Jean M. Auel - The Clan of the Cave Bear

The author of this tale of prehistory, Jean Auel, has performed a minor miracle in bringing to life the story of a lost girl adopted into a tribe of hunter-gatherers. It is thoughtful, sensitive, and intelligently made.

San Francisco Chronicle Examiner

These are real people in every sense, mirroring both our virtues and flaws in heightened color.

Newsday

A page-turner Jean Auel has used a remarkable setting the conflict between past and future, the clash between the dying race and the new race that wonders and invents things. Amazingly, Ms. Auel not only makes us see, feel, and smell what life was like then, but actually creates dimensional characters we can understand and sympathize with. She has a thorough understanding of human nature, a gift for storytelling.

Kansas City Star

Our nomination for the years great escape.

Playboy

A double achievement, doubly remarkable. Jean M. Auel gives us a powerful impression of a world alien in its ways of being and, at the same time, conveys that shock of recognition: these people are ourselves, they are what we were.

Lloyd Alexander

A good old-fashioned tale with a spunky Stone Age tomboy named Ayla.

New West

AylaAlone in a world of strangers, she is tall, blond, slender, and smarter than the rest. She must use her wit to survive when she breaks the Clans most forbidden taboo.

BrunChinless, bearded, bow-legged and barrel-chested, he is the leader of the Clan and must decide the fate of the foreign girl.

IzaChief medicine woman of the Clan, Iza sees the strange ugly girl and realizes that she is human and must be saved from starvation.

CrebThe Clans Mog-ur, or magician, he is the most revered holy man of all the clans. But his position doesnt stop him from learning what Ayla knows.

BroudThe son of Brun, he is brutal, proud, and resentful of the attention paid to the strange girl. He vows to get revenge on her in the most physically satisfying way he can.

DurcBorn of a violent rape, belonging to neither one nor the other, he is the future of the Clan.

This eBook version of THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR contains bonus content not found in the printed version.

A Sneak Preview from
Read an exciting preview from Jean M. Auels The Land of Painted Caves, on sale in hardcover in Spring 2011.

Read excerpts from each of the novels in the Earths Children series.

In this special Q&A, Jean M. Auel discusses her bestselling Earths Children series.

This edition contains the complete text
of the original hardcover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED .

THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
Crown Publishers

PUBLISHING HISTORY
Crown edition published September 1980
A Literary Guild Featured Alternate Selection / October 1980
A Main Selection of Preferred Choice Bookplan / January 1981
Bantam edition / August 1981
Bantam reissue / November 1991
Bantam reissue / March 2002

EARTHS CHILDREN is a trademark of Jean M. Auel

All rights reserved.
Copyright 1980 by Jean M. Auel
Cover art copyright 1989 by Hiroko

Excerpt from The Land of Painted Caves copyright 2010 by Jean M. Auel.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 80-014581.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Crown Publishers, Inc.,
New York, NY.

eISBN: 978-0-307-76761-5

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book The Land of Painted Caves. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words Bantam Books and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

v3.1_r2

for RAY
My worst critic
and best friend

Novels by Jean M. Auel

THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR
THE VALLEY OF HORSES
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS
THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE
THE SHELTERS OF STONE

And the latest novel in the Earths Children series

THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES

Acknowledgments

No book published is ever solely the work of the author. Assistance comes from a variety of sources in as many different ways. But some contributions to my work came from people I have never met and probably never will. I am grateful, nonetheless, to the citizens of the city of Portland, and the country of Multnomah, Oregon, whose taxes support the Multnomah County Library, without whose reference materials this book would not have been written. I am also grateful to the archaeologists, anthropologists, and other specialists who wrote the books from which I gathered most of the information for the setting and background of this novel.

There were many who helped more directly. Among them, I want especially to thank:

Gin DeCamp, the first to hear my story idea, who was a friend when I needed one, who read a fat manuscript with enthusiasm and a meticulous eye for errors, and who sculpted a symbol for the series. John DeCamp, friend and fellow writer, who knew the agonies and the ecstasies, and had the uncanny knack of calling exactly when I had to talk to someone who did. Karen Auel, who encouraged her mother more than she ever knew because she laughed where she was supposed to laugh and cried where she was supposed to cry, though it was a first draft.

Cathy Humble, of whom I asked the greatest favor one can ask of a friendhonest criticismbecause I valued her sense of words. She did the impossible; her critique was both acutely perceptive and gentle. Deanna Sterett, for getting caught up in the story, and who knew enough about hunting to point out some oversights. Lana Elmer, who listened with unflagging attention to hours of dissertation and still liked the story. Anna Bacus, who offered her unique insights and her sharp eye for spelling.

Not all my research was done in libraries. My husband and I made many field trips to learn firsthand various aspects of living close to nature. In the line of direct experience, special thanks are due to Frank Heyl, Arctic Survival Expert with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, who showed me how to make my bed in a snow cave and then expected me to lie in it! I survived that cold January night on the slopes of Mount Hood and learned much more about survival from Mr. Heyl, who has my vote as the one Id most like to be around during the next Ice Age.