The Ape-Woman

by John Charles Beecham

Release: 30 October 1920
Format: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: No Time Phenomena
Original Language: English

Given the intriguing title, we hoped the title character of this early novelette would be a time traveling ape from from future, but alas, such was not meant to be. Instead, the narrator’s partner on a rubber plantation adopts an orphaned Bornean ape and brings her up as human.

— Michael Main

In pursuance of this theory he strove sedulously to teach the ape to distinguish colors, to recognize and fashion geometrical patterns, and to do many of the clever things with blocks and tinted paper that four and five year olds do in the kindergartens. Each new accomplishment he claimed as a triumph and a further vidication of his theory. I had my doubts, although I was willing to concede that Claybourne was a good animal-trainer.

DEBUT

“The Ape-Woman,” in Argosy All-Story Weekly, 30 October 1920.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Themes

Despite Title, No Time Penomena

Fictional Tags

Smart Simians: maybe not evolved yet, but they are on their way