Boulle's "Planet of the Apes" (1963)

Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes is better known to English readers as Planet of the Apes (translated from the French by Xan Fielding), and was adapted into a film in 1968 (it was also published in the UK as Monkey Planet). The original novel differs dramatically from the 1968 film in the back half of the narrative, and the personality of the main character is somewhat less nihilistic than the film's protagonist (Taylor). 

The novel is divided into three main acts:

1. A prologue describes the discovery of the following account: In 2500, three men journey to the star Betelgeuse and land on one of its planets. There, they discover humans who are no more intelligent than animals. However, a race of civilized apes captures one of them (a man named Mérou) and brings him back to their city for examination. Mérou tries to convince the apes that he is an intelligent being.
2. After befriending a female chimp scientist named Zira, Mérou successfully proves his intelligence to the apes and becomes a celebrated figure in ape society.
   
3. Based on relics found in an archaeological dig, the apes begin to suspect that civilized man preceded the apes on their planet. When Mérou and his mate Nova give birth to an unusually precocious baby, they begin to fear him and the possibility of mankind returning to its earlier dominance. With the help of his Zira and her fiance Cornélius, Mérou and his family escape back into space and return to Earth. There, they discover that Earth has also been taken over by its apes, just as had occurred on Soror. In a postlude, the readers of Mérou's account are revealed to be apes themselves.

   

   Éditions Julliard 1963

Chapter Synopses

1. PART ONE: While vacationing in a solar sail-driven pleasure craft, two wealthy interstellar tourists come across a message in a bottle floating in the void. They begin to read its contents.
   
2. The narrator, Ulysse Mérou, explains that he and his family are now seeking a new planet to settle on, but that the following account will hopefully act as a warning to whoever discovers it: In the year 2500, a journalist named Mérou, a professor named Antelle, Antelle's assistant Levain, and a monkey named Hector depart on a starship expedition to Betelguese. Due to time-dilation effects, 350 years pass on Earth during the same period as their 2-year long trip (which travels at a near light-speed velocity).   
3. The crew discover an Earth-like planet orbiting Betelgeuse, which they name Soror ("sister" in French). They decide to land on the planet in a planetary launch. While looking for a suitable landing spot, they spot small villages and roads dotting the surface.
4. The launch lands without incident and discovers that the planet has an Earth-like atmosphere. While Hector scampers away into a forest, the explorers discover humanoid footprints near a waterfall.
5. While swimming in the lake, a beautiful girl appears, although she never smiles and only makes incoherent animal-like noises. When Hector appears, she (dubbed "Nova" by the travelers) strangles the chimp to death and then flees.
6. The next day, Antelle's party encounter more human savages, all of whom seem no more intelligent than animals. When the visitors display articles of clothing, the savages flee in terror.
7. The savages soon return in large numbers and tear apart the visitors' clothing, after which they proceed to destroy Antelles' landing craft. Mérou and his friends are then led to a small "camp", where they are forced to create simple shelters out of branches. Nova befriends Mérou, however.
8. The camp is roused into flight when tribal drums, shouting and gunshots are heard. Mérou sees something shocking approaching them.
9. The human savages are rounded up with nets and guns by gorillas wearing sports-hunting gear. Levain is shot, and Mérou is eventually captured in a net.
10. Merou is put into a cage and brought to an ape village where photographs are taken of the gorilla hunters and their victims. Mérou begins to laugh hysterically at the absurdity of the anthropomorphized apes, but the other human savages in his cage immediately force him to stop. However, Mérou is happy to see Nova in his own group.
11. Mérou tries to come to grips with his situation, and theorizes that the men of this planet must have somehow been able to civilize the apes of this world.
12. Mérou is brought into a small town and realizes that the apes are indeed the civilized race here. After he is put into a research compound cage, he tries to introduce himself (in French) to two ape attendants. After their initial shock at the sight of a talking human, they begin to laugh at him.
13. Mérou is visited by a chimpanzee who he eventually learns is named Zira. Although he tries to convince her that he is intelligent, she cannot understand his language and ends up just giving him a lump of sugar.
14. The following day, the apes begin teaching the human captives tricks through conditioning. When Mérou tries to prove that he is a "fast learner", the apes become confused.
15. An elderly orangutan named Zaïus is brought in to observe Mérou's unusual antics. Despite Mérou's best efforts, Zaïus refuses to acknowledge the possibility of the human's intelligence.
16. Nova is put into Mérou's cage, presumably so that the apes can study human mating rituals.
17. Mérou refuses to engage in a sexual display for the apes' study, but when Nova is then paired with another human he becomes enraged. Eventually he acquiesces to the humiliation.
    
18. PART TWO: After a month passes, Mérou finally breaks through to Zira by drawing geometrical figures on a piece of paper, as well as a star map. However, she motions for Mérou to keep this a secret when Zaïus arrives.
19. In two months, Zira learns the basics of French, and Mérou the apes' language. She explains to Mérou that the ape world has three classes: chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas. The chimps theorize that man and ape may have had a common evolutionary link far in the past.
20. One day, Zira brings Mérou out of the compound on a leash and into her car. They drive around the city and eventually reach a park.
21. There, Zira introduces Mérou to her fiance Cornélius, another chimp scientist. She tells Mérou  that Zaïus wants to subject him to brain surgery. However, she has a plan which will hopefully turn public opinion against Zaïus' intentions.
22. Mérou learns that the gorilla race serve as the lawmakers and laborers, the orangutans serve as a conservative political force, and the chimpanzees are the researchers. The apes do research on humans to try to solve the mystery of their origins.
23. Mérou describes the ape civilization to be in a state technologically-similar to that of mid-20th century Earth. He visits a zoo where he spots Professor Antelle, but Antelle seems unresponsive, as his mind has degenerated to that of his cage-mates.
24. During a massive public gathering held in an amphitheater, Mérou is presented as a "bright human" by Zaïus, but nothing more. However, Mérou takes this opportunity to launch into a presentation of his own.
25. Mérou gives a speech (in ape language) describing his journey from Earth to Soror. After the crowd erupts in excitement, he faints.
26. In the ensuing days, simian society begins treating Mérou like a celebrity. However, when he goes to visit Professor Antelle, his old friend continues to act like an incoherent savage.
    
27. PART THREE: Now treated as an equal, Mérou begins working with Zira and Cornélius in their human research compound. One day, Cornélius invites Mérou on a trip to the outlands to inspect some unusual archaeological findings.
28. On the way to the dig (which dates from older than 10,000 years), Cornélius explains to Mérou that he wants to know why the ape civilization had suddenly appeared on Soror 10,000 years ago, and since then has not made any real progress in technology. He wonders if the apes of ancient days might have simply absorbed their science from an "external entity".
    
29. When Cornélius uncovers a clothed human doll which mechanically speaks the word "papa", he becomes very disturbed and evasive. He decides to send Mérou back to the ape city.
30. On the flight back, Mérou wonders if it might be possible that man had preceded the apes, until one day the apes had mutated enough that they were able to begin speaking and learning the ways of man. He remembers visiting an ape stock exchange with very similar attributes to that of a human one on Earth.
31. While recovering from a fever, Mérou begins to think of himself as humanity's "savior" on this planet, destined to help man regain what it had somehow lost 10,000 years ago. Back at the research compound, he learns that Nova is pregnant.
32. Cornélius returns from the dig and informs Mérou that human skeletons have been found, cementing his belief that humans preceded apes on the planet. Mérou believes that his child (from Nova) will be able to speak and thus usher in a return of intelligent mankind to Soror. Cornélius warns him that the ruling council would be disturbed to hear such thoughts.
33. One day, Mérou visits another part of the research compound. He is horrified by the brain surgery experiments done on captive humans (which he knows are done to apes on his own planet).
34. In another room, Cornélius reveals some secret experiments in which he has been able to use electroshock and chemical therapy to prompt a male Soror human to actually speak. Next, he presents Mérou with a similarly-treated woman who is able to recite "race memories" in the voices of individuals in the past. The voices she recites describe how the once-enslaved apes had suddenly gained intelligence and then proceeded to drive humanity back into the stone-age.
35. Nova gives birth. As rumors of Cornélius's radical theories begin to circulate, the apes begin to have fearful misgivings about Mérou. At the same time, Mérou believes that his son will someday usher in the return of civilized man to Soror.
36. A month later, Mérou is informed that his sequestered son has begun to speak, a development which terrifies the apes. Cornélius tells Mérou that Zaïus and his orangutan party plan to imprison his son and then lobotomize Mérou and Nova. However, Cornélius and Zira have come up with a plan to secretly send Mérou and his family into space on a satellite test where he can rendezvous with his abandoned starship, still orbiting Soror. Although grateful, he feels sad to be leaving Zira and to be abandoning his fellow humans on Soror.
37. Mérou, Nova and their young sun (named Sirius) successfully regain the Earth starship and leave Soror. After a year and a half (350 years by Earth time) they land on Earth. However, Mérou is stunned when he is greeted by an inspector who turns out to be a gorilla. The same fate which befell Soror has also happened to Earth during his absence.
    
38. After the two interplanetary tourists have finished reading Mérou's account, they dismiss it as a fabrication and continue on their joyride. The narrative then reveals them to be chimpanzees.

    

    Bizarre Mystery Magazine November 1965

Planet of the Apes Wiki Entry
https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/Artwork_based_on_%27La_Plan%C3%A8te_des_singes%27
Planet of the Apes (BBC Adaptation)
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