The Eternal Adam

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The Eternal Adam (French: L'Éternel Adam) is a short novelette by Jules Verne recounting the progressive fall into Barbary of a group of survivors to an apocalypse.

[edit] Plot summary

The novel is set in a far future where an archaeologist deciphers the preserved journal of a survivor to total destruction of civilisation. The discovery comes in the midst of philosophical controversies on the Origin of Man, between those that believe in the existence of a unique ancestor and those that do not.

The journal describes the struggle for survival of a small group and the futility of the accumulated knowledge in the group.

The conclusion of the novel implies that the unique ancestor is the survivor whose journal was discovered, and that civilisation is doomed to eternal fall and rebirth.