Planet of the Apes

Ulysse finds a world that looks like Earth, until he sees who is in the cages.

Read the classic, chilling dystopian novel that inspired one of the world’s most iconic film franchises.

Ulysse, a journalist, travels from Earth on a near-light-speed voyage to the Betelgeuse system. There he reaches Soror, a planet that seems strangely familiar: it has forests, cities and signs of civilisation. But its order is not human.

On Soror, humans live like animals. They cannot speak, they are hunted in the wild, and they are sent to laboratories for scientific study. The ruling species are intelligent apes, whose society has its own hierarchies, prejudices and institutions.

Captured and taken to a research facility, Ulysse must prove that he is not the creature they believe him to be.

This is science fiction with the sharpness of satire: a story of space travel, evolution and power in which mankind is no longer the measure of all things. Boulle’s imagined planet remains disturbing because its ape society is not alien enough.

'A scintillating mix of sci-fi adventure and allegory' Los Angeles Times

'A drastic warning about where mankind's apparent desire to destroy itself might lead' The Mirror