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| Edition: | Edcon Publishing Group (Paperback) |
| Author: | Jack London |
| Published: | January 2008 |
| Pages: | 72 |
| ISBN 10: | 0931334640 |
| New: | $3.73 (13) |
| Used: | $4.99 (8) |
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The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the days of the 19th century Klondike Gold Rushes.
Published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is one of London's most-read books, and it is generally considered one of his best. Because the protagonist is a dog, it is sometimes classified as a juvenile novel, suitable for children, but it is dark in tone and contains numerous scenes of cruelty and violence.
London followed the book in 1906 with White Fang, a companion novel with many similar plot elements and themes as The Call of the Wild, although following a mirror image plot in which a wild wolf becomes civilized by a mining expert from San Francisco named Weedon Scott.
Plot summary
Buck, the main character, is a 140 lb Saint Bernard/Scotch Shepherd cross, which gives him the appearance of an exceptionally large dog. Buck leads a comfortable life as the pet of Judge Miller in the 'sun-kissed' Santa Clara Valley of Northern California. Judge Miller's gardener's assistant, Manuel, abducts the dog and sells him to a trainer of sled dogs, which were in great demand due to the discovery of "a yellow metal" in the frozen lands of the Yukon. Slowly introduced to the brutality of his new life, Buck is forced to survive and adapt to conditions in Alaska and the Yukon. He works pulling sleds with other dogs, learns to steal food, and engages in power struggle with other dogs for the lead position in the sled team. His owners soon learn that even though his enemy, Spitz, fights like a hell, while Buck is "two hells." He becomes the leader of the sled team after defeating Spitz in a battle. He changes hands many times before he is eventually acquired by a kind and loving owner, John Thornton. When Thornton is killed by "Yeehat" native Americans, Buck goes into a beastly rage and kills several members of the native tribe. Buck returns to the wild and becomes the alpha male of a wolf pack he met a few days before the death of Thornton. Of the world Buck enters, London writes "the salient thing of this other world seemed fear." It is a world of dream that Buck enters, when he becomes something of a legend.
