With his second novel, London became an important writer;The Call of the Wild is the most perfectly realized novel he ever wrote. Out of llis fearful plunge into the London abyss and his consequent retreat in fiction to the primitive world of dogs and Alaska came an allegory of human life. A study of atavism, or reversion to type, it was also an allegory of man's conditions in the society of London's time as welt as a revelation of the deepest emotions London felt about himself and that society.

The novel has three levels, the first and narrative one the story of a dog, Buck, who reverts to type, learns to survive in a wolf-like life, and eventually becomes a wolf. The second, or biographical level, reveals what London himself lived and felt in climbing out of the abyss of poverty and deprivation to prestige as a writer and wealth....

The Call of the Wild is the story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and thrust into the merciless life of the Arctic north to endure hardship, bitter cold, and the savage lawlessness of man and beast. White Fang is the adventure of an animal--part dog, part wolf--turned vicious by cruel abuse, then transformed by the patience and affection of one man.

Jack London’s superb ability as a storyteller and his uncanny understanding of animal and human natures give these tales a striking vitality and power and have earned him a reputation as a distinguished American writen.

Introduction

THE CALL OF THE WILD

WHITE FANG

Bibliography