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A review by foggy_rosamund
The Sea-Wolf by Jack London
5.0
In general, I enjoy nautical novels for their adventures and camaraderie. The Sea-Wolf brings things to whole new level of homo-eroticism and moral quandaries. Humphrey Van Weyden, a literary critic, is shipwrecked on his way to San Francisco. He is rescued by Captain Wolf Larsen, who refuses to bring him to shore, instead forcing him to join his crew, in order to make a man of Humphrey.
London has a lot of feelings about manliness, most of which are pretty objectionable to the 21st century reader. It's this obsession with manliness that leads to much of the homo-erotics though, because Humphrey just can't stop talking about how manly Wolf Larsen is. When he first meets him, Humphrey says his face
with large features and strong lines, of the square order, yet well filled out, was apparently massive at first sight; but as with the body, the massiveness seemed to vanish and a conviction grew of a tremendous and excessive mental or spiritual strength that lay beyond …
This follows a long description of Wolf's body, and he goes on to expand on his impressions of Wolf's face and to then talk about his eyes for a full paragraph,
eyes the could brood with hopeless sombreness of leaden skies; that could snap and crackle points of fire like those which sparkle from a whirling sword; that could grow chill as an arctic landscape, and yet again, could warm and soften and be all a-dance with love lights, intense and masculine, luring and compelling …
He keeps going. That's just an extract. Then, after having known Wolf for approximately twenty-four hours, during which time Wolf has kidnapped him, this occurs,
'I read immortality in your eyes,' I answered, dropping the 'sir' – an experiment, for I thought the intimacy of the conversation warranted it.
Steady on, Humphrey. Play your cards a little closer to your chest.
Their relationship develops over the next half of the book. Wolf is portrayed as a brutal, cruel man, who has no compassion, and, while interested in Humphrey's intellect, mainly keeps him around because Humphrey amuses Wolf. However, the tension between them simmers, and it doesn't just feel like the tension between unwilling sailor / captain. As Humphrey describes it, it was intimate, “if intimacy may be denoted to describe those relations which exist between master and man, or, better yet, between king and jester.”
I think it can, Humphrey. This is definitely not a good or healthy relationship. But it's FASCINATING. The gay continues when Humphrey sees Wolf naked for the first time,
Wolf Larsen was the man-type, the masculine, and almost a god in his perfectness. As he moved about or raised his arms the great muscles leapt and moved under the satiny skin. […] I could not take my eyes from him. I stood motionless, a roll of antiseptic cotton in my hand unwinding and spilling itself down to the floor.
I found this book so much more homo-erotic than other sea-faring novels I have read (and that's saying something) that I became curious about Jack London's own sexuality. I found this article in the New Yorker, which suggests Jack London was bisexual. At the time of writing, a “wolf” was slang for an older homeless man who took sexual favours from a younger man – and London has been homeless in his youth and would have been familiar with this. When London was older he had an intimate and sexually charged relationship with an Englishman, and during their relationship, London called himself wolf. So calling his model of masculine beauty Wolf was certainly a deliberate, and meaningful, choice, and not something London would have done unknowingly. Though it's hard to tell exactly from his biography, evidence suggests London was bisexual. It's hard to read the scenes between Wolf and Humphrey without finding a sexual undertone.
The novel goes on to include a poet, Maud Brewster, whom Humphrey eventually falls in love with. This eases the tension between Humphrey and Wolf, and its necessary for the narrative for Wolf, who is, essentially, a murderer and abuser, to get his comeuppance. Which is good, but London's views of women as fragile and tender, and in need of a masculine influence, are harder to stomach, as are his views of what is essentially masculine. The story is about Humphrey growing from being a “sissy” to a muscle-bound Alpha male – which as someone who has no objection to sissies, I hate.
But if you don't pay too much attention to this, The Sea-Wolf is a rollicking yarn, full of sexual tension, sailing and swearing, and I recommend it. It's not a good novel, exactly, but I enjoyed it more than anything I've read in a long time.
London has a lot of feelings about manliness, most of which are pretty objectionable to the 21st century reader. It's this obsession with manliness that leads to much of the homo-erotics though, because Humphrey just can't stop talking about how manly Wolf Larsen is. When he first meets him, Humphrey says his face
with large features and strong lines, of the square order, yet well filled out, was apparently massive at first sight; but as with the body, the massiveness seemed to vanish and a conviction grew of a tremendous and excessive mental or spiritual strength that lay beyond …
This follows a long description of Wolf's body, and he goes on to expand on his impressions of Wolf's face and to then talk about his eyes for a full paragraph,
eyes the could brood with hopeless sombreness of leaden skies; that could snap and crackle points of fire like those which sparkle from a whirling sword; that could grow chill as an arctic landscape, and yet again, could warm and soften and be all a-dance with love lights, intense and masculine, luring and compelling …
He keeps going. That's just an extract. Then, after having known Wolf for approximately twenty-four hours, during which time Wolf has kidnapped him, this occurs,
'I read immortality in your eyes,' I answered, dropping the 'sir' – an experiment, for I thought the intimacy of the conversation warranted it.
Steady on, Humphrey. Play your cards a little closer to your chest.
Their relationship develops over the next half of the book. Wolf is portrayed as a brutal, cruel man, who has no compassion, and, while interested in Humphrey's intellect, mainly keeps him around because Humphrey amuses Wolf. However, the tension between them simmers, and it doesn't just feel like the tension between unwilling sailor / captain. As Humphrey describes it, it was intimate, “if intimacy may be denoted to describe those relations which exist between master and man, or, better yet, between king and jester.”
I think it can, Humphrey. This is definitely not a good or healthy relationship. But it's FASCINATING. The gay continues when Humphrey sees Wolf naked for the first time,
Wolf Larsen was the man-type, the masculine, and almost a god in his perfectness. As he moved about or raised his arms the great muscles leapt and moved under the satiny skin. […] I could not take my eyes from him. I stood motionless, a roll of antiseptic cotton in my hand unwinding and spilling itself down to the floor.
I found this book so much more homo-erotic than other sea-faring novels I have read (and that's saying something) that I became curious about Jack London's own sexuality. I found this article in the New Yorker, which suggests Jack London was bisexual. At the time of writing, a “wolf” was slang for an older homeless man who took sexual favours from a younger man – and London has been homeless in his youth and would have been familiar with this. When London was older he had an intimate and sexually charged relationship with an Englishman, and during their relationship, London called himself wolf. So calling his model of masculine beauty Wolf was certainly a deliberate, and meaningful, choice, and not something London would have done unknowingly. Though it's hard to tell exactly from his biography, evidence suggests London was bisexual. It's hard to read the scenes between Wolf and Humphrey without finding a sexual undertone.
The novel goes on to include a poet, Maud Brewster, whom Humphrey eventually falls in love with. This eases the tension between Humphrey and Wolf, and its necessary for the narrative for Wolf, who is, essentially, a murderer and abuser, to get his comeuppance. Which is good, but London's views of women as fragile and tender, and in need of a masculine influence, are harder to stomach, as are his views of what is essentially masculine. The story is about Humphrey growing from being a “sissy” to a muscle-bound Alpha male – which as someone who has no objection to sissies, I hate.
But if you don't pay too much attention to this, The Sea-Wolf is a rollicking yarn, full of sexual tension, sailing and swearing, and I recommend it. It's not a good novel, exactly, but I enjoyed it more than anything I've read in a long time.