This is a classic of all classics. Melvin Burgess has written an Introduction that will make the reader realise if they haven’t already that we, the human race, are on the cusp of changing nature and therefore the planet forever. The magical quality in The Call of the Wild lays in the story of Buck the ever-loyal dog to his master, who together lived a comfortable existence until Buck is kidnapped and forced to become a sledge dog in the frozen north. Experiencing violence and brutality, Buck’s natural wolf instincts begin to take over in the wilderness between man and beast. In this terrific pocket size Puffin edition there’s lots of additional material at the end of the book including an author profile, a guide to who’s who in The Call of the Wild plus many related activities to do beyond the book.
The Call Of The Wild (with an Introduction by Melvin Burgess) Synopsis
Life is good for Buck in Santa Clara Valley, where he spends his days eating and sleeping in the golden sunshine. But one day a treacherous act of betrayal leads to his kidnap, and he is forced into a life of toil and danger. Dragged away to be a sledge dog in the harsh and freezing cold Yukon, Buck must fight for his survival.
John Griffith Chaney — aka Jack London, whose life symbolized the power of will, was the most successful writer in America in the early 20th Century. His vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardships were drawn mainly from his own experience. An illegitimate child, London passed his childhood in poverty in the Oakland slums. At the age of 17, he ventured to sea on a sealing ship. The turning point of his life was a thirty-day imprisonment that was so degrading it made him decide to turn to education and pursue a career in writing. His years in the Klondike searching for gold left their mark in his best short stories; among them, The Call of the Wild, and White Fang. His best novel, The Sea-Wolf, was based on his experiences at sea. His work embraced the concepts of unconfined individualism and Darwinism in its exploration of the laws of nature. He retired to his ranch near Sonoma, where he died at age 40 of various diseases and drug treatments.
This is a classic of all classics. Melvin Burgess has written an Introduction that will make the reader realise if they haven’t already that we, the human race, are on the cusp of changing nature and therefore the planet forever. The magical quality in The Call of the Wild lays in the story of Buck the ever-loyal dog to his master, who together lived a comfortable existence until Buck is kidnapped and forced to become a sledge dog in the frozen north. Experiencing violence and brutality, Buck’s natural wolf instincts begin to take over in the wilderness between man and beast. In this terrific pocket size Puffin edition there’s lots of additional material at the end of the book including an author profile, a guide to who’s who in The Call of the Wild plus many related activities to do beyond the book.
