Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Disappointing. Lacks the depth of London’s masterful “Call of the Wild” and his brilliant short stories of the North. Other critics agree, but many cite Wolf Larsen as being a well-drawn villain figure. I found his brutishness exaggerated, and his intellectualism hard to swallow. Both Humphrey and Maud are banal and their budding romance is treacle. I would have liked to see a little Victorian-era sex, but these two don’t even kiss till the last page, despite playing Tarzan and Jane for months on an island.
As a muckraking-age social critique, this book may succeed. But as great coming-of-age sea fiction, no. Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” and Melville’s “Redburn” and “White-Jacket” are much better.
As a muckraking-age social critique, this book may succeed. But as great coming-of-age sea fiction, no. Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” and Melville’s “Redburn” and “White-Jacket” are much better.
Right off the bat engaging.
The character growth along with the engaging conversation between two characters. This makes a really good nighttime read
The character growth along with the engaging conversation between two characters. This makes a really good nighttime read
At times unwittingly comedic, this is really a good book to read, marred by some choices that may, or may not, be intentional. The campiness is all right, I really enjoy it, and also the "adventure book" format reminiscent of Stevenson of having an apparent protagonist who is mainly a narrator, while the apparent antagonist is really the protagonist.
We follow our man Hump in his almost-middle-aged unwilling sea romp on a seal-hunting brig, where the captain, Wolf Larsen, single-handedly decides he is to spend the whole travel toiling to learn to be a virile manly man by basically kidnapping him. In virtue of being an academic literary critic, Hump is a sissy, but he rapidly becomes a swole sailor by sheer virtue of being a white rich man, which we all know that while easily induced by modernity to degenerate into listless soft kids, in fact all hide a core of steel.
And are poor (white) men losers, instead? They might, or might not: that's for genetics to decide, of course. Take our real hero, Wolf Larsen, the ubermensch, a kind of proto-Conan the Barbarian that is capable of pureeing raw potatoes with his grip, is obsessed by Darwinism and tries to make himself an avatar of evolutionary "piggishness" by actively beating everyone, even a freaking shark and his whole complement of sailors, because his body is perfect, not even too big, mind, just caveman strong and Greek-god polished at the same time.
His Nordic race is at the same time the reason for all his perfection and shortcomings: he is of course moody as a sad Viking, and born poor as only a Dane expat in Norway at the tail end of 19th century could be. Also, his momma has been pretty prolific, and there's still another Larsen around, who is both his brother and his deadly enemy: the steamship captain Death Larsen. I kid you not.
The book is in part sea adventure, in part broody Nietzsche-Darwin musing collection, as discussed by people who seem to pointedly avoid both common sense and the real spirit of what those two shrewd guys meant about individualism and evolution. The counterpoint is the even weaker "common decency" point of view of our man Hump. Yet, when Wolf Larsen is not speaking, he is kicking butt, torturing and tormenting anything in reach, and THAT is pretty funny.
Sadly, London drops quite badly the ball when a woman is saved from a wreckage. This girl is everything a female character should NOT be, and remains static and pretty much just a motivation for Hump to fight both nature and man to save himself and reproduce. Which is kind of far more Darwin-like than everything about Wolf Larsen. The fact that all this is pretty comical and not quite the deadly serious twist of fate it was intended to be seems to escape both characters and author.
This book could be far better than it is, and if I seem to be stern in my judgement, I will try to phrase it better: it's an incredibly campy, entertainment-oriented pulp adventure that deserves to be read out of its FUN potential. Sometimes you roll your eyes at the Author, but I feel it's part of the charm.
You really need to be fucking brave to write this book, and London was. I can't give it more than three stars, but I really enjoyed every minute of it.
We follow our man Hump in his almost-middle-aged unwilling sea romp on a seal-hunting brig, where the captain, Wolf Larsen, single-handedly decides he is to spend the whole travel toiling to learn to be a virile manly man by basically kidnapping him. In virtue of being an academic literary critic, Hump is a sissy, but he rapidly becomes a swole sailor by sheer virtue of being a white rich man, which we all know that while easily induced by modernity to degenerate into listless soft kids, in fact all hide a core of steel.
And are poor (white) men losers, instead? They might, or might not: that's for genetics to decide, of course. Take our real hero, Wolf Larsen, the ubermensch, a kind of proto-Conan the Barbarian that is capable of pureeing raw potatoes with his grip, is obsessed by Darwinism and tries to make himself an avatar of evolutionary "piggishness" by actively beating everyone, even a freaking shark and his whole complement of sailors, because his body is perfect, not even too big, mind, just caveman strong and Greek-god polished at the same time.
His Nordic race is at the same time the reason for all his perfection and shortcomings: he is of course moody as a sad Viking, and born poor as only a Dane expat in Norway at the tail end of 19th century could be. Also, his momma has been pretty prolific, and there's still another Larsen around, who is both his brother and his deadly enemy: the steamship captain Death Larsen. I kid you not.
The book is in part sea adventure, in part broody Nietzsche-Darwin musing collection, as discussed by people who seem to pointedly avoid both common sense and the real spirit of what those two shrewd guys meant about individualism and evolution. The counterpoint is the even weaker "common decency" point of view of our man Hump. Yet, when Wolf Larsen is not speaking, he is kicking butt, torturing and tormenting anything in reach, and THAT is pretty funny.
Sadly, London drops quite badly the ball when a woman is saved from a wreckage. This girl is everything a female character should NOT be, and remains static and pretty much just a motivation for Hump to fight both nature and man to save himself and reproduce. Which is kind of far more Darwin-like than everything about Wolf Larsen. The fact that all this is pretty comical and not quite the deadly serious twist of fate it was intended to be seems to escape both characters and author.
This book could be far better than it is, and if I seem to be stern in my judgement, I will try to phrase it better: it's an incredibly campy, entertainment-oriented pulp adventure that deserves to be read out of its FUN potential. Sometimes you roll your eyes at the Author, but I feel it's part of the charm.
You really need to be fucking brave to write this book, and London was. I can't give it more than three stars, but I really enjoyed every minute of it.
I thought this was a really good story of a fantastic villain.
Two things I wanted to do with this book:
1. I wanted to figure out if every crew member of "The Ghost" was named. London tells you how many sailors there are, and names a lot of them, but I kept wondering if, like the Right Fielder in the Abbott & Costello routine "Who's on First," any of them went unnamed.
2. The story takes a hard turn around 2/3rds of the way through and it becomes less of a "grotesque crew on a sailing vessel" but more of a straight up "castaway story." And I have a love/hate relationship to castaway stories. Fortunately this one wasn't a bad one.
Wolf Larson is a terror: an amoral beast that the protagonist is fascinated with. There are times where it is almost embarrassingly homoerotic. I think London knew that, which is why he threw in a female to keep the plot moving.
A really good sea story.
Two things I wanted to do with this book:
1. I wanted to figure out if every crew member of "The Ghost" was named. London tells you how many sailors there are, and names a lot of them, but I kept wondering if, like the Right Fielder in the Abbott & Costello routine "Who's on First," any of them went unnamed.
2. The story takes a hard turn around 2/3rds of the way through and it becomes less of a "grotesque crew on a sailing vessel" but more of a straight up "castaway story." And I have a love/hate relationship to castaway stories. Fortunately this one wasn't a bad one.
Wolf Larson is a terror: an amoral beast that the protagonist is fascinated with. There are times where it is almost embarrassingly homoerotic. I think London knew that, which is why he threw in a female to keep the plot moving.
A really good sea story.
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Can't really write a review yet. Still mulling the ending.
This is certainly one of the best novels I've ever read.
This is certainly one of the best novels I've ever read.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The sea wolf by Jack London is a narrative story of a savage brute yet intellectual ship captain named Wolf Larsen. It seems London operates between simplicity and complexity in his characters. We follow the story of a GENTLEman named Humphrey Van Weyden who hasn’t worked a day in his life and how he survives on Wolf Larsen’s boat. The characters are wild showcasing violence and brutality in their dealings, but yet they are not just savages but men with stories, feelings, and personalities. I felt compelled to keep reading in order to learn more about how each would interact with each other given the unpredictable sea life. In terms of plot, there is none really as the climax of the story is nothing to get exited about generally. However, the character development is what kept me reading.
What an odyssey ! This book is grand. It is going right into my top 2 favorite books ever. The first one being Moby Dick.
The writing is astonishing. The story is great and the characters, all the characters are complexed and well written. I was surprised how the author managed to insert such deep thoughts about humanity, the soul, religion, Good and Bad, what makes a human a human being,....
Essential to read.
The writing is astonishing. The story is great and the characters, all the characters are complexed and well written. I was surprised how the author managed to insert such deep thoughts about humanity, the soul, religion, Good and Bad, what makes a human a human being,....
Essential to read.