The novels were originally published in German as Über Bord (1896, "Overboard"), Unterwegs (1895, "By the Way") and Im Malstrom (1895, "In the Maelstrom").

[1] Homo Sapiens was originally published as a trilogy: Overboard (Über Bord, 1896), By the Way (Unterwegs, 1895) and In the Maelstrom (Im Malstrom, 1895).

[1] It was initially praised (for example, by Alexander S. Kaun), but the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice's resistance to the book,[4] led by John S. Sumner, resulted in it being labelled "obscene" and a court case to prevent its distribution.

Sumner withdrew his legal complaint after Knopf undertook to melt down the plates used for printing Przybyszewski's book and to withdraw the novel from sale.

[3] Late-20th century critic Martin Seymour-Smith called the work notably Freudian in attitude, also saying Przybyszewski "overwrote badly, characters in his fiction are prone to break into satanic smiles and laughter, and to 'fling' themselves over-willingly into an unconvincingly delightful despair.