Edmond Haraucourt's Da h: The First Human (1914) begins with the proto-humans D h and his wives, Hock and Ta, living a solitary existence, and then sketches, episodically, an account of their slow ascent towards civilization. With Da h 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...