The Call Of The Wild(Illustrated) E-Book

Jack London

• Herausgeber: Micheal Smith
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

• Illustrated: Features 20 stunning illustrations, bringing the story's vivid scenes and characters to life.
• Includes a Detailed Summary: A captivating overview of the story for a quick refresher or introduction.
• Comprehensive Character List: An in-depth look at the personalities that enrich this classic tale.
• Author Biography: Explore the adventurous life of Jack London and the inspirations behind his timeless work.

Embark on a timeless journey with Jack London's classic, "The Call of the Wild," now in a beautifully illustrated edition. This version comes alive with 20 stunning illustrations that perfectly capture the spirit and drama of London's narrative.
Beyond merely telling a tale, "The Call of the Wild" delves into the basic drives that all living things, whether domestic and wild, possess. This story, which takes place against the backdrop of the Klondike Gold Rush, centers on Buck, a robust and gregarious St. Bernard-Scotch Collie mix, whose world is thrown completely upside down when he is taken from his cozy Californian home and placed in the untamed Yukon region of Alaska.
In this hostile environment, Buck faces brutal hardships and learns to rely on his primal instincts for survival. He encounters a cast of diverse characters, both canine and human, each playing a pivotal role in his transformation. From his fierce rivalry with Spitz to his profound bond with John Thornton, each relationship shapes Buck's journey and his ultimate destiny.
This edition not only brings you London's powerful narrative but also enriches your reading experience with a comprehensive character list, providing deeper insights into each personality's role and significance. Additionally, a detailed summary offers a quick refresher or introduction to the story, ensuring you don't miss out on any of its compelling nuances.
Discover the fascinating life of Jack London through a specially included biography. Learn about the man whose adventurous spirit and unique perspective on life breathed life into this unforgettable story.
Whether you're a long-time fan or new to Jack London's work, this illustrated edition of "The Call of the Wild" is a must-have for your collection. It's a timeless tale of adventure, survival, and the unbreakable bond between man and beast, now beautifully visualized and enhanced for an immersive reading experience.

 

Leseprobe

              THE CALL OF  THE WILD                                                            

                                                  BY                                                                                                        

    JACK LONDON

ABOUT LONDON

Pioneering American writer Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco, California, in 1876. His life was just as exciting as the characters in his well-known books. London's early years were characterized by poverty and hardship as a working-class child, but he also developed a voracious hunger for reading, which served as the basis for his creative endeavors.

Despite his lack of formal education, London educated himself at public libraries, reading voraciously and writing prolifically. His adventures began early; at 17, he ventured to sea, sailing to Japan and the Bering Sea, experiences that would later influence his writing. London returned and plunged into the hardscrabble life of a hobo, riding railroads and engaging in petty theft, before his imprisonment for vagrancy. These experiences provided rich material for his later works.

In 1897, London joined the Klondike Gold Rush, a perilous journey that, while not enriching him with gold, did provide a wealth of inspiration for his writing. His experiences in the harsh, frozen north would later crystallize in classic stories and novels like "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang."

London's writing career took off in the early 1900s. His stories, often about man's struggle against nature and himself, were instant hits. He became one of the first American authors to gain worldwide fame and wealth from his writing, but his success was not without its challenges. London faced various health issues, exacerbated by his lifestyle and alcoholism.

Politically, London was a complex figure. He was a self-proclaimed socialist, yet his views often contradicted the socialist ethos. His writings sometimes reflected his racial and class prejudices, common in his era, but unsettling to modern readers.

Despite his relatively short life—he died at 40 on November 22, 1916—London's impact on American literature was profound. He wrote more than 50 books, including "The Sea-Wolf," "Martin Eden," and "The Iron Heel," leaving a legacy as a writer who vividly captured both the beauty and brutality of nature and human experience. His adventurous life and prolific work continue to inspire readers and writers alike.

SUMMARY

Jack London's "The Call of the Wild" is a gripping story of survival and metamorphosis. It narrates the tale of Buck, a strong and spoilt St. Bernard-Scotch Collie mix, who is suddenly ripped from his cushy life in California and pushed into the harsh realities of the Alaskan wilderness.The Klondike Gold Rush is when the tale takes place.  After being abducted from his family, Buck is bought out and forced to work as a sled dog in the savage cold.

As Buck adapts to this savage new world, he reverts to his ancestral instincts to survive. He learns to fight, steal, and lead, rising to become the alpha of his pack. The novel explores themes of nature versus nurture, the struggle for power, and the intrinsic wildness within all creatures.

Through his journey, Buck forms a deep bond with John Thornton, a kind-hearted prospector who saves him from abuse. Their relationship symbolizes the profound connection between humans and animals, highlighting loyalty and trust. However, the call of the wild is ever-present, and Buck is constantly drawn towards the untamed wilderness.

London's vivid and raw portrayal of the untamed Yukon and the brutal realities of survival during the Gold Rush era makes "The Call of the Wild" an enduring classic. It's a story of resilience, adaptation, and the enduring pull of nature, captivating readers with its powerful depiction of life's primal struggles.

CHARACTERS LIST

"The Call of the Wild" by Jack London features a cast of memorable characters, both human and animal, each playing a crucial role in Buck's journey. Here's a list of the main characters:

Buck: The main character is a big, strong St. Bernard-Scotch Collie hybrid. He was sold into the harsh life of an Alaskan sled dog after being abducted from his cushy life in California.

John Thornton: A kind and experienced frontiersman who rescues Buck from abusive handlers. He becomes Buck's beloved master and closest companion.

Spitz: A fierce and treacherous sled dog, Spitz is Buck's main canine antagonist. He is the leader of the sled dog team before Buck challenges and defeats him.

Perrault and François: The first people to own Buck after he is brought to the North. They are mail carriers for the Canadian government and train Buck as a sled dog. They are fair and competent masters.

Hal, Mercedes, and Charles: Inexperienced and foolish adventurers heading to the North for the Gold Rush. They acquire the sled team but are hopelessly inept, leading to disastrous consequences.

Curly: A good-natured Newfoundland dog who is one of the first dogs Buck meets in the North. Her tragic fate early in the story illustrates the brutality of Buck's new environment.

Dave and Sol-leks: Other sled dogs on Buck's team, each with their unique traits and roles. Dave is a hardworking, stoic dog, while Sol-leks is an experienced, one-eyed dog.

Manuel: The gardener's assistant at Buck's original home, responsible for kidnapping and selling Buck due to his gambling debts.

Contents

Chapter 1. Into The Primitive

Chapter 2. The Law Of Club And Fang

Chapter 3. The Dominant Primordial Beast

Chapter 4. Who Has Won To Mastership

Chapter 5. The Toil Of Trace And Trail

Chapter 6. For The Love Of A Man

Chapter 7. The Sounding Of The Call

Chapter 1. Into The Primitive

"Old longings nomadic leap,

Chafing at custom's chain;

Again from its brumal sleep

Wakens the ferine strain."

Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Because men, groping in the Arctic darkness, had found a yellow metal, and because steamship and transportation companies were booming the find, thousands of men were rushing into the Northland. These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.

Buck lived at a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. Judge Miller's place, it was called. It stood back from the road, half hidden among the trees, through which glimpses could be caught of the wide cool veranda that ran around its four sides. The house was approached by gravelled driveways which wound about through wide-spreading lawns and under the interlacing boughs of tall poplars. At the rear things were on even a more spacious scale than at the front. There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants' cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches. Then there was the pumping plant for the artesian well, and the big cement tank where Judge Miller's boys took their morning plunge and kept cool in the hot afternoon.

And over this great demesne Buck ruled. Here he was born, and here he had lived the four years of his life. It was true, there were other dogs, There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count. They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless,—strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.

But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge's sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge's daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge's feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge's grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king,—king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller's place, humans included.

His father, Elmo, a huge St. Bernard, had been the Judge's inseparable companion, and Buck bid fair to follow in the way of his father. He was not so large,—he weighed only one hundred and forty pounds,—for his mother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog. Nevertheless, one hundred and forty pounds, to which was added the dignity that comes of good living and universal respect, enabled him to carry himself in right royal fashion. During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical, as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation. But he had saved himself by not becoming a mere pampered house-dog. Hunting and kindred outdoor delights had kept down the fat and hardened his muscles; and to him, as to the cold-tubbing races, the love of water had been a tonic and a health preserver.

And this was the manner of dog Buck was in the fall of 1897, when the Klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North. But Buck did not read the newspapers, and he did not know that Manuel, one of the gardener's helpers, was an undesirable acquaintance. Manuel had one besetting sin. He loved to play Chinese lottery. Also, in his gambling, he had one besetting weakness—faith in a system; and this made his damnation certain. For to play a system requires money, while the wages of a gardener's helper do not lap over the needs of a wife and numerous progeny.

The Judge was at a meeting of the Raisin Growers' Association, and the boys were busy organizing an athletic club, on the memorable night of Manuel's treachery. No one saw him and Buck go off through the orchard on what Buck imagined was merely a stroll. And with the exception of a solitary man, no one saw them arrive at the little flag station known as College Park. This man talked with Manuel, and money chinked between them.

"You might wrap up the goods before you deliver 'm," the stranger said gruffly, and Manuel doubled a piece of stout rope around Buck's neck under the collar.

"Twist it, an' you'll choke 'm plentee," said Manuel, and the stranger grunted a ready affirmative.

Buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity. To be sure, it was an unwonted performance: but he had learned to trust in men he knew, and to give them credit for a wisdom that outreached his own. But when the ends of the rope were placed in the stranger's hands, he growled menacingly. He had merely intimated his displeasure, in his pride believing that to intimate was to command. But to his surprise the rope tightened around his neck, shutting off his breath. In quick rage he sprang at the man, who met him halfway, grappled him close by the throat, and with a deft twist threw him over on his back. Then the rope tightened mercilessly, while Buck struggled in a fury, his tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great chest panting futilely. Never in all his life had he been so vilely treated, and never in all his life had he been so angry. But his strength ebbed, his eyes glazed, and he knew nothing when the train was flagged and the two men threw him into the baggage car.

The next he knew, he was dimly aware that his tongue was hurting and that he was being jolted along in some kind of a conveyance. The hoarse shriek of a locomotive whistling a crossing told him where he was. He had travelled too often with the Judge not to know the sensation of riding in a baggage car. He opened his eyes, and into them came the unbridled anger of a kidnapped king. The man sprang for his throat, but Buck was too quick for him. His jaws closed on the hand, nor did they relax till his senses were choked out of him once more.