of the humankind, symbolised by the ruined, half-buried remains of the Statue of Liberty.

Pierre Boulle was born in Avignon. He was trained as an engineer and spent eight years in Malaysia as a planter and soldier. He was captured by the Japanese, but escaped in 1944 from imprisonment. Most of Boulle's works deal largely with his experiences in Southeast Asia. His best-known novels are BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI 1952, and MONKEY PLANET 1963 which both were adapted into highly successful films. He died in Paris on January 30, 1994.