El Llamado De La Selva / Colmillo Blanco

by Jack London

The Call of the Wild and White Fang, two American classics by Jack London, are presented together in this elegantly designed jacketed hardcover edition featuring an introduction by Jack London scholar Kenneth K. Brandt.

The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) are two classic American adventure novels depicting the evolution of two dogs in the wild. The novels are in fact mirror images of one another, as Call of the Wild depicts Buck's journey from domestic to wild dog, while White Fang recounts White Fang's transformation from wild beast to domestic companion. Both convey powerful themes of redemption and survival that continue to affect readers even today.

These beautifully written stories, now together in one highly produced volume complete with a timeline of the life and times of Jack London, are a perfect addition to any young adult's library. Anyone with a taste for adventure, who loves the outdoors or camping, or who spends time daydreaming about living self-sufficiently will be enamored by these adventure stories.

Essential volumes for the shelves of every classic literature lover, the Chartwell Classics series includes beautifully presented works and collections from some of the most important authors in literary history. Chartwell Classics are the editions of choice for the most discerning literature buffs.

Other titles in the Chartwell Classics Series include: Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft; Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales; Complete Novels of Jane Austen; Complete Sherlock Holme; Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe; Complete Works of William Shakespeare; Divine Comedy; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Other Tales; The Essential Tales of H.P. Lovecraft; The Federalist Papers; The Inferno; Moby Dick; The Odyssey; Pride and Prejudice; The Essential Grimm's Fairy Tales; Emma; The Great Gatsby; The Secret Garden; Anne of Green Gables; The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe; The Phantom of the Opera; The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital; Republic; Frankenstein; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Meditations; Wuthering Heights; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; A Tales of Two Cities; Beowulf; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Little Women

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Adventure, Animals, Literature, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

201 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".

Reviews

[Carolyn Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone knows this book, but no one is talking about it, and I think that needs to change.

I picked this book up on a whim, and it (very unexpectedly) took my breathe away.

It tells the story of a domestic dog, named Buck, who is cruelly taken from his home in California and forced to become a sled dog in the harsh Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. These events cause Buck to channel his primal instincts, and the reader watches as he transforms into a brutal survivor.
Through this narrative, Jack London explores the relationship between a dog’s “call to the wild” and a dog’s loyalty to man.

The story is heartbreaking, touching, and unforgettable. It also has some of the most beautiful natural imagery I have ever read.

Here is one of my favorite passages. It is from Chapter 5:

“It was beautiful spring weather, but neither dog nor humans were aware of it. Each day the sun rose earlier and set later. It was dawn by three in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine at night. The whole long day was a blaze of sunshine. The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life. The murmur arose from the things that lived and moved again, things which had been as dead and which had not moved during the long months of frost. The sap was rising in the pines. The willows and aspens were bursting out in young buds. Shrubs and vines were putting on fresh garbs of green. Crickets sang in the nights, and in the days all manner of creeping, crawling things rustled forth into the sun. Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest. Squirrels were chattering, birds singing, and overhead honked the wildfowl driving up from the south in cunning wedges that split the air.
From every hill slope come the trickle of running water, the music of unseen fountains. All things were thawing, bending, snapping. The Yukon was straining to break loose the ice that bound it down. It ate away from beneath; the sun ate from above. Air-holes framed, fissures sprang and spread apart, while thin sections of ice fell through bodily into the river. And amid all this bursting, rending, throbbing of awakening life, under the blazing sun and through the soft-sighing breezes, like wayfarers to death, staggered the two men, the woman, and the huskies.”

What I find especially interesting is that this story was inspired by London’s own experience during the Klondike Gold Rush, in the years 1897 and 1898. He sought his fortune and found literary gold. I’m endlessly grateful that he has shared his treasures with us!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 out of 5 stars for both The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London.

The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck who is “dognapped” and is put into a dog sled team in Alaska, and then later has to learn the ways of the wild. It is a very entertaining short story.

White Fang digs a bit deeper than the The Call of the Wild. It had a deeply theological and religious theme throughout. White Fang is a wolf, born in the wild that has to learn faith in humans early in his life, then his faith is tested through many trials, and then he has to make the difficult climb back to find his faith again in humankind.
The beginning of White Fang is some of the most edge of my seat reading I’ve had in a long time. It is overall a very unforgettable adventure.

I really enjoyed both of these stories and they work very well together. They are basically opposite stories and have kind of a yin/yang thing going on with the first one being a dog going into the wild, and the second one a wolf becoming domesticated. Jack London really had a way with words and in creating feelings in me as a reader. This was a perfect set of stories to read this time of year!

Matt

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a good number of books with protagonists as dogs, but only in these two books I can really see the world from a dog's point of view.

True, the stories are violent, but that goes with the setup of the north. But the details are so realistic, and growth so credible. I really had the impression of traveling to that northland, and living with these dogs, day by day.

For both these stories, the ends are expansive and inspirational. They left my heart rich yet light!

[Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note, March 2, 2016: I've just edited this review to insert spoiler tags (which didn't exist when I originally wrote it) in a couple of places.

(Note, March 5, 2014: I posted this review a few years ago, but in reading over it just now, I realized I needed to correct a typo.)

Actually, I read these two novels in different editions than this omnibus volume. And, while I read White Fang sometime in the 90s, I'd already read The Call of the Wild in high school.

London is one of my favorite authors --despite his ideological dependence on Marx and Darwin, and his Naturalist outlook (in which human behavior is viewed as purely the product of social forces, inborn instincts and biological needs), all of which are very different from my own attitudes. He has very strong storytelling skills, and he writes with a kind of clear, direct diction that makes his prose highly readable. Here, his vivid evocation of the frozen North benefits from his own personal knowledge and experience of that environment.

Given his Naturalism, London was better at portraying animals intimately than at doing the same for people (and probably more at home doing so). The behaviors and their determinants that he portrays for his sled dogs are perfectly appropriate and realistic for them. And critics who argue that he uses Buck's transition from sled dog to alpha of a wild wolf pack as a coded message advocating a similar transition from civilization to savagery for people miss an important point: in White Fang, the canine protagonist's transition is in the opposite direction, from wild origins to a place as friend and protector of a human family.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

As this is two books in one bonus edition I shall review each separately, although there are a great many similarities between them.

The Call of the Wild:

This book does for dogs what Watership Down did for rabbits - it’s brutal and heartbreaking - tissues at the ready!I realised about 5 pages in that this was going to break me.

We follow the story of Buck a beautiful (I think) dog and his life which is interesting and full of adventure, he’s such a likeable character it is hard not to love him.

Written in 1903 the writing does come across as old fashioned but it still works today, it is easy to understand and it flows nicely and naturally.

This is a heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story, if you like dogs then you will like this tail/tale! The only way this book could be improved is by making it longer so I think it deserves a 5.

White Fang:

This story, written shortly after The Call of The Wild provides pretty much a direct comparison between the two. There are some very obvious similarities here and I found that the story of White Fang was essentially like Call of the Wild in reverse. Together the two stories go full circle which has a nice symmetry to it.

Here we follow White Fang, who seems to be about 99% wolf, again a loveable character though.

So as you can see from the comments above this is another old fashioned story about dogs in the wilds of North America. The author writes almost poetically at times which creates a very atmospheric story which flows nicely, my only real criticism is that it can be a little repetitive at times, this is a very small flaw.

It crept up on me once again just how brutal and sinister this book is - did I learn nothing from The Call of the Wild? At times a little slow but a nice read, with moments of heartbreak and sorrow and also of happiness with some cute moments to really make you smile.

Unfortunately for this book the first one was better. White Fang had a good start but towards the end it became predictable to me, having said that however it was still an enjoyable read and as I said with the first one, if you like dogs you’re going to love this.

A very respectable 4*/5

I cannot decide overall whether to give 4 or 5 out of 5 for this, I’ve changed back and forth several times already!

[Russel McQuatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed my time with each of these stories. I think one of my only gripes with each is I wish they had a bit more to them, especially Call Of the Wild.

As a dog lover and owner, I really felt for each and was engaged with their struggles, obstacles, and stories.

If I could give this 4.5, that's where I would place it.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last summer, I read Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. I found Christopher McCandless’s fascination with Jack London to be interesting, but it was hard for me to fully understand where McCandless was coming from, having never read London’s works. I also have a deep respect for animals and a disgust at their ill-treatment at the hands of human beings. For those two reasons, I chose to read The Call of the Wild for my Literature class.

The cover of the book captivated me. I enjoyed studying the picture of the wolf-like dog in the snow, trying to read the expression on his face. Based on the book’s title and what I read in Into the Wild, I expected the book to be about a return to a primitive lifestyle and primordial desires. I did not expect to really enjoy it, as I thought it would probably be very “masculine.”

Upon reading, I was immediately caught up in Buck’s story. I couldn’t seem to put the book down. I thought about Buck when I was not reading, and even felt Buck in some of the music that I heard. I did not know it would be so heartbreaking, or that I would be so touched by this fictional animal.

I loved the ending of this book. It was not at all what I expected it to be. I thought that the ending would be sad, but it turned out to be powerful- even mystical. London does an excellent job of conveying how, in spite of Buck’s struggles and suffering, he may be better off in the wild than he was at the farm. He is a naturally wild animal, and he is able to be fully alive when his uncivilized side is allowed to emerge. It makes me think of how men, too, struggle with suppressing certain instincts and desires when they are trying to conform to society’s expectations. I can see how this book influenced McCandless, as he likely wanted to allow his own “wild side” to surface.

I also like how London shows how human beings can be so silly and ridiculous, in spite of their claim to having high intelligence. He portrays animals as simpler but somehow smarter than humans, and he has a valid point. Human beings, in their greed, sometimes ignore any survival instincts they have left. Animals, on the other hand, know what they need to do to survive, and they put survival above all else. It makes me wonder whether humans are as smart as we would like to believe.

This book gives us a lot to think about. What makes humans so different from animals? Is it better to live basically by following natural instincts, or is it better to conform to society? Should we explore our wild sides, or should we work to suppress them? Do human beings have an innate need to gain power over others, like Buck had a need to be the leader of his pack? How do we reconcile that with our society’s negative attitude toward omnipotent leaders? Are not human beings pack animals? In what ways do we continue to exploit animals and cause great suffering in order to make money? Is that behavior acceptable, given that many believe we possess higher intelligence?

I think all of these questions can make for interesting class discussions and debates. I can imagine organizing a debate on animal medical research, or on using animals in advertising, animals on factory farms, etc. This book could be taught in conjunction with Into the Wild, or at least by showing clips of that movie and discussing how Buck and Chris are alike. I would also like to conduct an activity where students explore their own “wild sides,” either through poems or personal narratives. They could provide examples of how they still feel natural instincts for which there is no logical explanation, and how they choose to act on or ignore those instincts.



5Q 4P

[Lucia Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 ⭐️

I grew up loving the films, but I didn’t remember much of the stories.

I loved reading the stories now , although there were a lot of brutal scenes which broke my heart and made me feel very angry that there are people who can treat animals like that. Yeah, this is fiction, but still…
I did love the adventure and the feel of beautiful nature, the hope and perseverance.

—————————

Quotes:


The Call of the Wild

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight.

—————————

White Fang

It was in the air. White Fang sensed the coming calamity, even before there was tangible evidence of it. In vague ways it was borne in upon him that a change was impending.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5 stars overall]

[6/2/21, review of The Call of the Wild]

As a native of Oakland I should have read this years ago. I actually knew the story of this novella less well than I thought. The basic outline of a dog (part Saint Bernard and part Scottish Shepherd) who is stolen and made to be a sled dog in Alaska is all I knew. I was delighted to find it is actually told from the point of view of Buck the dog. London manages to deftly avoid (mostly) any anthropomorphizing, and so you have Buck's point of view throughout which believably reads as that of a dog. To be sure a noble and magnificent dog. A major virtue here is a complete lack of sentimentality. Buck had a great life before he was stolen, yet he spends little time mourning that life or his previous family. He doesn't have the luxury, as he's plunged into a life of hardship and sometimes dire abuse. He just adjusts and gets on with it. He eventually comes to take pride in being a sled dog, but the men (women are all but nonexistent here) continually go out of his life and new owners come into it. The worst stretch of Buck's life doesn't come from sadists, but rather incompetent greenhorns whose ignorance of life in the North results in terrible suffering among Buck and his mates. This section is genuinely hard to read. London cared passionately about the treatment of animals (he protested abuse of circus animals long before it was trendy) and spares the reader nothing here. Eventually Buck passes to the one owner he comes to love, John Thornton. But that isn't how the story ends; the title gives a clue to Buck's actual destiny. Four stars. I'll return to this review after I've read White Fang.

And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. And his cadences were their cadences, the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning of the stillness, and the cold, and dark.

[7/9/21, review of White Fang]

White Fang is essentially the inverse story of The Call of the Wild, instead of a domesticated dog who learns to live wild, it's the story of a wolf cub (one quarter dog) who learns to live with humans. It has most of the same virtues of CotW, though at twice the length. The added length isn't a benefit, as CotW had a rushing momentum the longer story lacks. Again we get the unsentimental reality of dire abuse meted out to White Fang, and the predatory nature of life among the wild creatures of the frozen North. The opening sequence of a team of sled dogs and two men being stalked and hunted by a pack of wolves is maybe the high point, London excels in depicting the spartan implacable nature of what it takes to exist and go on existing in an unforgiving environment. A low point, alas, comes with a depiction of an Indian, Gray Beaver, who for a time is White Fang's owner. Not at first; initially a stoic and believable character, but when the plot needs to have White Fang fall into the hands of a vicious (white) dog fighter, in the space of two paragraphs Gray Beaver is turned into a foolish raging drunk who all but gives away his prized wolf in exchange for alcohol, because injuns can't hold their liquor, dontcha know? When White Fang leaves the North with his eventual final owner for Santa Clara Valley, some intensity is lost, though one can't begrudge the wolf a placid landing spot after all he's endured. In truth London was ahead of the pack in his insight that a vicious animal is made, not born. For most of the story White Fang, due to the vicious enmity of other dogs starting as a cub, comes to regard all other dogs as enemies and chooses a lonely solitude, becoming more savage than any creature he meets as a matter of survival. It takes alot for that to change, and only very, very gradually. Three stars.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Call of the Wild and White Fang are similar, yet opposite, stories about the nature of the wild beast vs domestication. It makes for an interesting juxtaposition. The Call of the Wild is the most tightly plotted of the two novels. While the titular characters survives their own story, both novellas tend to be rather violent and gory. The Call of the Wild tells the story of a domestic dog kidnapped from his home in California and forced to pull sleds in the Arctic. White Fang is the tale of a wolf-dog cross that eventually ends up in California. Vividly descriptive and compelling.

[Sundeep Supertramp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I neither read the sypnosis nor did I have any idea about both the stories. Actually, I was provoked read them because of the special interest of Christopher McCandless in Jack London's tales.

Christopher is someone I admire alot (to know who he is read Into the Wild). He admired Jack London and his work very much. Christopher was a outdoor guy, a tramp. So I was expecting these stories to be some kind of adventure stories. But I was wrong.

This is a finest book, I've read on dogs/wolves. Personally, I am a dog lover so I was not so disappointed when I came to know this is completely not what I expected.

Jack London is one of the finest authors of those times. One can never understand a living being this much. He has his own style of expressing the situation. The fierceness, the softness, the love, the anger, each and every action of a dog is expressed very excellently by London.

Both the stories were very interesting. Probably, this is one of the longest reads of mine. I never wanted to rush through the book. No one ever wants to rush through this book. Every sentence, every expression of the story is felt when reading this. Both the stories, follow the dogs, even though tamed and bred by man since thousands of years, they carry the wild memories which are inherited from their ancestors. The want of the dogs to chase, hunt and feel the warm blood on their muzzle are still alive deep down inside their brains.

FINEST READ...

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great descriptions, but don´t like the "humanisation" of animal feelings and actions.

[Ferran Benito · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a letter to his publisher George Platt Brett, Jack London defined White Fang (1906) as “A complete antithesis to The Call of the Wild” (1903). While The Call of the Wild portrays the process by which Buck, a domestic dog, becomes gradually wilder driven by the attraction that the Wild exerts on him; White Fang narrates the life of an untamed wolf who, after being in contact with humans, becomes progressively civilised. Therefore, both stories share a common subject and yet face each other as two images reflected on a mirror. Thus, reading them together allows us to think about the many interactions between them.

In my opinion, one of the biggest merits of Jack London in these two works is the creation of a solid dog’s psychology, which he achieves through a complex narrative based on sensorial experiences and a code of knowledge reduced to an action-reaction system –in a dog-like way. In fact, his dog-characters are more credible than many human-characters of other books I have read.

Indeed, that doesn’t mean that there is not a certain degree of anthropomorphism in Buck’s and White Fang’s characters –after all, Jack London was writing for humans, and not for dogs. This anthropomorphism is especially notorious in the idea of the initiation journey present in both books -even if Buck’s and White Fang’s paths have an opposite direction, metaphorically and physically. This voyage of discovery may be clearer in The Call of the Wild, with its culmination in the adventure with the moose (almost a ritual sacrifice), but is also important in White Fang, though there it takes place in a more psychological level. The end of White Fang’s journey has some moral resonances, as the redemption of the main character, the unbeaten wolf-dog, comes precisely with his final defeat, so what happens next can be read as a kind of second life for White Fang.

In London’s narrative, the motor of this voyage is clearly double: on one hand, the Wild, with its unrestrained attraction, and on the other, the presence and actions of mankind. But the very nature of the Wild–this strong notion so central in London’s imaginary– is ambivalent: it delimits a space of terror, of savagery, but also a space of liberty, as Buck apprehends rapidly after arriving in Alaska. The same occurs with the dual nature of humans, who are capable of the highest and most noble deeds as well as the most despicable and stingy actions.

It is precisely the contact with the Northland and with the Wild in its purest form what reveals this radical human essence in its two forms: the good and the evil. Because humans themselves, uncovered of their clothes of civilisation, are part of the Wild as well, and the Wild is the fight of every being for its survival, beyond any convention (I wonder, in this regard, whether London was familiarised with Schopenhauer’s philosophy). Like the She-Wolf of the first chapters of White Fang –one of the most remarkable and disquieting openings I have ever read– attracts and seduces male dogs to their very death, the Wild attracts men with the promise of gold and adventures to finally divest them of everything but of their essential motives: greed, hate, cowardice, love.

How London manages to convert a story about dogs and wolves into a deep reflection of the human nature is part of the mystery surrounding his genius.

[Barakiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Call of the Wild - 5/5

Pros:
1. Interesting characters, from Buck (the shepherd x St Bernard), to Sol-leks (the half blind sled dog), to Perrault (the Frenchman), to Mercedes and John Thornton.
2. An vivid depiction of the gold rush in Northern North America which led to the need for sled-dogs
3. The author goes into the brutality of that time, in man and beast
4. Emotional moments
5. The writing is tight, with few words wasted

Cons:
1. None that I can think of. Probably just that it was too short. Characters and situations could have been expanded upon.


White Fang - 3/5

Pros:
1. Excellent introduction. Vivid and memorable (Two men and their dog team were hounded by starved wolves. They ate most of the dogs, then got one man. The other had to use fire and stay awake for days to keep the fire going and keep the wolves at bay by shouts, until at last he alone was left sitting in a circle of fire.
2. Wonderfully realistic (I think) depiction of the world from a newborn wolf's point of view. There's a white wall through which the father disappears.
3. One aches for the character. The author manages to manipulate one's emotions, so that one feels all the ranges.

Cons:
1. The author repeats himself over and over. This story could have been cut by a third. It felt like he was trying to make a point but either had no confidence in himself to carry it over, or had no confidence in the reader to understand him the first time.
2. The animal cruelty is hard to stomach.

----------------------

Of the two I enjoyed The Call of the Wild more. It was clear, concise and more to the point.

[Maša · Rating 4 out of 5]

White Fang 4.5/5, Call of the Wild 4/5, Total 4.25/5

Wow!! What a great story of wilderness and love.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Call of the Wild by Jack London


Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...


The Call of the Wild has been included on The Modern Library top of Best Books in the English language, available at:

- http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/...

I had qualms about it, when I first found it on this list of best novels, thinking that a book for children should not get so much attention.
But it proved me wrong.

It is a fabulous story, with a lot happening that keeps the reader not just interested, but thrilled and on the edge of the seat.
Buck is the hero and he is a mixed breed.

The combination between a German shepherd and the giant Saint Bernard results in a powerful male with amazing aptitudes.
At one point, his owner makes a bet and is convinced that Buck can pull a sleigh that weighs about half a ton.

- Come on Buck! You can do it!
- And then some talking and encouragement are about all that the dog needs to win $ 600 for his owner and friend.

The adventures of this superb animal start with a house of a judge, where he is the favorite and sits by the fire.
He remembers the slippers of his first human owner, who was kind and generous to him, up to the point of his departure.

Buck is stolen by an employee and sold for $ 300 to a man that is going to the North, where the Gold Rush is in full swing.
He has to move from one master to another and he gets beaten and tortured by various people who are worse than any animal.

Then he has to adapt to life in a pack, with an established hierarchy, where the top dog dominates and defeats his enemies.
The alpha male is called Spitz and he is the one that bites and attacks any challenger or misbehaving member of the team.

- Until Buck joins the group and the pecking order is dismantled

Buck is reluctant to fight at first.
But there is no option in this world where dog eats dog, quite literally in the case of the loser, who is consumed by the pack.

The Call of the Wild probably refers- the title I mean and perhaps the main theme- to the instincts, impulses that are within animals and humans and come to dominate decisions, lives and destinies ultimately.

As a funny or just weird thought, I read about the run into the wild and said:

- This can also be The Call of the Urban or The City
- Given that the main call that appeals to Buck is that of a female in heat, the towns are now the places where one finds the biggest number of dogs, not the wild…

But then I get the message.

It was just a thought.

[Bookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of "The Call of the Wild" (June 24th 2020)

I stumbled into the right mood to read "The Call of the Wild" which though initially a bit of a surprise to me seeing as how I'd never felt the desire to read the book, made complete sense in hindsight. I needed to be out in nature; a place far removed and as far removed from my current circumstance as I could imagine it. I needed the description of the wilderness; the ice-covered lakes and quiet. Things have been increasingly chaotic in my life, unravelling little frayed threads here and there, that the imagined effect of being immersed in this quiet wilderness was quite literally the best gift I could have given myself.

Buck, of course, threw a wrench into those plans with his gargantuan self taking over the air and the space in the room. Never does a moment go by that you forget you're seeing and feeling from the perspective of Buck, somewhat removed due to the presence of the narrator, but still. His forced acclimation from pampered house-dog to hard labour on a sled team in the Yukon is a painful thing to read, especially the brutal clubbing and whippings at the hands of his various owners. Even when we're told Buck experiences love for his last owner, John Thornton, Thornton uses him to win a bet in what I find to be ultimately crass and grossly capitalistic. While Buck isn't shown to be let down, it seemed like yet another sour mouthful for Buck.

In spite of these narrative bumps, ss you go along on Buck's journey, you may pause and think to yourself that London did try to do something special here with Buck's story. Whether he succeeded or not, and why, is up to you. But aside from the predictable sensate-heavy Buck (of course, I suppose), what really stands out for me is the ancestral memory that Buck experiences the closer he gets, geographically and behaviourally, to the untamed dense and dark forests. This will have me thinking for a few more days, that widening of the scope from Buck to dogs in general. I know I'll read this again, I have to. I also know I'll read more of London.

[Claire Olson]

Are you special? Well of course you are! You are built up from your trials and pain. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Like White Fang, you are here for a purpose. Someday you'll realize what the purpose is.
White Fang by Jack London is an amazing story about a half-wolf, half-dog that goes through many struggles and truly learns about himself. He goes on a captivating journey of courage and strength; life. It also follows a team of sled dogs led by a man named Henry. It tells of their journeys and experiences that helps White Fang grow up.
Jack London's use of figurative language and amazing imagery make the story seem real. He uses amazing story telling and gives the book a real-life feel. It may be a little hard to grasp at first, but White Fang turns out to be a life-changing book. Jack London wrote this book to teach us a very important moral in life.
The theme of this book is quite simple. Through White Fang's struggles, he grew up. We must learn life's rules on our own and learn to take our own responsibility. Though we do have people to help us in life, we also have to pitch in on teaching ourselves. We are in charge of ourselves, our actions and our responsibilities.
This book is a great, heartwarming story for both children, young adults and adults. The story is easy to follow, and it has an amazing moral. I recommend this book to anyone that is in for an interesting story of love and rules of life. I hope you enjoy the book!

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked it up when I was on a shopping spree, I knew it was probably about dogs and wolves, but apart from that I didn't knew what to expect.
So, I just started reading and let the book surprise me.

I started with White Fang which, apart from some focus switches in the beginning, I ended up really liking. It was fast-paced action from the beginning to the end, I just couldn't put the book down. There is a healthy dose of violence, but it's far from over-the-top. Instead, it really adds something to the story.

After reading some other random book in between, I read Call of the Wild. It's only about half the length of White Fang, which makes it really short. The same fast-paced action from White Fang continues here.

The writing style in both books is pretty straightforward, nothing too complex, which I found good.

Overall, I have to admit that I like White Fang better, probably because it's just that little bit longer to add some more depth to the story. It may also be because that's the one I read first, so the writing style in Call of the Wild didn't captivate me any more, it was just the good story and action that kept me going. Both are very good reads though, definately recommending this to anyone.

[Cheruv · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read 'The call of the wild' in secondary school, so a few days ago I started out reading only White Fang.
After completing that, and reading the afterword, I was compelled to read TCOTW again and I do not regret it at all. It is still one of my favourite tales about animals and the wilds.

The total rating would be 4.5*'s but I can give TCOTW a hearty 5* rating. It was wonderful to read it again after so many years. It still captured that spirit of adventure, of danger and wild abandon. Mr London wrote marvelously.
Although I do not agree with the authors depiction of ancient man being half ape, I understand where he got that idea.
I love Buck. He represents the unbreakable spirit and wild nature itself.

White Fang was a good read, some parts were hard, and I understand why animal lovers would object to the abuse, but I think they are missing the point of the author.
To reflect accurately the life and times of White Fang, he had to show how savage it was.
The two books make a powerful combination, and I am happy it was published in this format.
I will be rereading this in a couple of years.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

When White Fang meets Weedon Scott - it is good. Up until then it is so violent, dark, sad. It was more difficult to read than I expected but John Seelye's Introduction helped me understand London's meaning for it and so have a better respect for it as a classic.


This edition has the two stories of course - my 10 year old and I started reading The Call of the Wild together but it was too much for him - too violent, that much he could make out because the language is so old even I found it confusing at times. By the middle of Chapter 5, I was reading it to myself and really not liking it much at all. But by the time 6 started (For the Love of Man) I wished my son were still willing to read along because it finally got GOOD. Only 7 chapters, it's a short story. I guess the first 5 have to break an otherwise domestic dog so that he in the end can reign well in the wild, not needing the companionship of man that he's learned to distrust.
Now onto White Fang ...

[Avery (ThePagemaster) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5 Stars

I think I liked Call of the Wild a little more than White Fang, but both are very great stories. I don't think I've ever read a book or story from the perspective of a wolf or dog, and Jack London captured the spirit of the wolf very well. It was also a book that captured the environment and showed just as much importance as the wolves themselves.

[Jinx:The:Poet {the LiteraryWanderer & WordRoamer} · Rating 5 out of 5]

White Fang & The Call of the Wild

White Fang is a novel written by American author Jack London (1876–1916) about the book’s main character, a wild wolf-dog called White Fang. It was first published in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush and details White Fang's journey to from the cruel wilderness to eventual domestication.

"White Fang is part dog and part wolf, and the lone survivor of his family. In his lonely world, he soon learns to follow the harsh law of the North--kill or be killed. But nothing in White Fang's life can prepare him for the cruel owner who turns him into a vicious killer. Will White Fang ever know the kindness of a gentle master?" -Book Blurb

White Fang goes through several masters, while some are abusive others are simply cold. He learns to have a cruelty in order to survive. It is all he knows since he doesn’t know human kindness. Eat or be eaten is the law which guides him, from the wild slowly into domestication. Though as a domesticated animal that law becomes less useful or important. Will he ever find a safe place, with a master that will not harm him?



White Fang was a very exciting and interesting book. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Jack London, and for those interested in reading stories from an animal perspective. It was a very powerful and compelling book. I would recommend this book though it is not for the faint of heart, as it contains a fair amount of violence and abuse towards animals.

[OFFICIAL RATING: 5 STARS]



FURTHER QUOTATIONS:

"And so it came that White Fang learned that the right to punish was something the gods reserved for themselves and denied to the lesser creatures under them.”

"It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild."

"Out of this pack-persecution he learned two important things: how to take care of himself in a mass-fight against him; and how, on a single dog, to inflict the greatest amount of damage in the briefest space of time.”

"The pitch to which he was aroused was tremendous. All the fighting blood of his breed was up in him and surging through him. This was living., though he did not know it. He was realizing his own meaning in the world; he was doing that for which he was made.... He was justifying his existence, than which life can do no greater; for life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.”

"But there were other forces at work in the cub, the greatest of which was growth. Instinct and law demanded of him obedience. But growth demanded disobedience...In the end, one day, fear and obedience were swept away by the rush of life, and the cub straddled and sprawled toward the entrance.”

—————————————————————————

"He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken.”

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, is one of the most memorable and perhaps beloved of all his books.

"First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike." -Book Blurb

Buck, an enviously powerful dog, half St. Bernard and half sheepdog, lives on Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley, where he leads an enjoyable life, but it comes to an end when men discover gold in the Klondike region of Canada and a great demand arises for strong dogs to pull sleds. Buck is kidnapped by a gardener on the Miller estate and sold to dog traders, who teach Buck to obey by beating him with a club and, subsequently, ship him north to the Klondike to work pulling sleds.

"He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial.”



Buck begins to adjust to the harsh life as a sled dog. He also begins to recover the instincts of his wild ancestors by learning to fight, scavenge for food, and sleep beneath the snow on winter nights. At the same time, he develops a fierce rivalry with another dog. It is a very exciting tale to be sure.

"He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.”

I would recommend The Call of the Wild, to those willing to enjoy a moving adventure story with animal leads, a story that can often be harsh and grim. It is a great book, well written and full of adventure, and above all it is a survival story. I must warn, however, there is a fair amount of animal violence, some of it humans abusing the dogs and some of the violence takes place between the dogs themselves. Still, this may be disturbing to some readers. Not for the faint of heart.

[OFFICIAL RATING: 4.5 STARS]



FURTHER QUOTATIONS:

"He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.”

"There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad in a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight.”

"But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called -- called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”

"He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed."

"Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest, and on and on, he knew not where or why; nor did he wonder where or why, the call sounding imperiously, deep in the forest.”

"He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time.”

"For the pride of trace and trail was his, and sick unto death, he could not bear that another dog should do his work.”

"In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks... And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him.”

[Femke Mazzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first ever classic and I really enjoyed it. I sometimes had a hard time understanding certain comments and parts, because it was written so long ago. So I listened to the audiobook mostly and that really helped. I liked the aspect from both books, the way that a tamed dog is turned into a wild animal and the story of a wild wolf becoming a tames wolf. I sometimes had a hard time with the cruelty portrayed against these dogs since I’m a big animal lover, but I kept telling myself that this was 1903 and times were different. Overal really good book and definitely worth reading.

[Cliff Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased and read separate books, but I'll write one summary here.

Jack London was another one of those great writers who died too young, at only age 40. Born John Griffith Chaney, writer of Call of the Wild, White Fang and The Sea Wolf and numerous other works. He was burdened by illnesses and disease, and like Ernest Hemingway, some suspected he committed suicide because he was taking heavy dozes of morphine for his pain and he, like Hemingway, was a heavy drinker, so an accidental or deliberate overdose leaves the world with something to gossip about, controversy and dark. On the brighter side, this man who lived such a short life like many of the great writers of my childhood think tank created one masterpiece after another that not only survived time-tested history for my birth some 37 years after his death but still to this very day nearly 100 years after his death.

Another one of my childhood storyteller favorites whom I re-read as an adult…in the days when morality, good behavior and character were told by the storytellers who fascinated us with tales of good verses evil. Courage, bravery, wit, survival, were taught by examples, the author in a godlike fashion would create the characters to play the role of the messenger, without overbearing or boring preaching. Where writing was showing, not telling and reading was a stimulant to the mind’s imagination. You could place yourself in the remote wilderness of Alaska north country--or the Canadian North for White Fang. Johnny Horton might be singing one of his songs in the back ground, “North to Alaska,”… Songs I still use today to exercise with and like a drunken closet drinker, using my headphones so the modern world don’t hear my excursions to the imaginary world of yesterday that I visit--or re-visit--that also helps shape my characters and fortify my own writing without a hint of plagiarism or unethical encroachment on the masters of creativity’s masterpieces.

Reading as a child, especially the works of the masters like Jack London, was instrumental in my desire to be a writer. Write what you read and read what you write. They hang stars in the sky so you can gaze at them, and they untie them so they can fall and you can admire the beauty of even a falling star. Life, like death, has no bounds. Destiny is what it is. We can only take the journey and hope the cards and the stars fall in our favor. Books like White Fang, the Call of the Wild, Christmas Horse, Shane, The Little Red Pony, The Wizard of Oz, Alice In The Wonderland, Lassie, Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, and hundreds more, stimulate the child’s and adult’s mind alike to dare to go on that journey in the remote wilderness like Alaska or Canada and find the story of your life… Good books, or should I say, good reads, don’t always have to be door stopping War & Peace. In fact some of the very best books on my home library bookshelves are less than 200 pages long and classics from the day they were printed, some even before I was born. A good story is just that. It has no secret ingredient to the length or the demand. Only the market will dictate a good story and novels like Jack London’s White Fang and Call of the Wild are timeless and priceless to those who pay attention to what they are reading.

London was a pioneer in many things, in writing and in animal rights advocacy and drawing attention to unnecessary cruelty to animals. And all animals lovers ought to love him for that. Cover jackets of Call of the Wild show the traditional Husky, but Buck wasn’t Husky, or wolf or even a Northern dog, he was a Californian domesticated Saint Bernard-Scotch-Collie. A Scotch-Collie or just simply Collie is what Lassie was, hardly a sled dog. Shepherd, as in sheep dog shepherding the sheep is what kind of dog Buck was with the other half being Saint Bernard. I had a Saint Bernard named Brady, a large dog, strong as an ox and winter’s cold weather is where they perform their best. But Buck was abducted and like White Fang, forced into cruel existences by their brutal masters who made them fight other dogs for survival. London put something else in these two books, White Fang and The Call of the Wild, something almost subliminal--tyranny and suppression. Only he used animals instead of humans to demonstrate those evils. Both books are set during the Alaskan Gold Rush. Both dogs, Buck in the Call of the Wild and White Fang, the book’s namesake, a wild wolfdog, were victors in some vicious dog fights, torturous journeys and blessed in survival by near death and triumphed to the ultimate freedom and independence by the time the stories ended. How many humans had traced a similar life--shadowed the same fate--from the dark corners of this world to liberty?

All of London’s works are good reads. London was a master at what he did, told stories as a brilliant storyteller. Most of the books I review I leave 5 stars because before I open a book or purchase one I thoroughly research the book and I already know it is a good one before I spend the time with it. London’s novels, if one pays attention to the subliminal detail, are superior reads considering they were written more than a century ago and the reality of those stories live on today, unfortunately, in the lives and deaths of humans and animals.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book actually contains TWO Jack London stories. First is...

White Fang

It's riveting. London writes with an amazing ability to stay completely in the present. This leaves the reader scrabbling to figure out what will come next, but there is no sneaky planting of clues or leading you along. You just take each bite of the text and rush to gulp down the next so you can make sense of it all. This places us in the same position as the protagonist, White Fang. The key distinction between man and animals as defined by London at one point, is that they don't ask Why. Without the Why, we're constantly trying to make sense of the What from the limited perspective of a wild dog/husky mix. It's pretty intense.

Not sure what I think of all this "clay" talk. Basically it's nature v. nurture, but sometimes it feels as though London is playing fast-and-loose with that one. Despite all the talk about how all beings are shaped by their circumstances, he still makes reference to WF's basic "nature" and that kind of defeats the whole thing, doesn't it? If pressed, I think we'd find that Beauty Smith's nature outweighed the circumstances of his treatment due to being one ugly sonuvagun.

And, candidly, when I think of animal nature, at some point, I think we should have seen WF deal with the "call of the wild" female dog. Not so much. I read the intro and there is mention of that happening toward the end when WF is domesticated, but why wasn't he pulled away before? After all, his mother lured dogs away pretty easily just by frolicking around and being--female. Made even domestic dogs ditch the camp.

The descriptions of the beatings are hard going. They could have been worse, but, man, they are a heavy trip.

I think the general portrayal of the Indians was pretty shabby. The sour doughs were better, despite being more cruel. And finally, we meet our Grey Eyed Love Master and are supposed to be confident that WF's savior has arrived. I find this all a bit saccharine. Wish WF had bonded with Matt, the dog musher, but, oh well, that's not up to me.

I'm still riveted despite the fact that we're getting really Hallmark-y with WF's desperate efforts to stay with Scott. A bit hokey, but still a good read.

It would be fascinating to do a comparison between this and Kipling's Jungle Books. The portrayal of wild wolves is similar, but very different. This lacks the childlike magic of Mowgli's communication with the wolves, even though we theoretically get to know London's wolves better by being literally inside the head of his main character, White Fang.

Call of the Wild

Well, at this point, I'm kind of dogged out. This one is very similar to the other. Only difference is that this dog starts domestic and ends wild while the other was the opposite. Again, we have the crazy love between a dog and man. Meh. Again we have incidents of cruelty that make us cringe. Again we have some beautiful descriptions of the danger, freedom, and allure of living in the Wild. So there's that.

Big difference in theme in this one is the whole "man is god to dog" thing, which I find less interesting than the "we're all malleable like clay" thing. So, even though this one is shorter and more to the point, I think I prefer old White Fang. That being said, if London had cut off the last 50 pages or so of WF, I think it would have been even better.

I can see why this is a book that many boys used to read as almost a rite of passage in American lit. I hope I can get mine to read it, though with competition from Harry Potter, Rick Riordan and Artemis Fowl, he's not much in the mood for American Realism... Ah, we'll see!

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a while to decide whether to mark this as a 'favourite' read and so give it top marks - the reason being that the book does include a lot of animal cruelty and to say I 'enjoyed' reading this is not true. However, this isn't what the book is about and the author uses the cruelty to highlight his message, to show how and why the dogs in both his stories act like they do, and to show how they can be redeemed, despite man's worst attempts.

'White Fang' tells the story of a half wolf, half husky cub, born in the wilds and then getting used to the civilisation of man; first belonging to an Indian family, then a dog fighter and finally finding a form of love in a private home. It's a heart wrenching story - one that echoes the early history of man and dog, as White Fang struggles to supress his natural instincts. Yet it also shows how easily man, with his brutal ways, can bring those instincts back to the fore. The ending is a little sappy, but leaves you smiling.

'The Call of the Wild' is a similar story, but reversed. Pampered dog Buck is kidnapped and shipped off as a sled dog during the Gold Rush. He has to learn to fight to survive, to work in the traces and, once again, face the sometime cruel and ignorant whim of man. But this time, despite finding a new home of love, the ever present wild calls to him, until he is faced with the decision of whether to heed it's cry or stay with his new master.

The writing style may be a little old fashioned now, but it is very readable and the prose skips along. Occasionally, the author might get a bit preachy, but I didn't mind that. We can look at that time as being awful for the men and animals it ruined, but for contemporary readers, they might have needed a bit of shouting at!

This isn't the first time I have read this book and I'm sure I will read it again in the future.

[İsmet Bahadır · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storytel'de Reha Özcan seslendirmesi ile dinledim. Hiç fena değildi seslendirme. Tavsiye ediyorum dinlemek isteyenlere.

Bir çiftlikte rahat rahat yaşamakta olan Buck isimli bir köpeğin çalınarak soğuk ve zorlu kuzey bölgesine satılmasını, Buck’ın buraya adapte olma sürecini, farklı sahipleri ile yaşadığı farklı ilişkileri ve kitaba ismini de veren çağrı ile özüne dönüşünü anlatıyor kitap. Eğer yanlış okumadıysam London’ın kendisi de Gold Rush döneminde yaşamış ancak başarılı olamamış, yaşadığı zorlukları da kitap yazarak aşmayı başarmış. Vahşetin Çağrısı ise ününü duyurduğu ilk kitap imiş, yani nedense kitap bana biraz biyografi gibi geldi biraz (tabii buraları tamamen sallıyor da olabilirim).

Okuduktan sonra diğer incelemeleri de okuyorum kendim bir iki cümle yazmadan önce çünkü genelde gizli fikirleri ortaya çıkarma konusunda pek başarılı olamıyorum. Bu kitapta da canlının içinde bulunduğu ortama adapte olması, çevre faktörlerinin yaşamını etkilemesi haricinde bir alt metin vardıysa da ben göremedim. Genel olarak Beyaz Diş ile çok benzetilen (henüz okumadım) bu kitabı sevdim ama hayatımda yer edeceğini şu aşamada sanmıyorum. Belki birkaç inceleme daha okursam fikrim değişir ama şu aşamada beni pek etkileyemedi maalesef.

Yanlış anlaşılmak istemem tabii ki, hiç sıkılmadım dinlerken, bazen üzüldüm bazen de Buck için sevindim ama çok daha etkileyici kitaplar okuduğum için olsa gerek, hayatıma iz bırakmadı. Örneğin London'ın Martin Eden kitabı çok daha etkileyicidir (karşılaştırma amaçlı yazmadım elbette).

Kitaba notum 7/10. Beyaz Diş sonrası belki güncellerim ama şu aşamada Jack London okumaya başlamak isteyenler için gayet uygun görünüyor (sanırım ilk kitabı olsa gerek).

[Silvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This probably will be one of my all time fave of animal books. Makes me think whether Jack himself was a reincarnation of a wolf himself, becoz his description is so damn real.

The setting is around the end of the 19th century. The Call of the Wild tells about Buck, a normal house-bred dog who was kidnapped and brought to Alaska to be a sled dog. There he has to face a brutal and merciless world with its “law of club and fang”. The description on how he was decivilized, until finally he answers "The Call of the Wild", to become a leader of a wolf pack is so touching yet horrible.

On the contrary, White Fang tells a story about a wolf, born in the wild, but finally has to grow among the Indians and educated to be a sled dog. Because his owner had a debt due his liquor addiction, he was sold to a wicked white man who made him become a fighting wolf and had to face life and death at the arena. Similar with Buck, White Fang must learn how to surrender himself completely to a new situation. It gave me the creep when I read the author's desription about the submission process of a wolf to the hands of men. Domestification is not as simple as you think….

Truly a splendid reading. You’ll learn (again) that the world can be so cruel and only the strong will prevail.

[Mikal O'Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack London's Call of the Wild and White Fang are two very dense and detailed stories. There is no doubt that London has a very strong connection to dogs, and his ability to describe how natural instincts separate them from humans is remarkable. I found that with both stories there were strong similarities such as heart wrenching treatments that the dogs both endured, but there were slight differences as well, though Buck was a pure dog and White Fang was half wolf. Considering that I am a dog owner, I was deeply touched by the struggles Buck and White Fang suffered, but there is some consolation in both endings as the two dogs are able to find love for at least one master. I was put off a little by the writing style that felt to me to resemble a nature documentary narration at times, and the end of White Fang seemed quite rushed and undramatic. Funnily enough, I found the rest of the story to be very slow and uneventful for the most part. Nevertheless, I have to give credit where it is due because the stories are good stories, and I can't deny that I did feel as though I was looking through the dogs' eyes. London's writing style may not be my cup of tea, but I can admire his ability to tell a story well.