Rating: 
Summary: Martin, Jack and Friedrich
Review: Martin Eden is one of those books on which it's difficult to pass judgment. It doesn't rise to the realm of high art, although the writing is splendid in parts. The philosophy displayed through most of the novel comes across as sophomoric and meretricious. As autobiography it is dubious at best, as anyone who has read a biography of London knows. On all these accunts, London's other semi-autobiographical work, John Barleycorn, is much better and well-grounded......And yet, any one who has ever been in love or thirsted for beauty and knowledge, or has had ambition thwarted, or had it fulfilled and found that its reward led to emptiness can not help saying that this is the stuff of life.
The book has Nietzsche's influence written all over it. Indeed, the closing lines of Chapter XXVIII are directly lifted from Nietzsche. This influence doesn't, to my mind, detract from the novel though. Quite to the contrary, it's what holds the book thematically and artistically together.The best part of the book by far is the ending, wherein London remains artistically and thematically true to himself and to his readers, and thereby renders the book unpalatable for mass consumption. As Nietzsche puts it, "I love him who is abashed when the dice fall to make his fortune, and asks, 'Am I then a crooked gambler?' For he wants to perish" There is also the influence and theme of that most anomolous of the books of The Bible, Ecclesiastes, which is, again, more overtly evident in London's John Barleycorn: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" This book has its faults, but indiffence to the very pulse of life and to the vagaries of the human condition is not one of them. I can't imagine any lover of and struggler with words and life coming away from Martin Eden unmoved.
Rating:
Summary: Martin, Jack and Friedrich
Review: Martin Eden is one of those books on which it's difficult to pass judgment. It doesn't rise to the realm of high art, although the writing is splendid in parts. The philosophy displayed through most of the novel comes across as sophomoric and meretricious. As autobiography it is dubious at best, as anyone who has read a biography of London knows. On all these accunts, London's other semi-autobiographical work, John Barleycorn, is much better and well-grounded......And yet, any one who has ever been in love or thirsted for beauty and knowledge, or has had ambition thwarted, or had it fulfilled and found that its reward led to emptiness can not help saying that this is the stuff of life.
The book has Nietzsche's influence written all over it. Indeed, the closing lines of Chapter XXVIII are directly lifted from Nietzsche. This influence doesn't, to my mind, detract from the novel though. Quite to the contrary, it's what holds the book thematically and artistically together. The best part of the book by far is the ending, wherein London remains artistically and thematically true to himself and to his readers, and thereby renders the book unpalatable for mass consumption. As Nietzsche puts it, "I love him who is abashed when the dice fall to make his fortune, and asks, 'Am I then a crooked gambler?' For he wants to perish" There is also the influence and theme of that most anomolous of the books of The Bible, Ecclesiastes, which is, again, more overtly evident in London's John Barleycorn: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?" This book has its faults, but indiffence to the very pulse of life and to the vagaries of the human condition is not one of them. I can't imagine any lover of and struggler with words and life coming away from Martin Eden unmoved.
Rating: 
Summary: A well-written account of a man cast aside by our society
Review: Martin Eden is perhaps one of the greatest critiques of modern society of our time. Not only does this maligned genius tell the story of his ascent to the top of the literary ladder, he also manages to involve the reader in the political dogmas he struggled with every day of his enlightened life. A definite must read, for anybody attracted to great works of literature.
Rating:
Summary: The best book London ever wrote
Review: People say Jack London's later works, such as "Martin Eden," aren't as good. They say he lost his touch, or his artistic drive or whatever.
Well, those guys who say that are idiots.
"Martin Eden" is the best book London ever wrote. Period.
Rating:
Summary: A life altering read!
Review: Perfection in its every breath! Imagine a mind trapped in a body that was born to unfortunate social circumstance, but strives to rise with the masses for the sake of love, only to rise above and beyond it without being able to contain itself-that is the essence of Martin Eden. Then imagine again a mind obssessed with knowledge, a body hungry for love and a soul agonized from the vice of humanity-that is the plight and tragedy of Martin Eden. Reading this book was a life altering read that I will always cherish, for every artistic mind will inherently and passionately understand every syllable uttered by Jack London's genuis-buy this book and read it and reread it indefinitely!
Rating:
Summary: The best book London ever wrote
Review: Read this shortly after reading "White Jacket" by Herman Melville. Certainly came away from reading this with the impression that Melville is the superior writer. I guess that's not really in question. As an Oaklander, I take issue with the Amazon comment above that says this book takes place in San Francisco. Maybe one or two scenes take place in San Francisco, but the rest takes place in Oakland. It is fun to read the action taking place on Telegraph Avenue or at Broadway and fourteenth street, locations that in some places still resemble the way they looked in London's day. Plot of novel is best referred to as "semi-autobiographical", from what I can gather. Martin Eden struggles to teach himself to write, only to find that success leads to emptiness. Story mirrored a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne called "Ethan Brand". In that story, the main character becomes obsessed with finding "an unpardonable sin". After travelling around the world, he realizes that the only unpardonable sin is the uncontrolled thirst for knowledge. Martin Eden is kind of like that... He thirsts to know everything, but when his knowledge is recognized by society, he is disappointed and left feeling empty inside. Eden, the character, has a penchant for Herbert Spencer and Nietzche. I found the philosophizing involving these two hard to take, but I guess that's just par for the course with London.
Makes for a quick read, despite it's four hundred page plus length.
Rating: 
Summary: The Struggle for Book Learning
Review: Read this shortly after reading "White Jacket" by Herman Melville. Certainly came away from reading this with the impression that Melville is the superior writer. I guess that's not really in question. As an Oaklander, I take issue with the Amazon comment above that says this book takes place in San Francisco. Maybe one or two scenes take place in San Francisco, but the rest takes place in Oakland. It is fun to read the action taking place on Telegraph Avenue or at Broadway and fourteenth street, locations that in some places still resemble the way they looked in London's day. Plot of novel is best referred to as "semi-autobiographical", from what I can gather. Martin Eden struggles to teach himself to write, only to find that success leads to emptiness. Story mirrored a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne called "Ethan Brand". In that story, the main character becomes obsessed with finding "an unpardonable sin". After travelling around the world, he realizes that the only unpardonable sin is the uncontrolled thirst for knowledge. Martin Eden is kind of like that... He thirsts to know everything, but when his knowledge is recognized by society, he is disappointed and left feeling empty inside. Eden, the character, has a penchant for Herbert Spencer and Nietzche. I found the philosophizing involving these two hard to take, but I guess that's just par for the course with London.
Makes for a quick read, despite it's four hundred page plus length.
Rating:
Summary: Swinburne
Review: There is always that one book in your life that you read and all of a sudden you realize that a book is more than just a story. This was that book for me. I still can't necessarily pinpoint why. But it did for me what I think a great book should do, that is make me think. Think about life, think about love and think about people. I can't say that this book answered any questions, but the important part was that it made me ask myself questions.
Rating: 
Summary: what crap
Review: this book has it good points but it is someting one should not spend too much time looking into. this book has the most general plot that that you can get out of hundreads of other books. it is the good old " guy wants girl but not good enough then gets better than she is then gets shot down to where he was before she dumps him hegets famous then she wants him for his money he realises this and that he has no friends so he drowns himself." asl it seems that every chapter is just a bout her lips, or someting elso about ruth. he describes way too much an it takes 100 pages for anything to really happen. this book sucks i think martin eden should have realized that he was an idiot in the first chapter so that i didnt have to read the whole thing.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This book is an autobiography of Jack London. He starts out poor with no education and awful grammer and ends up having spectacular grammer and being very intelligent. It is full surprises. If you like some books about famous peoples lives this is your book. It is well written with impressive words. When is the last time a book has made you cry. This is an excellent book!
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