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The Call of the Wild
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Jack London |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
| Publication date | 1903 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 202 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
| OCLC | 28228581 |
| Preceded by | none |
| Followed by | White Fang |
The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck whose primordial instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the days of the 19th century Gold Rushes.
Published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is one of London's most read books and it is generally considered one of his best. Because the protagonist is a dog, it is sometimes classified as a juvenile novel, suitable for children, but it is dark in tone and contains numerous scenes of cruelty and violence.
London followed the book in 1906 with White Fang, a companion novel with many similar plot elements and themes as The Call of the Wild, although following a mirror image plot in which a wild wolf becomes civilized by a mining expert from San Francisco named Weedon Scott.
Contents |
Buck is a 4-year-old, 140 lb St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd (i.e., Collie) mix who is abducted from a comfortable life as the pet of Judge Miller in the Santa Clara Valley of Northern California. Buck is taken by Judge Miller's gardener's assistant and sold to a trainer of sled dogs, which were in great demand due to the discovery of "a yellow metal" in the frozen lands of the Yukon. Quickly introduced to the brutality of his new life, Buck is forced to survive and adapt to conditions in Alaska and the Yukon. He works pulling sleds with other dogs, learns to steal food, and engages in power struggle with other dogs for the lead position in the sled team. His owners soon learn that even though his enemy is 'a devil', Buck is 'two devils'. He becomes the leader of the sled. He changes hands many times before he is eventually acquired by a kind and loving owner, John Thornton. When Thornton is killed by "Yeehat" Indians, Buck goes into a beastly rage and kills the Native Americans. Buck returns to the wild and becomes the alpha male of a wolf pack he met a few days after the death of Thornton. Images of death, cruelty, and Darwinian struggle abound. Of the world Buck enters, London writes "The salient thing of this other world seemed fear."
The University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page states that "Jack London's writing was censored in several European dictatorships in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1929, Italy banned all cheap editions of his Call of the Wild. Some of London's works were also burned by the Nazis."[1] They were banned because Jack London had a reputation as an outspoken socialist.
In 1960, critic Maxwell Geismar called The Call of the Wild "a beautiful prose poem." Editor Franklin Walker said that it "belongs on a shelf with Walden and Huckleberry Finn". E. L. Doctorow called it "a mordant parable... his masterpiece."
Several films based on the novel, or at least using elements from it, including its title, have been produced; the best-known of these, emphasizing human over canine characters, is the 1935 version starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young. There was a 1972 version staring Charlton Heston. There was also a Call of the Wild television series broadcast in 2000. The episode "Molly Brown" was directed by Scifi veteran David Winning.
What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown is a parody of The Call of the Wild, with Snoopy as Buck.
There is an anime adaptation in Japan, known as Anime Yasei no Sakebi (アニメ野性のさけび Anime Shout of the Wilderness), which consists of 22 episodes and is based on the novel. There was also an anime movie made in the 80's and animated by the Japanese company toei.
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This short section requires expansion. |
^ The tribe was Jack London's fictional creation. "There was no tribe of American Indians named Yeehats. London's decision to employ a fictitious tribe is consistent with Northland traditions, however, for it was common to hear tales of barbarous people living in remote and unexplored regions of the territory." (Dyer, 1997)
The main character in the book was based on a St. Bernard / Collie sled dog which belonged to Marshall Bond and his brother Louis the sons of Judge Hiram Bond a mining investor, fruit packer and banker of Santa Clara, California. The Bonds were Jack London's landlords in Dawson during the Fall and Spring of 1897 - 1898 the main year of the Klondike Gold Rush. The London and Bond accounts record that the dog was used by Jack London to accomplish chores for the Bonds and other clients of London's. (Dyer, 1997)
- There is a song by Deep Purple which is named after this novel.
- A character representing Jack London appears in the two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Time's Arrow.
- Dyer, Daniel, 1997: The Call of the Wild: Annotated and Illustrated, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-2920-4
