Paris avant les hommes
English release: Paris before Humankind Literal: Paris before Man
by Pierre Boitard
Everyone from Jules Verne to John Connor seems to know of Pierre Boitard’s edition of
Paris avant les hommes published in 1861, two years after Boitard’s death. The
500-page tome tells the tale of a limping devil named Asmodeus who takes Boitard himself
on a journey through Earth’s natural history.
What’s less well known is that 25 years earlier, Boitard’s initial version—yes, including the time-traveling Asmodeus—appeared as a 44-page, two-part article in the family magazine Musée des Familles—Lecture pour Tous. I stumbled upon this in Jean Le Loeuff’s November 2012 blog, Le Dinoblog.
— Michael Main
To this question, the devil burst into laughter, waking them. The female ran about on all
fours, carrying under her belly the little ones, clinging with all their might; but the
male uttered a fierce gutteral roar, fixed his eyes upon me, stood upright on his hind
legs, and raising high his flint ax, rushed toward me with a furious leap, swinging the
deadly weapon at my head.
At that moment, I uttered a cry of terror because I had no
choice but to recognize exactly what kind of monster he was. .
. He was a man.
[ex=bare]“Paris avant les hommes” | Paris before man[/ex] by Pierre Boitard, in Musée des Familles—Lectures du
Soir, June 1836 and November 1837.