J'ai trouvé très intéressant de lire des nouvelles qui ont presque toutes pour protagonistes des animaux mais qui ne glissent jamais dans l’anthropomorphisme. La richesse du style de London et la finesse avec laquelle il développe ses thèmes sont vraiment à saluer. Néanmoins, je reconnais que les passages que j'ai le plus appréciés sont les quelques uns centrés sur des humains. La puissance dramatique de ces nouvelles est vraiment à son paroxysme quand London suit des hommes sur le point de mourir de froid ou de se faire dévorer les uns après les autres par une meute de loups.

🐺🐶🦊

nature/nurture stuff.

also, I'm never going out in the snow.

Jack London was really, really good at what he did, and what he did was craft stories about dogs (or with dogs) where the main focus is the animal and its place in the world - the tug between the Wild and the comforts of civilization. The biggest question in The Call of the Wild and White Fang (which was sometimes referred to as The Call of the Tame, apparently) was always "At what point does the wolf become a dog, or the dog the wolf?" Many books will make you question what it means to be human - this one will make you question what it is to even be civilized, and how far you would go for loyalty.

Both novellas were fantastic. I didn't quite find the short stories at the end as interesting, but I don't hold that against London - if that book only contained the novellas, I would have been perfectly happy. One thing I found particularly interesting was that humans were secondary creatures in those books, and were forces of nature more than they were legitimate characters. There were only a couple the reader was truly allowed to have feelings for, and even they were completely expendable. It was a wake up call to see a dog watch some prospectors fall through the ice with their sleds, and then watch as the dog turns away and the prospectors are never mentioned again. The humans were there to drive the dogs' stories, they were not there to be the stories.

I think the biggest part of these books - potentially even bigger than the humans crafting the nature of the dogs - was the setting of Arctic Canada. The weather is harsh, the people have to either take it in stride or become harsher, and the entire world seems poised to kill you at every turn. Sled dogs are the preferred method of travel, and that causes a whole series of different issues over time (like those prospectors above). London did a fantastic job of crafting this harsh enviroment, to the point where I actually found myself shivering slightly at his descriptions as I read the book in the middle of a July heatwave. You could hear the snow crunch, see the breath coming out of mouths, and even feel the cold seep down through your skin into your bones, getting in where it might not ever get out.

If you're a fan of dogs or adventure stories, this is definitely worth getting your hands on. The writing is clear, the descriptions both straightforward and engaging, and the stories make you want to keep going, while in the back of your mind you find yourself rooting against your own species, just so the dogs have good lives. A worthy read if I've ever had one.

Undeniably entertaining and adventurous, there is a lot to fascinate here. I loved the description of the wild Yukon territory during gold rush times, the human foibles that have an outsized effect on the canine companions. Buck and White Fang sit on the boundary between the human world and the Wild- London implies that the ability to move back and forth is where true freedom lies.

This is a compendium of Call of the Wild, White Fang, and two short stories, Bâtard and Love of Life. I read Call of the Wild first which I generally enjoyed but didn’t love the racism. Couldn’t stand White Fang or Bâtard and was planning on rating this 1.5 stars rounded up but now it’s 2.5 rounded down because Love of Life is so spectacular.

In only 25 pages we get a fantastic examination of the human will to live, and the repercussions when we succeed at all costs. I recommend finding Love of Life somewhere in the public domain but not so much the rest of this collection.

PG-- for intense scenes

Beautiful wild writing. Great stories. Sutible for older children.

I have set myself a challenge to read more classics - and have previously read one of Jack London’s short stories (which I loved).

I this book, I enjoyed the writing, but not the stories. I acknowledge these stories were written in the early 1900s so times were different, but it was quite jarring to read of the animal cruelty and words describing people from other cultures.

Jack London sure knows how to write though. White Fang was easily the more enjoyable story out of the collection, but it was still a relief to finish it.

The settings of the stories in this collection was the main reason why I came to this book. I love tales that take place in the arctic, so this was a fun time. Though, the stories are VERY dated, which means I won't be returning to them.