Daah, The First Human

Edmond Haraucourt’s Daâh: The First Human (1914) begins with the proto-humans Dâh and his wives, Hock and Ta, living a solitary existence, and then sketches, episodically, an account of their slow ascent towards civilization. With Daâh serving as a kind of “collective hero,” the novel proceeds through a sequence of epiphanies that includes the invention of families, the axe, clothes, religion, fire and, ultimately, a burgeoning awareness of what will someday become our world. Daâh is a milestone in the genre of prehistoric fantasy, taking into account the then-new discipline of physical anthropology and attempting to bridge the gaps left by science. Haraucourt aspires to a kind of truthfulness in its depiction of the psychological and social processes involved in the pattern of change and discovery, and is remarkable in his ability to portray characters who are not yet us. That is what makes Daâh unique and a true masterpiece.