Rating: Summary: BOOOORING Review: BOOOOOORING DONT READ WASTE OF TIM
Rating: Summary: wilderness Review: both of these books are good. both have an animal as a main star. L has a way of describing how you adjust to the wild and how it influence you. you simply have to adjust to survive. in Call of the wild, the wilderness really grow on you. in White fang the real wilderness seem to be something inside creatures, breaking down the barrier between creature and nature (sort of).
Rating: Summary: Good, but marred somewhat by London's Social Darwinism Review: I had mixed reactions to this book. I missed it as a kid, and as an adult I have read too many other books to miss its shortcomings. Now, reading it as an adult, I find I have two major objections to the book, difficulties with central elements that impede my enjoyment of it. First, there is the book's personification of animals. I don't enjoy books where the author projects human emotions and instincts into nonhuman animals. Too many of Buck's actions were inexplicable as as a dog but explicable as a human. The second difficulty lies the poor understanding of animal behavior that the book projects. London didn't have the benefit of the work of ethologists like Konrad Lorenz and David Mech, but as readers we do, and their work makes much of the behavior of Buck unfathomable. Finally, like the vast majority of people, I find Social Darwinism to be both unpalatable and outmoded. Philosophically, this book harkened from a completely different generation. Today we have trouble accepting survival of the fittest modes of thought. On the other hand, despite these shortcomings and the naive philosophy, London does manage to tell a nice story, and I did find myself caring about what happened to Buck.
Rating: Summary: Good, but marred somewhat by London's Social Darwinism Review: I had mixed reactions to this book. I missed it as a kid, and as an adult I have read too many other books to miss its shortcomings. I don't enjoy books where the author projects human emotions and instincts into nonhuman animals. Too many of Buck's actions were inexplicable as as a dog but explicable as a human. I also find it difficult to read a book that reflects a poor understanding of animal behavior. London didn't have the benefit of the work of ethologists like Konrad Lorenz and David Mech, but as readers we do, and their work makes much of the behavior of Buck unfathomable. Finally, like the vast majority of people, I find Social Darwinism to be both unpalatable and outmoded. Philosophically, this book harkened from a completely different generation. Today we have trouble accepting survival of the fittest modes of thought. On the other hand, despite these shortcomings and the naive philosophy, London does manage to tell a nice story, and I did find myself caring about what happened to Buck.
Rating: Summary: The Gory Truth of Call of the Wild Review: I highly recrecommend Call of the Wild to Sick minded people who do nothing but sit around all day playing bloody gore war games rated M. There is a bloody graphic death every chapter! YAY! OH! And who could forget the gory fight scences? Eptic blood battles with the moral being winners kill and loosers show mercy! What an important life lesson! And the PAIN!! How can life go on without PAIN? Broken bones, body slashes, club beatings, and, best of all, freezing to death!!! Ah, What a life! In conclusion, I prefer MY games rated E for everyone.
Rating: Summary: The Gory Truth of Call of the Wild Review: I highly recrecommend Call of the Wild to Sick minded people who do nothing but sit around all day playing bloody gore war games rated M. There is a bloody graphic death every chapter! YAY! OH! And who could forget the gory fight scences? Eptic blood battles with the moral being winners kill and loosers show mercy! What an important life lesson! And the PAIN!! How can life go on without PAIN? Broken bones, body slashes, club beatings, and, best of all, freezing to death!!! Ah, What a life! In conclusion, I prefer MY games rated E for everyone.
Rating: Summary: Amazing book Review: I just started really getting into the classics, and my mother in law got me this book. By the first chapter I became a Jack London fan. These two stories are incredible and intense. I think anybody would love it, but especially those who are interested in animals and/or psychology. I didn't want White Fang to ever end. Oh, I just loved it! I will purchase more Jack London novels, especially at these prices!
Rating: Summary: Two great novels. Review: In "The Call of the Wild," Buck, a dog living on a California estate in the Santa Clara Valley, is stolen and shipped to the Klondike where he is trained as a sled dog. After a series of adventures, he heeds "the call of the wild" and abandons human civilization. London was able to draw on his experiences in the Klondike in the late 1890s to provide accurate details of the life an environment. In a way, this book might be considered an alegory; about the return to one's roots, the fight for survival in a hostile environment, etc. In July of 1998, the editorial board of the Modern Library listed this book as one of the top 100 novels written in the English language for the twentieth century. London wrote "White Fang" to complement "The Call of the Wild" (note that Buck travels from California to the wild whereas White Fang makes the reverse trek). Again, he draws on his own experiences in the Klondike to provide accurate descriptions of life in that part of the world in the late 1890s. White Fang is part wolf and part dog. He is sold by his Indian owner to a man who tries to make him more savage so that money could be made from dogfights. White Fang is rescued by a mining engineer who takes him home to California. While there he rescues the family from an escaped convict. London shows how much environment can play in one's life. I recommend these two books highly.
Rating: Summary: How'd London end up in the children's section? Review: Jack London has his faults -- prone to overuse of superlatives; overdescription and overemphasis; occasional suggestions of misanthropy; an uneasy blend of aristocratic intellectualism and socialist populism. But not that many writers can match his linguistic energy, and at his best his writings achieve a majesty and intensity akin to the cinematic mode of expression. White Fang is the better story, despite London scholar Andrew Sinclair's protestations to the contrary. Criticizing the "bathos" of the ending, he probably missed the cynicism that can be extracted from the "Blessed Wolf" ending. Human recognition doesn't mean much in the end of White Fang, after all -- notice that London does not end on the note of "Blessed Wolf" but on the more important thing -- rejuvenation, the next generation...the puppies. This is the true triumph of the wolf, not the acceptance of the Sierra Vista. White Fang succeeds on the strength of its coming-of-age story and because White Fang is less heroic than Buck. Buck in The Call of the Wild is almost too powerful to be convincing -- his defeat at the hands of The Man in the Red Sweater makes his devastation of the Yeehat tribe at the end of the novella incredible. However, Sinclair's criticisms of Jack London taking liberties with dog behaviour (eg. Buck's "imagination" while fighting; White Fang's electric-cars-as-screaming-lynxes nightmares) verge on the idiotic. The use of allusions (as in the case of the nightmares) is an ages-old and very effective device; as for Buck's "imagination", I would rather trust London to comment on dog behaviour than Sinclair. Besides, who cares? The novel was never designed to be a hard-line news-journalistic form, so to criticize a novel for "not being realistic", especially in the case of a modern mythmaker like London, is ridiculous. The savagery of these two stories makes it baffling why they frequently end up in the children's section. Shocking, powerful storytelling set in a merciless world.
Rating: Summary: A triumph of the living spirit! Review: Jack London has written the finest of stories in White Fang. The bar has been raised never to be surpassed. White Fang is the story of life and the will to live. Nothing else! I have read this story many times and have ventured to continue the legacy of "The Blessed Wolf". There has yet to be a novel written of such an exceptional understanding of the energy of life that surges within all living creatures. An energy superceded only by the power of love, loyalty, devotion and honor. The world must read this novel, for it is a part of everything.
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