Rating: 
Summary: Jack London-Genius
Review: Hi, I am a 19 year old college student, I was recommended this book from my english teacher, saying that it would be a book of the action/adventure type genre. I have read the entire book and find that it is a fun book to read, even though the characters in the book arnt having any fun, it is an adventure story that I believe many college students my age would like to read. The story is about a character name Humphrey Van Weyden which at the beginning of the story fell off a ship and was rescued in the San Francisco Bay by a group of men on a ship name the GHOST. On this Ghost ship is where the plot of the story takes place, these group of men can not sail back to shore to drop off Van Weyden, so Van Weyden is stuck with these men on the ship and worked with them as seal hunters out at sea.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts off strong, but becomes lackluster by the end.
Review: Humphrey van Weyden is a gentleman. He has never had to work for his living, or do a single task for himself. All that changes when the ferry-steamer Martinez, running across the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, is wrecked after a collision with another boat in the fog. Van Weyden is tossed into the sea, and eventually picked up by another boat. But this is no ordinary boat. It is the Ghost, a seal-hunting schooner captained by Wolf Larsen, who is far from being an ordinary man. He snickers at Van Weyden's offers of money in exchange for taking him to shore, and instead conscripts the unfortunate man to replace a recently-deceased member of the Ghost's crew. Van Weyden's trials encompass far more than merely learning how to work on a ship. He must also find his place in the strange web of heirarchy among the men. More precarious yet is his relationship with the captain.
We soon find out that Wolf Larsen is a monster of a man, possessing superhuman strength and a complete lack of deference to any idea of morals. He is certainly one of the most fascinating characters I've come across in my reading. You fear him, you hate him, and yet there is still something to admire about him. He commands respect. He can kill a man with the strength of his hands alone, but he is also something of a self-educated philosopher. He has clearly studied Darwin, and continually likens life to a ferment of yeast, in which the natural way of things is for the stronger to consume the weaker. And yet, despite Larsen's superhuman image, London manages to keep him plausible for the reader by giving him his own Achilles's heel, which becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses. "The Sea-Wolf" is worth reading for a character study of this man alone. Unfortunately, however, the second half of the book shifts its focus, losing sight of the Van Weyden-Larsen relationship and simultaneously losing much of the driving force behind the story.
Almost as soon as Maud Brewster entered the story, I began to lose interest. Shipwrecked and adrift in a small boat, she is picked up by the Ghost much as Van Weyden was. She, too, is refused passage to land. And inevitably, a romance develops between Brewster and Van Weyden. The story makes an abrupt change in course from one of survival and complex relationships between the ship's men, to that of a love story. But what a silly and unconvincing love story it is! London just doesn't write women well, nor does he make the relationship between Van Weyden and Brewster in any way believable. Maud is a flat character, and just doesn't seem real. She is also full of ridiculous contradictions. She is alternately described as a frail lily and a cavewoman. She bestows the name of Lucifer on Wolf Larsen, but turns all to pity and mush the moment he is struck by one of his headaches. The story would have been much better with romance left out and the focus kept on Van Weyden's personal struggle with Larsen.
The strength of this book definitely lies in its first half. London's writing is strong and vivid, and he does a superb job of capturing the nuances of each relationship between crew members. I only wish he had stuck to that. Every writer has his niche, and London's is not in the romance genre. The second part of the book is contrived, predictable, and does little to hold one's interest. The ending is dissatisfying. It is, however, worth finishing in order to discover what end comes to the aforementioned Wolf Larsen. This is the only element of the latter part of the book that really intrigued me. So read "The Sea-Wolf" for its adventure component, found in the first half, and read it for the wonderfully crafted character of Captain Larsen. But don't expect too much out of the latter half and its conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Cherchez la Femme
Review: I first read THE SEA WOLF at age 12, 40 years ago, and thought it was terrific, for all the reasons mentioned in other reviews: the exciting sea story, the juxtaposition of the values of western civilization with those of the refined thug Wolf Larson, the growth of Hump Van Weyden into a strong and self-reliant man who can hold his own with both Larson and brute nature.When I reread it recently, I still found the basic situation on the Ghost compelling and primal. However, my reservations became stronger and stronger from the time Maud Brewster appeared until the end of the book. Jack London, the great recorder of basic conflicts between man and man, and man and nature, writes VERY unconvincingly about the relationships between men and women. Maud seems a completely artificial character constructed more as a literary symbol of refinement and whimsicality than as a human being. Some of it is ludicrous. In their escape from the Ghost, for instance, Maud and Van Weyden spend several weeks in an open boat, fighting for survival and never once performing an excretory function. They're too delicate for that. When they finally make it to a North Pacific desert island, Hump builds Maud a stone hut as shelter then, exhausted and facing the possibility of dying of exposure, sleeps outside himself. In sum, Jack London, one of the all-time greatest naturalistic writers, perpetrates a great deal of Victorian self-censorship. The symbolic scheme plays out when Larson shows up too, wrecked on the very same island somewhere in the wide, wide, wide reaches of the world's largest ocean, so Maud and Hump can witness his physical disintegration at first hand. I'm a great fan of London's shorter works, the stories of both the far north and the south seas. He is a terrific storyteller, and it's borne out in the first half or two-thirds of THE SEA WOLF. But the concluding portion of this book is a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Cherchez la Femme
Review: I first read THE SEA WOLF at age 12, 40 years ago, and thought it was terrific, for all the reasons mentioned in other reviews: the exciting sea story, the juxtaposition of the values of western civilization with those of the refined thug Wolf Larson, the growth of Hump Van Weyden into a strong and self-reliant man who can hold his own with both Larson and brute nature. When I reread it recently, I still found the basic situation on the Ghost compelling and primal. However, my reservations became stronger and stronger from the time Maud Brewster appeared until the end of the book. Jack London, the great recorder of basic conflicts between man and man, and man and nature, writes VERY unconvincingly about the relationships between men and women. Maud seems a completely artificial character constructed more as a literary symbol of refinement and whimsicality than as a human being. Some of it is ludicrous. In their escape from the Ghost, for instance, Maud and Van Weyden spend several weeks in an open boat, fighting for survival and never once performing an excretory function. They're too delicate for that. When they finally make it to a North Pacific desert island, Hump builds Maud a stone hut as shelter then, exhausted and facing the possibility of dying of exposure, sleeps outside himself. In sum, Jack London, one of the all-time greatest naturalistic writers, perpetrates a great deal of Victorian self-censorship. The symbolic scheme plays out when Larson shows up too, wrecked on the very same island somewhere in the wide, wide, wide reaches of the world's largest ocean, so Maud and Hump can witness his physical disintegration at first hand. I'm a great fan of London's shorter works, the stories of both the far north and the south seas. He is a terrific storyteller, and it's borne out in the first half or two-thirds of THE SEA WOLF. But the concluding portion of this book is a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: My point of view
Review: i think that this book isn't what i thought it would be. being a 13 year old, i had to read this book for school. i bought this book thinking that it was great after reading the back of the book and the reviews here at amazon.com. when i read the book, my classmates and i talked about how boring the book was and that it had no climaxing plot or any interesting points. then again this is just a point of vie of a some teenagers. to me, i wouldn't suggest this book to any teenager i know.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I have ever read.
Review: Jack London's stated intention in writing this book was to place a man and a woman, both intellectual, well-to-do, yet socially soft (physically and psychologically). into the very challenging world of a seal hunting boat and watch them strive for survival. In this context, he has created one of the most fascinating characters of all literature, Wolf Larson, the inhuman captain of the "Ghost." Larson takes great delight in the suffering he brings to Humphrey Van Weyden and Maud Brewster, but they steadily grow to meet the challenge. This book can be read and enjoyed on two levels: As a rousing sea adventure, or as a discourse on society and sociology. Jack London is my favorite author -- I am in the process of collecting first editions of all fifty of his books -- and yet I find Sea Wolf ranks head and shoulders above all his other works. It could explain why this story has been turned into a film seven times, more than any of his his other stories, including The Call of the Wild. Two of cinema's great Wolf Larsons have been Edward G. Robinson and Charles Bronson.
Rating:
Summary: loved the lead character
Review: London details Jack Larson in such a way he allows the reader to really get to know this 'wolf'. London has a gift for development of characters like no other author I have read.
Great story!
Rating:
Summary: Superb Sea Drama.
Review: More readable and entertaining than Moby Dick, The Sea Wolf is the ultimate sea-faring fiction. When his ferry collides with another ship in the fog and sinks, bookish dandy Humphrey Van Weyden finds himself alone and adrift off the coast of San Francisco. He is saved from drowning by a passing sailing vessel, the Ghost, captained by Wolf Larsen, on its way to the seal hunting grounds in the far Pacific. To his dismay, "Hump's" request to be put ashore are ignored. Instead he is held captive, put to hard labor, and made to suffer greatly under the brutal leadership of the fearsome Wolf. Wolf Larson is one of literature's most unique characters, and the mystery of what motivates him and what atrocities he'll commit next compel the reader on. He is not the stereotypical pirate ogre, but rather a well-read, deep-thinking intellectual whose best thoughts justify--in his mind--his callous behavior. He is a firm believer in natural selection and survival of the fittest. On the Ghost, he is at the top of the food chain. As the months pass, Hump is changed by the sea and physical exertion, earning 1st mate status. After plenty of excitement and drama, the plot twists when Maud Brewster, a beautiful young writer, is rescued from a lifeboat adrift a following a storm. Hump is smitten, but so is Wolf. The story plays out well to climax, with classy prose and the best description of sailing I've ever read. A good choice for all adventurers and anyone who loves the sea. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not Great
Review: The Sea Wolf by Jack London tells the story of Humphrey Van Weyden, a literary critic, who is lost overboard and picked up by a seal hunting ship. Instead of returning the shivering man to 'civilization' Wolf Larson, the captain of the ship, forces Van Weyden to work aboard the ship cleaning pots and pans. Although this book has a lot of action and moves fairly quickly, the best parts were the dialouges between the self-educated captain and Humphrey. The captain, as Jack London puts it, is not moral or immoral but is just unmoral, or doesn't have set morals. He doesn't believe in a soul and believes in fulfilling desires. He says that if a man does good it is simply because his desire to do good outweighs the desire to do bad. Van Weyden does believe in the soul and the two man continually philosophize. Overall one of the themes is about the working class being subject to the 'higher' society. My only complaint is that the captain's personality seems to change from the first half of the book to the second half. Also, I happened to appreciate the captain's viewpoint when he was supposed to be the antagonist and wicked man. I don't think that was the author's intention so I hold that against him. All ina all, the themes are so much more interesting and the first half of the book is written better than the second half.
Rating:
Summary: school report
Review: The Sea Wolf by Jack London. This book is about Humphrey Van Weydon who is a gentleman that lives in San Francisco. He is a wealthy man through inheritance of his father. He is traveling across the bay to visit a friend when a collision occurs and he is sent overboard. Wolf Larsen and his crew rescue him and decide to keep him onboard for the seal-hunting ship bound for Japan. During these times Humphrey Van Weydon learns how to stand up on his own, because he has never had a real job before. I like the book because of the vivid descriptions and it keeps you interested because of the story being out at sea.
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