The Clan of the Cave Bear (with Bonus Content): Earth's Children, Book One

By Jean M. Auel

This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Through Jean M. Auel’s magnificent storytelling we are taken back to the dawn of modern humans, and with a girl named Ayla we are swept up in the harsh and beautiful Ice Age world they shared with the ones who called themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear.

A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly—she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content:
• An Earth’s Children® series sampler including free chapters from the other books in Jean M. Auel’s bestselling series
• A Q&A with the author about the Earth’s Children® series

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307767615

Jean M. Auel

In 1980, Jean M. Auel became a literary legend with The Clan of the Cave Bear, the first book in her Earth’s Children® series. Now a mother, grandmother, and author who has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, Auel is a heroine of history and prehistory alike, changing the world one enthralling page at a time.

Reviews for The Clan of the Cave Bear (with Bonus Content)

[ccookie_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just finished re-reading Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel which I read when it was first published over 30 years ago. I remembered it as being one of my favourites and I was not at all disappointed in the re-read. I am going to start Valley of the Horses immediately with the plan being to read them all in sequence. One and two will be re-reads but the rest will be brand new. I am caught up in Ayla's world and am really interested in what will happen to her as she continues her journey, both literally and figuratively. I find Auel's characters to be entirely real and relatable. We have all know brutes like Broud and we know that even in a horrific young life, sometimes all it take is to have one person in our life who believes in us like Iza and Creb believed in Ayla. I also enjoyed all the long passages describing the flora and fauna of her world. What a great read! Highly recommended

[wuzzlicious · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was, in my mind, the best in the series. It was the story of a young child, Ayla, who is discovered by people who are different then her. It takes place in prehistoric times and the setting is fascinating. Auel does a fantastic job of setting a scene and has an amazing talent for writing detail.

[stefferoo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Anthropology has always interested me. In college, I earned a degree in Anthropological Sciences, studying subjects like paleoanthropology, archaeology, primatology as well as as hunting-gathering societies and human culture. It was this interest that led me to the Earth's Children series, when I recently glimpsed "The Land of Painted Caves" (book 6) in a new releases newsletter. Intrigued, I decided to pick up book 1, The Clan of the Cave Bear.I'd never read a historical fiction like this, featuring Neanderthals and prehistoric anatomically modern humans as the main characters. That already earns this novel a full star in my book, since I've seen nothing else that tackles this time period.The first thing I noticed was that this book was very carefully researched. There were some inaccuracies, most notably anatomical ones, but I also remind myself that this book was written in 1980. As well, Auel takes many artistic liberties with Neanderthal social behaviors, especially with those relating to gender roles.But on the whole, the facts were well done. While much of the paleoanthropological facts in the book are mostly of a general nature, reading it did bring back some fond memories of school, like the time I got to learn to knap my own flint tools (it's harder than you would expect, by the way).But that's as far as my enjoyment of the book went, I'm afraid. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, showing the straightforward way prehistoric hominins might have communicated or conveyed their thoughts, but after a while the repetition and the internal dialogue really grated me.I also felt the story was good, but it was told in a long, drawn out manner, using mostly descriptions of the characters' every-day life and relationships. Ironically, at times it felt like I was reading an ethnography instead of a novel.

[janismack · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book, interesting and captivating.

[tamaal · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm not a deep student of any forms of pre-ancient humanity but I still found this rather 'mild', simplistic even. I find it almost impossible to believe that life, always an uncertain affair, could be so orgainsed and restrained in this tale of two cultures.Don't get me wrong, it's worth a read; just make sure you've got your winter's supply of salt handy.

[andreablythe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set in the ancient world, The Clan of the Cave Bear tells the story of Ayla, who is orphaned after a giant earthquake and taken in by a group of cave dwellers who call themselves the Clan of the Cave Bear. Tall, blonde and blue-eyed Ayla is one of the Others and is considered ugly by the short, bow-legged, dark colored, neanderthal Clan people. Over and over again in the story, Ayla (either by accident or design) comes up against the traditions of the Clan people, who are set in their ways and unable to change. I was kind of fascinated by the culture of the Clan, which believes in and worships animal spirits and has a strict hierarchy with men as entirely dominant over their docile and obedient women. The clearly sexist culture of the Clan seems to have been designed to show that this is the stone age and thus be "realistic," while setting it up for Ayla to be more progressive as a woman capable of being equal to men. It's an oversimplification in order to easily play on the reader's sympathies, but for all of that (and for Broud being a single minded and one-dimensional villain), there are some lovely characters in the the clan, such as Creb, the deformed shaman, and Iza, the medicine woman who takes Ayla in. Both, but especially Creb, had some wonderful complexities of character that I rather enjoyed. Ayla her self was a little too perfect. She's good at just about everything she does, except for being docile and submissive. She screws up again and again in terms of Clan traditions, but these screw ups are positives from a modern mindset, so as readers we are clearly meant to take her side against the less evolved Clan. Also, the story got to be a bit repetitive as she screws up, is nearly rejected by the Clan, and then is fogiven..., several times. There were a few things that made me very uncomfortable while reading this book. One, was the concept of racial memory prevalent in the book and the idea that the Clan cannot change their ways, because their culture is genetically endowed in them, a rather disturbing concept, especially in regard to continuing discussions of race. Two, is that Ayla, as blonde and blue-eyed, is set up as the future of the human race, while the dark hair and eyed Clan people are doomed to death because they can't change. I don't care that they are meant to be less evolved and that this is the stone age, the author didn't have to set Ayla off by making her so starkly blonde. It could have been just as clear that she was more evolved by showing her height and body structure as by her coloring. Another thing that was far more minor, and something I'm note entirely sure of, is that I kept scratching my head in terms of the mixture of geography, plant life, and animal species. I mean, I associate the lynx with either Europe or North America and lions and rhinos with Africa, and I'm not entirely sure they ever mixed in natural settings. Maybe they did and I just don't know it, but I kept getting confused about how certain animals ever came in contact with each other. So..., this book is flawed in many big ways, but it was also compelling enough to keep me reading to the end, which left me wondering what the heck happens to Ayla next and willing to pick up the next book The Valley of the Horses to find out. So, I would say, the author has done her job in terms of keeping things entertaining and keeping me reading.

[amandacb_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Auel's first book of the (thus far) six-part series introduces us to Ayla, a member of the "Others" who is picked up by the Clan, a group of Neanderthals. Ayla struggles to become accepted into this clan despite being physically and mentally different than the clan members; she is, as the Mog-Ur predicted, the future of humanity while the Clan is the past.That being said, Auel overwhelms the narrative with pedantic descriptions of flora and fauna. Prehistory is insanely interesting to me but I found myself skipping some of the long passages devoted to mundane animal and plant descriptions.

[chellebearss · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I borrowed this book from the library about 10 years ago and let it expire and had to return it unread. I never got around to trying again until I saw it on the Great American Read list and decided to add it to my list of GAR books to try and enjoy this year. I loved it! I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of their surroundings from that time period and the ways they survive and enjoy life in such an unforgiving climate. I need to know what happens next to Ayla and I'll be grabbing the second book very soon!

[janarose1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Set in pre-historic times, Clan of the Cave Bear, the first novel in the Earth’s Children series, tells the story of Ayla. At five years of age Ayla, a Cro-Magnon child, is left alone when an earthquake kills her family. Cold, hungry and injured by a cave lion, she collapses along a path used by a Neanderthal tribe knows as the Clan of the Cave Bear. The medicine woman of the tribe nurses Ayla back to health and adopts her as her own.As Ayla grows, the members of 'the Clan find her behavior and physical attributes to be strange and struggle to accept the girl into their cave. As Ayla grows she flaunts many of the traditions of the clan, causing her to be punished by a temporary death curse. Enduring a month of solitude, Ayla learns that she is self-sufficient. After returning, Ayla becomes pregnant and gives birth to a seemingly deformed child. She fights for her childcan provide for herself, withoby death for women. Once again she flaunts the Clan’s wishes and fights for the life of her child. Auel presents a richly detailed and complicated world. The culture and tradition of the Clan come to life as the reader urges Ayla on.

[justso_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jean Auel made pre history real for me, the characters, setting and events were believable.

[jennmurphy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and well written story. While it takes a leap of faith as far as the plausibility of a good many of the occurances in the novel, the uniqueness of the story makes up for it. If pre-historical early man has ever interested you, this is your book.

[lienseternels · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Le livre que tout le monde devrait avoir. A la découverte de l'humanité. Celle de l'héroïne et celle des autres. Poignant, beau, bien écrit. Je le conseille vivement.

[phoenix24_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was so amazingly well written, that I actually went out and tried to make some of the tools that is described. Everything is done with so much detail, that you feel like you were actually there and seeing these things occur. Ayla is a fascinating character, who is orphaned at a young age, and taken in by what modern folks would call "cavemen." She grows up thinking she is one of them, and learns their ways. It is a great tale about her life with the clan of the cave bear, and prehistoric life.

[joshua7pelton7stroud · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Clan of the Cave Bear is the story of Ayla, a 5 year old Homo Sapien who is stranded in the wild after an earthquake killed her family. She is adopted by the Clan (i assume, considering the time period, that this is Homo Erectus. i don't believe it's mentioned in the book) who take her in and teach her their ways.i was a bit put off when first opening this book. Ms Auel uses very clinical language in her narratorial descriptions, which i found distracting. once i realized that this was on purpose however, i got used to the language and actually found it extremely interesting.Auel goes into incredible depth regarding everything from landscape & character descriptions to the flora & fauna characteristic of the time period. some of the most interesting tidbits i thought were her explanations of the Clan-folk themselves; her reasoning behind the extended occipital lobes, memory and extrapolation, the differences between the minds of H. Sapiens and H. Erectus. as (not even) a layman of human evolution, i found it very compelling.the story itself is a bit dry at times, riveting at others; i found myself struggling in the middle of chapters, waiting for a good place to break and go to bed, only to be sucked back in by the end and continuing right on into the next. while i'm not sure i would rave about it, Clan of the Cave Bear is quite good, and i look forward to continuing the series.

[ncrainstorm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Clan of the Cave Bear is the first book in Jean M. Auel's Earth Children Series. It was first published in 1980. I read this book sometime in the 1990s and remember liking it a lot. I didn't get the same warm fuzzy feelings reading it the second time around. I'm not sure if it's my 20 year age difference, the style of writing then vs now, or what it might be.The story is refreshingly unique and drew me in immediately. My interest waned as Auel spent so much time describing everything. Not just the environment, but the people as well. Show me, don't tell me. Let me see what a character is like by what they say and do instead of so much descriptive text. It made some of the characters fall flat.A saving grace in this novel is the relationships. It was obvious by their actions how much Iza and Creb cared for Ayla and how she loved them. The difference in their appearances didn't matter. That's a lesson we all need to remember.Clan of the Cave Bear is an intriguing story, not one you find everywhere in these days of vampires and zombies. I think it's worth the read.

[marie_badger · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Clan of the Cave Bear is the only book in the world that reduced me to tears before the text was over-- and I am an avid reader. I was drawn to the poor little orphan girl from the very first page (picturing my own blonde-haired, blue-eyed 3 year old girl in her place) and completely turned the knowledge about Neanderthal people I THOUGHT I knew entirely upside down. The doting mother character who adopts little Ayla, Iza, became as familiar to me as my own mother, and more than once I found myself wishing she could sit at my coffee table beside me. I could read it again and again-- but unlike the people of the Clan, I'm afraid that my eyes will be overrun with tears!

[starofsophia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had been recommended this book by a few friends, but thought it was a paleolithic romance novel, so I never read it. Finally a friend convinced me to give it a try, and I have to say, it's worth reading. I stayed up all night reading this one :-)The characters drive the story, but my inner anthropologist was delighted with the cultural details.

[jegka · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This has been on TBR for over ten years as a book I felt I "should" read sooner or later. A recent PBS conversation convinced me to finally pick it up and I'm SO GLAD I did!! I loved it! I don't know what I expected. Probably a slow nearly-documentary of cave people shuffling thru the forest, stalking saber tooth tigers or some such thing. It was not anything of the sort. I was caught up almost immediately by the rich characters and intricate relationships. 5 stars!

[fersher_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first read this book many years ago as a teenager and loved it then. I decided to reread it now to refresh my memory before continuing on with the rest of the Earth’s Children series, and I discovered that I still love the story. This book is an entertaining, easy read and chock full of information about plants and their medicinal uses. I look forward to reading Ms. Auel’s The Valley of Horses, 2nd in the Earth’s Children series.

[bilja_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First of the Earth's children serial, this book shows not only a possible theory about primitive life but also a very natural approach to life, where surviving is the main thing, the territory plays a great role and the constant changes are both an improvement and a danger, depending on which side you are. Evolution might be good for Ayla, not that much for the flathads who saved her, whose head is already so big with the hosting of so many memories and cannot grow bigger without a serious danger for mother and child, meaning litterally....

[theyodamom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the first adult books I read as a teen and loved it. it inspired and horrified me at the same time. heartbreaking and lovely

[bcrowl399 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

loved all of the books in this series. So well written and so well researched. There was a lot for me to discover her, even in "middle age". I know it's overused, but this series is truly classic.  

[rosienotrose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this book a little difficult to begin with. The constantly shifting point of views and pages of description that take up the bulk of the first 150 pages made it difficult to get into the story. However once you get past that it becomes engrossing. Ayla's story is that of an outsider. Of being, and feeling, different to those around you and struggling against your nature to fit in to an alien set of rules and traditions while still maintaining a sense of yourself. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

[qarae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic look into the minds and culture of our ancesters. Iza's unconditional acceptance of Ayla is heartwarming while Broud's actions are infuriating. Ayla's journey is a must read.

[srboone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Breathaking in scope, I couldn't put this one down. Demands a reread when I get time. Too bad the rest of the series is crap.

[reginar_447079 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audio of this book and the narration was decently done. For some reason I had put off reading this book for years, but I am glad that I finally read it. This book is long and the story is told in a very simplistic way yet woven in are historical facts. It is a historical fantasy book but yet had such a realistic feel to it. Jean M. Auel had me emotionally invested in Ayla and her relationship with people in the Clan. Her struggle with the bullies and despots was gripping and beautifully developed over time. My only complaint is the very closure of the book. I loved the development and the victory that Ayla accomplishes but the ending was heartbreaking and I wish it could have been done differently. I appreciate how Auel set the ending up so we would have faith that the characters would be okay, but I still was heartbroken. Despite the heartbreaking ending it was still a victory for Ayla and I was happy for her. I am glad I read this and I recommend it to people who enjoy historical fantasy or survivalist themes books.

[karin7-11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the best book in the series.

[theboylatham_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nine out of ten.

A natural disaster leaves the young girl wandering alone in an unfamiliar and dangerous land until she is found by a woman of the Clan, people very different from her own kind. To them, blond, blue-eyed Ayla looks peculiar and ugly - she is one of the Others, those who have moved into their ancient homeland; but Iza cannot leave the girl to die and takes her with them. Iza and Creb, the old Mog-ur, grow to love her, and as Ayla learns the ways of the Clan and Iza’s way of healing, most come to accept her. But the brutal and proud youth who is destined to become their next leader sees her differences as a threat to his authority. He develops a deep and abiding hatred for the strange girl of the Others who lives in their midst, and is determined to get his revenge.

[omrythea_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book that ever made my sister cry... and she just really is not a crier. I love this story! It is deep, moving, emotional and inspiring. Read it or else!

[keackley2004 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love all of Jean Auel's series but this one is my favorite. Once you read it you are hooked on the series. I wish she would come out with the next one. It's been so long.