Rating: 
Summary: Jack London's "Allegory of the Cave"
Review: I think that every book falls into one of a few different catagories. It either sucks, is entertaining, or changes your perspective. "Martin Eden" ranks in the highest of all posible catagories for changing my perspective. I tried to read Jack London on a number of occasions and just couldn't get into him. His stories would rate as entertaining at best. I don't know why I picked up Martin Eden, but will forever be grateful to the forgotten soul who recommended it. Martin Eden is different because of what is barely under the surface. In my opinion, it's less a story than a philosophy. After I read it for the first time, I was struck by the parallel to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." In it, Plato warns of the price of enlightenment. Once you have seen the light, you can never go back to seeing things the was you did before. You will isolate yourself from everyone. Plato seems to say that ignorance is bliss, and London seems to agree. In the novel, Martin is stricken with the desire to ascend in class stature after meeting a high-class, late 19th Century San Fransisco family. He is enamored with the ease with which they debate social politics and wants to attain what he first sees as their level of intelligence. His vehicle for attaining their acceptance is to become a writer. To enrich his meager knowledge of these subjects he becomes an arduous reader of everything that he can get his hands on. In the process, he comes to realize that he has gained a true understanding of liturature and social philosophy, whereas everyone else merely talks with a false air of understanding. At one point he realizes that, in his quest to become an intellectual equal, he has surpassed them. It is after his meteoric climb in intellect that he realizes that he is alone. He also realizes that the people he so eagerly sought to emmulate did not shun him because of his lack of intellect (for their own intellect was merely a thin veneer), but because of his lack of money. In his separate but related quest to become a successful writer, he is frustrated by every publisher's inability to "get" his ideas. His inability to publish, despite his hard work, leads his love interest, high-born and condescending, to abandon him. She has no faith in his ability to achieve fame as a writer and he has no disire to settle down into a 9 to 5 job to placate her socialite parents. After some time apart, he does succeed in getting published, and not unlike the breaking of a dam, fame and fortume follow soon after. Upon learning of his fame, she comes running back, ready to make him the centerpiece for conversation at her family's socialite dinner parties. He rejects her and tries to return to the companionship of his earlier days as a sailor. Like in Plato's story, he finds that he cannot rekindle the bond that he once had with old friends, and is alone.While the story is an interesting case study into the nature of intellect and society, it is also a looking glass into the social scene in a major city during the turn of the century. The reader learns that the beat poets were around long before Kerouac and Ginsburg. This story is full of information -- social, political, historical, and intellectual. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I was forced into reading this book for a research paper, but now I am so glad that I got the chance to experience such a timeless classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Agony and Ecstasy
Review: I'm fairly new to Jack London's work, first hearing of him through his science fiction contributions. After reading his excellent novella "The Scarlet Plague", I then read some of his short stories about the Alaskan wilderness before coming across "Martin Eden". This is an autobiographical novel describing a young man, Martin Eden, and his long struggle to improve his standing in society. At the beginning of the story Martin is inarticulate, rough around the edges, and awkward in the presence of those he initially believes to be socially superior. When he meets Ruth Morse, a young lady of elegance and education, Martin's life changes. Impressed by Ruth's knowledge and apparent wisdom, Martin decides he wants to "make good". It turns out Martin has a hard road to hoe. This is an inspiring novel of a man who, while experiencing intellectual growth, endures poverty, hunger, rejection, and all manner of hardship in his efforts to succeed as a writer. Fame and fortune seem a long way off. Because we know the story is based on Jack London's life, we can be certain that Martin's persistence will eventually be rewarded. But what comes after success? And what's it all worth? "Martin Eden" is a long journey of hope, bitterness and triumph. This is about a man who doesn't give in to adversity or yield to the conventions that society imposes on us. That makes Martin something rare. Most of us do get forced into that traditional pattern of drudgery and routine, of being slotted into a safe, sensible job with a comfortable salary, because that's what society expects of us. The pressure is hard to resist. It will be a long time before any of this changes. I think this book also says something about society's shallowness. "Martin Eden" is a fine novel. I may be stating the obvious, but stories about people who started with nothing are much more interesting than stories about heirs to a fortune.
Rating:
Summary: The most underrated book I've ever read
Review: If there's such a thing as an American canon, this book should be there. Everytime I recommend this book to a friend, they ask, "Who's it by?" "Jack London." "Jack London! The author of call of the wild?" Well, yes. He's the one, but wait!, this book is like nothing else Jack London has ever written, and bears scant semblance to his Sea Wolf or Call of the Wild. In short, this is serious literature (advance apologies to Call of the Wild and Sea Wolf fans), and it's worth reading. This book reminded me a lot of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome (another wonderful book). Both begin with hope, engage in change, and end in pathos. Martin Eden is a self-educated, self-made man (see why I say it should be in the American canon?) who attempts to garner the love of a young college student who pushes him out of what she sees to be his stifling chrysalis and become more like her and her fellow intelligentsia. The plot thickens when he does not only this, but surpasses them all in erudition with a passionate, eager mind, a more eager heart, and lots of hard work, all in the name of love. And then in the book's climax, he decides to ... oh, I can't tell you that. You'll hate me, and I'll ruin the book for you. What I can tell you, however, is that if you go to a bookstore, and pay full price for this book, you'll love it and feel that you've gotten a good bang for your buck. If you get it at a discount, you'll walk away feeling as though you've five-finger discounted this little gem. Read it ... you'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Martin Eden: A Journey into the Interior
Review: If you are looking for pleasant summer reading, pass this one by. It ain't pretty and it ain't pleasant, but it ranks as one of the Great American novels of all time. Was it autobiographical? You betcha. More so than most airbrushed autobiographies of our time. Jack London was the first author to awaken in me the love of the printed word. I was 9 years old. The title that awakened me was Call of the Wild. I, like Marcia and everyone else, thought that Jack London was just an aborigine, wandering around in the vast metropolis and utterly lost. Years later I read The Sea Wolf, and my opinion changed.
I no longer thought of Jack as an aborigine, but as a refined young man, rudely abducted from the civilized world and forced to accept the law of the strongest. Later still, I read Martin Eden, and I was devastated by the tortured visions of that same young man who was tranfigured by that experience and who was no longer acceptable as a member of civilized society. There's a whole lot of bitterness in Martin Eden, folks! And, the more I read of Jack's life, the more I am convinced that it is autobiographical. The fact is that Jack became a monster. At the same time, he became the most successul novelist of his time. In terms of money, we can only gasp at the financial success he enjoyed. He turned out novel after novel, and each of them was gobbled up by a hungry public. In the end, the SAME PEOPLE who had rejected him because of his crude mannerisms and calloused knuckles sought him out because of his MONEY. Do you really want the brutal truth about Jack London? And are you really prepared to weep for one of America's great sons? If so, then read Martin Eden. Otherwise, pass it by.
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Summary: Social Darwinism
Review: In MARTIN EDEN Jack London used his own life as as plot and cast about for its wider significance. Jack London died by overdose of morphine in 1916. He had suicidal impulses. MARTIN EDEN was Jack London's attempt to deal seriously and vigorously with important ideas. The forward notes that the novel is realistic but the metaphysics of the book are predominantly naturalistic. Martin Eden thought of himself as a wild man-- a wild man brought home to dinner. He had defended Ruth Morse's brother from bullies. He borrowed Swinburne and Browning from Ruth to read. Ruth felt that Swinburne was not quite correct. He lived with his sister and brother-in-law. He thought the man, Bernard Higginbotham, a brute. The many books he read served to whet his unrest. He felt an enormous distance separated him from Ruth Morse. He had always led a secret life in his thoughts. Martin saw Ruth at the theater. In his reading he was baffled by a lack of preparation. He attempted to read books that were beyond him. When he returned the books, Ruth noticed his pants were pressed and he seemed less rough. She wondered how to help him. His speech was uncouth. In compliance with her desires he studied grammar and etiquette. His swift development was a source of surprise and interest. The remodelling of Martin's life became a passion with her. Then he shipped out and read Shakespeare and did not even contact her right away when he came back into port. Martin planned to write. He wrote three thousand words a day and at the end of the week contacted Ruth. He bought a bicycle to accompany her on excursions. He heard Herbert Spencer quoted several times by orators and philosophers at City Hall Park and commenced to read his books. Martin was surprised that Spencer was very little read. He came to see his rejected manuscripts as pitiable children and hired on to work at a laundry in a resort. The description of the work in the laundry is admirable. Martin returned and began work again on his writing. Ruth's mother considered him an inappropriate beau. Ruth thought Martin's poverty was Lincolnesque. His landlady, Maria Silva, poor herself, knew better. Ruth appeared at the Silva house. He had been reckless enough to write to her to tell her that he had pawned his suit. Ruth saw the sordid face of poverty. Martin began to have some small sucess. He still suffered and starved and his behavior at a gathering at Ruth's house reflected his state of overwork and under-nourishment. He lost Ruth. His family did not support him. Eventually he had great success and Ruth came back to him, but he said it was too late. He said he was the same person her family had disliked. He left for the South Seas. Reading Jack London is akin to reading good science fiction. He portrays an entire separate parallel universe.
Rating:
Summary: Social Darwinism
Review: In MARTIN EDEN Jack London used his own life as as plot and cast about for its wider significance. Jack London died by overdose of morphine in 1916. He had suicidal impulses. MARTIN EDEN was Jack London's attempt to deal seriously and vigorously with important ideas. The forward notes that the novel is realistic but the metaphysics of the book are predominantly naturalistic. Martin Eden thought of himself as a wild man-- a wild man brought home to dinner. He had defended Ruth Morse's brother from bullies. He borrowed Swinburne and Browning from Ruth to read. Ruth felt that Swinburne was not quite correct. He lived with his sister and brother-in-law. He thought the man, Bernard Higginbotham, a brute. The many books he read served to whet his unrest. He felt an enormous distance separated him from Ruth Morse. He had always led a secret life in his thoughts. Martin saw Ruth at the theater. In his reading he was baffled by a lack of preparation. He attempted to read books that were beyond him. When he returned the books, Ruth noticed his pants were pressed and he seemed less rough. She wondered how to help him. His speech was uncouth. In compliance with her desires he studied grammar and etiquette. His swift development was a source of surprise and interest. The remodelling of Martin's life became a passion with her. Then he shipped out and read Shakespeare and did not even contact her right away when he came back into port. Martin planned to write. He wrote three thousand words a day and at the end of the week contacted Ruth. He bought a bicycle to accompany her on excursions. He heard Herbert Spencer quoted several times by orators and philosophers at City Hall Park and commenced to read his books. Martin was surprised that Spencer was very little read. He came to see his rejected manuscripts as pitiable children and hired on to work at a laundry in a resort. The description of the work in the laundry is admirable. Martin returned and began work again on his writing. Ruth's mother considered him an inappropriate beau. Ruth thought Martin's poverty was Lincolnesque. His landlady, Maria Silva, poor herself, knew better. Ruth appeared at the Silva house. He had been reckless enough to write to her to tell her that he had pawned his suit. Ruth saw the sordid face of poverty. Martin began to have some small sucess. He still suffered and starved and his behavior at a gathering at Ruth's house reflected his state of overwork and under-nourishment. He lost Ruth. His family did not support him. Eventually he had great success and Ruth came back to him, but he said it was too late. He said he was the same person her family had disliked. He left for the South Seas. Reading Jack London is akin to reading good science fiction. He portrays an entire separate parallel universe.
Rating:
Summary: just like Great Expectations!
Review: Is it just me or is Jack London's life just like Pip's. Anyway this book is really easy and fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: "Realistic Idealism"
Review: Jack London, a writer, journalist, adventurer; a tough man and a hopeless romantic. Although he is primarily known for his stories of adventure dealing with the Gold Rush, the Wild West and North, and of course for his marvelous novels with animals rather than people at the center of attention - he was also a great writer in many other respects, his "Martin Eden" being the best example. Slightly autobiographical, "Martin Eden" remains the single grand achievement of Jack London, one of the saddest books ever written, which made me notice that although most books end well, it's not always the case. How I wished the ending was different! And then I realized that some stories simply cannot end well, just like in real life events are more apt to destroy us rather than strengthen us, not to mention the fact that happy ends seem as real as fairies. Many people read books to escape from reality, to find that one place in the world where things turn out how we wish them to turn out. While I cannot deny this inherent human need, and I myself am not free from such wishful thinking, I seem to need brutal realism as much as I need consolation, among other things. "Martin Eden" shook me terribly when I was just a young moose, and since then I have read this novel several times, including the original English version, and it firmly remains among my favorites. Realistic this novel is, as are many books dating from that period, where the XIX century trends were still firmly instituted in the imagination of the turn-of-the-century generation, despite numerous efforts to revolutionize literature undertaken at about that time. Published in 1909, "Martin Eden" offers a wide array of topics and themes, all convoluted in a compelling, classical narrative. Firmly set in the aforementioned realism, depicting the society with brutal, unforgiving eye of the commentator, at the same time the novel is an apotheosis of idealism, as romantic, naive and detached as any other idealism out there. A young man serves at the sea, and at one point he meets a young lady from the "upper middle class". In time, their relationship deteriorates from brute force attraction based on instinct, from cheerfulness and spontaneity to a grave series of misunderstandings based on the divergence of expectations one holds with respect to another, the more they know each other, the more so, to finally loathe in their lover what attracted them in the first place. "Martin Eden" is one of the most beautiful and touching love stories ever written, the more so because of its frankness which never borders on postmodern exhibitionism which plagued literature of the XX century. "Martin Eden" served London as a tool of social commentary, and thusly he expressed his disappointment and disapproval for the social class divisions, and as many before and after him, painted the bourgeois black with a fervor worth of any young radical. Nevertheless, as much as this sensitive socialism dated since then, it's a pleasure to read compared to what goes for literature almost a hundred years later, the journalistic socrealism of ideologues who imagine that they are writers. More generally, it's a sad fact that the XIX century essentially ended in 1914 with the outburst of the World War I, in all dimensions, including literature. "Martin Eden" thus may be considered as the last breath of the good old times that are never going to return.
Rating:
Summary: A Neglected American Classic of Weight and Depth
Review: MARTIN EDEN follows the rise and fall of a young sailor who by sheer force of will educates himself and succeeds in becoming a famous writer (this is London's autobiographical novel, published in 1909, when he was thirty-three and the most popular living writer in the world). Few readers liked it then, they found it dark and depressing after a certain point; they wanted the entertainment they were used to from London ("Come on, Jack, give us another story with dogs and snow in it!"). Not as many read it now as should, and London himself disdained the fact that it inspired many young writers without talent to follow Martin Eden's example. But it is also a valuable story about a young man maturing in his conception of love as regards the opposite sex: "Ambition soared on mad wings, and he saw himself climbing the heights with her, pleasuring in beautiful and noble things with her. It was a soul-possession he dreamed, refined beyond any grossness, a free comradeship of spirit that he could not put into definite thought." -- The youth becomes a man. London's prose is straightforward and vibrant, much like the author at his best. Martin Eden falls victim to the vicissitudes of his fame and fortune, much like the author at his worst (too much hard living is often given as the reason for London's death at forty). London spends a lot of time in this book criticizing American materialism in the way that materialism ought to be criticized. He also displays a certain kind of American work ethic (five hours of sleep a night, perseverance through failure, etc.) that sometimes doesn't know what to do with itself once it achieves success. We should all have that problem--just hope that we deal with it better than young Martin Eden does. A very worthwhile read.
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