The novel “Planet of the Apes”, also known as “Monkey Planet” (“La Planète des Singes”), by Pierre Boulle was published for the first time in 1963. It was translated into English by Xan Fielding.

Jinn and Phyllis are spending a vacation in space when they come across a message in a bottle abandoned in space. It contains a manuscript in which the journalist Ulisse Mérou tells his incredible story.

Ulisse Mérou was invited by Professor Antelle to be part of a scientific expedition in the system of the star Betelgeuse. There, the space explorers found a planet very similar to Earth and landed there with a small spacecraft. The surprise of finding beings completely similar to humans was surpassed only by the discovery that the rulers of the planet are sentient apes.