The Call of the Wild

by London, Jack

• ISBN13: 9781416500193
• ISBN10: 1416500197
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-01
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATEDBY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIPThe thrilling adventure story set in the Yukon frontier, where a dog experiences both the cruelty of man and the freedom of the wild.EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the workEnriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

Author Biography

Jack London is best known for his books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf, but he was an incredibly prolific writer who left behind more than fifty volumes of novels, stories, journalism, and essays, many of which are still read around the world. Born in San Francisco in 1876 and named John, he adopted the name Jack during an adolescence spent working various hard-labor jobs, and later decided to become a writer in order to escape the fate of life as a factory worker. A summer spent in the Yukon in his twenties provided ample material to launch a career that would see him manipulate the media and embrace the writer persona as few before him had. The first full-length feature film made in America was based on The Sea-Wolf, and London would live to see several of his works adapted for the big screen.

A committed if conflicted socialist, he possessed a strong desire for capitalist success (he endorsed commercial products in advertisements), but would use the platform his fame afforded him to endorse socialism, women's suffrage, and prohibition, and to break the taboo of leprosy. Somewhat ironically, a posthumous myth that London was a womanizing alcoholic who took his own life (despite his actual death of renal failure in 1916) would diminish the weight granted his body of work in the annals of literary and social history.

Table of Contents

IntroductionbÂTardthe Call of the Wild

Into the Primitive

The Law of Club and Fang

The Dominant Primordial Beast

Who Has Won to Mastership

The Toil of Trace and Trail

For the Love of a Man

The Sounding of the Call

Biographical Background

historical Background

literary Allusions and Notescritical Excerpts

suggestions for Further Reading

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