Books : Jack London : Novels and Stories : Call of the Wild / White Fang / The Sea-Wolf / Klondike and Other Stories (Library of America)
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.52
EAN num: 9780940450059
ISBN number: 0940450054
Label: Library of America
Manufacturer: Library of America
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 1021
Printing Date: November 01, 1982
Publishing house: Library of America
Sale Popularity Level: 139129
Studio: Library of America
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Brief Book Summary:
Thrilling action, an intuitive feeling for animal life, a sense of justice that often works itself out through violence: these are the qualities that made Jack London phenomenally popular in his own day and continue to make him, at home and abroad, one of the most widely read of all American writers. 'The Call of the Wild,' perhaps the best novel ever written about animals, traces a dog's education for survival in the ways of the wolfpack. 'White Fang,' in which a wolf-dog becomes domesticated out of love for a man, is an unforgettable portrayal of a world of 'hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, all in blindness and confusion.' In 'The Sea-Wolf,' the primitive takes human form in the ruthless, indomitable Wolf Larsen, captain of a crew of outcasts on the lawless Alaskan seas. Set in the Klondike, California, Mexico, and the South Seas, the short stories collected here--many for the very first time--show London as one of the great American storytellers.
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Rated by buyers -
Love this book and have loved reading Call of the Wild, since I was 9 or 10.
I also recommend the other collection because it has a few this one doesn't. The Portable Jack London (Viking Portable Library) The thing I liked in addition are the old letters he wrote. Cool reflection and time travel to that time period.
Rated by buyers -
You can't lump too many people into the same sphere with London...Twain, Poe, and Lovecraft are a few that spring to mind. He's an American Titan, and he gets the fawning treatment you'd expect from the Library of America in this exemplary, extraordinary, green-registered book.
Call of the Wild is a page-turning yarn about a dog that becomes a wolf. It's listed on the MLA 100, but any competent kid of ten could tackle it...and enjoy it.
White Fang is a canine bildungsroman that inverts the plot of Call of the Wild, with the wolf becoming a dog. Also a page-turner, also something a kid would read without having to be coerced, and possessed of a truly classic scene where White Fang fights a bulldog.
The Klondike Short Stories are all superb--some people think London's metier was the short story rather than the novel--with Batard being a personal favorite.
The Sea-Wolf is a work of genius...until it all comes crashing down with the introduction of Maud Brewster, and the escape to Endeavour Island. What had heretofore been a truly transcendent work of art transmogrifies into a clunky, melodramatic, and tedious chore, where London's love of sailing jargon threatens to overwhelm the reader.
The Selected Short Stories show that London wasn't just a Yukon guy...he had some other arrows in his quiver. A few stories demonstrate his--at the time--devout socialism, which lasted up until he himself got rich. The Apostate is the weakest of these, but The Strength of the Strong is a pretty good allegory for fin-de-siecle capitalism, with all its gory excesses. London also writes convincingly about such diverse topics as boxing, South Sea cannibals, and straight-up science fiction.
This book of books is excellent, and any American who fancies himself a lover of literature would be remiss in not reading it.
Rated by buyers -
Novels and Stories was the very first of a two volume set that I scored for cheap on ebay a few years ago. The second, Novels and Social writings concentrates on his political/social novels and essays while this one is comprised of his Alaskan and sea bearing adventure stories.
This book weighs in at over 1000 pages and includes three GREAT novels in Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang as well as multitudes of his short stories.
I can't say enough about how much I love Londons writings and how much admiration I have for him as a man as well. I've read Call of the Wild about every two years or so since the very first time I read it as a child and I get more out of it every time I re-read it. His adventure stories on one level are just great blue blooded adventure stories that anyone who has any heart or spirit would enjoy and there is a deeper level to London as well. His stories are highly spiritual if you are able to look at them on another level. Although thats something that you have to "feel" from within I suppose.
Rated by buyers 
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This book was really good, but I believe that White Fang was better. Many settings took place, but I will start with the main ones. The very first setting in this book was Judge Millers Mansion. The second is the dog breakers place, in which Buck (the main character, a dog,) learns the "law of Club and Fang." The third place is where Buck learns the method of husky fighting, and because the other dog died, he lived a long and well-lived life. The very first major event in this book is when a person steals Buck from Judge Miller, and he is starved and strangled and is thrown in a shed to wait for a train to the dog breaker. There, he is introduced to the primitive law of club and fang. After that, he, and a Newfoundland, are taken to Alaska. There, he is introduced to the method of Husky Fighting, and then is put into the harness, and is put to work on the mushing sled. The subsequent major event is when Buck is taken of his very first mushing trip in the wild. There he learns how to keep warm in the harsh winters by digging into the snow and having your body heat heat up the space. The subsequent area is when Buck and Spitz finally fight to the death, and Buck takes the position of lead dog on the mushing track. Finally, the last major setting is when Buck finaly turns to the wild, and he attacks the YeeHats with a vengance, because they had killed his LOVED master. The conflict in this book is Buck is a spoilled rotten dog, until he reaches the North and finds that he has wild ancestors. They eventually take over Buck and he lives with the wild.
Rated by buyers -
After reading this book for school, (not that I was forced to) I gave it a 4/5 star rating. It was excellent when it came to the setting of the story. Even though it is a very short, it crams alot of suspensfull and interesting moments into 100 some odd pages. This book is quite good and page turning. I highly recommend it to readers who like a mix of reality and fantasy in one. Masterful piece of writing.
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