Customer Reviews
Brilliant Book - By: Mehajabeen Farid, 25 Mar 2008 
This book is a puffin classic & it really is a true classic. This tale is very moving & adventurous. That is why I really like it! It is about a dog, called Buck, who was bornin a big housein Santa Clara Valley, where the sun shone brightly & Judge Miller owned him - he livedin a lap of luxury. The dog was sold to be a sledge dogin the severe coldnessin horrible Yukon, who rises way above his enemies, which leads him to becoming a highly admired dogin the North Pole. I thoroughly enjoyed this book & it is now on my all time favourite books list. I would rate this book 10/ 10 & would strongly recommend it to children, mainly aged 9 - 13, who like adventure stories.
best book ever - By: L. Daniel, 28 Nov 2007 This is a beautiful powerful story. I have read it at least 5 times over the last 30 years & I am about to buy it for my 9-year old nephew. If you love animals, if you love the wilderness, if you love the call of the wild, then you will love this book. It is a timeless classic - writtenin 1902!
ondon's Best Work: A Modern Masterpiece of American Lit. - By: Mike London, 02 Nov 2007 London achieved his masterpiece with this book. He never wrote anything better than THE CALL Of THE WILD (first called THE SLEEPING WOLF). It's also to redeem the dog race, which he condemnedin a short story entitled "Diablo". Ironically, London originally started out writing a short story, & instead it kept growing & growing until it reached a novel length.
In the late 19th century early 20th century naturalism (a literary movement that places value on science & observation with the mindset that there is no fixed morality - its only chemical by-products) is just beginning to catch hold. Naturalism is a direct response to Realism, which Huck Finn is a prime example. Realism came about as a literary movementin the late 1860s after the Civil War, because the writers wanted to point toward a moral code. The movement started to failin the late 1880s or 1890s because things weren't getting better. Naturalism, especiallyin this book (although CALL OF THE WILD has many things foreign to naturalism as well), contends there is no moral code, & that the way to get to the true explanation of life is to really get back to nature & observation & science. Although fundamentally opposed to naturalism (read C. S. Lewis's ABOLITION OF MAN for a detailed argument, as well as THE CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY, the first two booksin MERE CHRISTIANITY), I like this book quite a bit. Why? Glad you asked. Lets take this story & make Buck a human. Would the story have been well received? No. It would have gotten the same treatment SISTER CARRIE did. The sheer geniusin this book restsin the fact that Buck is a dog, and, being a dog, London can do quite a bit more. The moral code doesn't really apply to animalsin this fallen world. There are also strong evolutionary themesin this work (Darwin just recently becoming popularin that era).
Another paradox to this work, since it is supposed to be naturalist, is how much Buck transforms. In most naturalist novels the characters hardly learn anything through the course of the novel (look at Carrie at the beginning & at the end of Drieser's novel - she doesn't learn anything really, as opposed to Realist work where the moral is always clearly stated) - not so with this book. Buck not only learns but he becomes progressively more & more powerful. The interesting thing about this novel liesin the fact that, although supposedly naturalistic,in the end Buck becomes a mythic character. There are twelve elements of myth, & this reaches all of them. There is a book (A Hero With A Thousand Faces I think) that goes through them all. Anyway, & it shows upin SISTER CARRIE as well with the rocking chair serving as the symbolism, the major preoccupation with naturalist writers is why do humans have this constant yearning for something more? London doesn't have the answers (because he didn't have Jesus), and, for a naturalist novel, the ending is very strange & out of place because it endsin a romanticized & impossible mythic realm,in a valley where the gold crowds the river beds & Buck becomes a legendary terror among the Yeehats.
One theme that struck me as very interesting is the theme of man (orin the case dog) against society - or more appropriately Civilization. Civilization imposes rigid & unnatural things Buck, & he becomes aloof from all. London describes him as a lord, & he has no real love. Yet, as he abandons these conventions of Civilization (andin many cases morality), he fallsin love with (in a man-dog relation can go of course - lets not get indecent here) John Thornton. Yet even his love for Thornton he must abandon for the Call of the Wild. It seems (although, as it is a dog, the lines are a lot more blurred since a lot of what London says is true for animals, but not for the human race) the closer you get to the real primal creature & abandon society's convention, the closer to the real world you are. If you take that to apply to humans, its true & it's a lie. Man has two natures within him, one for righteousness the other for sin. If you are a Christian, then you will endin the place where Buck did - that land of myth that is impossiblein this world. But if you indulge your sin nature & do not come to Jesusin the end you will go to.
Something must be said for WHITE FANG. WHITE FANG is this novelin reverse. It's a story of a dog who becomes civilized, & although CALL is better WF is very good. I tend to look upon them as companion works, with one tracing the harkening back to the wild & the other the domestication of dogs.
There is also a complex economic underpinning to this novel. Jack London proclaimed himself a socialist, & yet bragged that he wrote novels for money. Much of the motivationin this novel is economics - why would people go up to the Klondikein the first place but to get gold? Andin the end they endin the valley of gold, that land of myth.
Jack London was a contradictory man. Much like Buck, he had come out of the states & went to livein Londonin the slums, a horrible place, one of the worst on earth at that time. This corresponds to Buck going from sunkissed California to the Klondike, & London sought out the extremesin both situations. In the end he committed suicide, dying at the age of 40.
(Just a side note: Buck is involvedin the transmission of the mail at first, & at the end of the book he involves himselfin the transmission of the male genetics....
Buck realizes his potential - By: B. Chandler, 30 Jun 2005 Gold was foundin Alaska, the rush to obtain it required a strong constitution & many dogs to do the work that horses usually didin the states. The environment bread harsh attitudes. Alsoin the testing of ones mettle one finds their true potential.
Buck (a dog that is half St Bernard & half Shepherd) goes through many lives, trials, & tribulations finally realizing his potential. On the way he learns many concepts from surprise, to deceit, & cunning; he also learns loyalty, devotion, & love. As he is growing he feels the call of the wild.
This book is well written. There is not a wasted word or thought & the story while building on its self has purpose & direction. The descriptions may be a tad graphic for the squeamish & a tad sentimental for the romantic. You see the world through Buck's eyes & understand it through his perspective until you also feel the call of the wild.
A poignant, moving story of nature and survival - By: Daniel Jolley, 30 Nov 2002 I have to admit that I have not really given Jack London his proper due up to now. Perhaps it is because I don't by my nature like outdoor adventure type stories, or perhaps it is because I associate White Fang & "To Build a Fire" with my youth. The fact is that Jack London is a tremendously talented writer. His understanding of the basics of life matches his great knowledge of the snow-enshrouded world of the upper latitudes. The Call of the Wild, despite its relative brevity & the fact that it is (at least on its surface) a dog's story, contains as much truth & reality of man's own struggles as that which can be sifted from the life's work of many another respected author. The story London tells is starkly real; as such, it is not pretty, & it is not elevating. As an animal lover, I found parts of this story heartbreaking: Buck's removal from the civilized Southlandin which he reigned supreme among his animal kindred to the brutal cold & even more brutal machinations of hard, weathered men who literally beat him & whipped him full of lashes is supremely sad & bothersome. Even sadder are the stories of the dogs that fill the sled's traces around him. Poor good-spirited Curly never has a chance, while Dave's story is made the more unbearable by his brave, undying spirit. Even the harsh taskmaster Spitz has to be pitied, despite his harsh nature, for the reader knows full well that this harsh nature was forced upon him by man & his thirst for gold. Buck's travails are long & hard, but the nobility of his spirit makes of him a hero--this despite the fact that his primitive animal instincts & urges continually come to dominate him, pushing away the memory & reality of his younger, softer days among civilized man. Buck not only conquers all--the weather, the harshness of the men who harness his powersin turn, the other dogs & wolves he comes into contact with--he thrives. This isn't a story to read when you are depressed. London's writing is beautiful, poignant, & powerful, but it is also somber, sometimes morose, infinitely real, & at times gut-wrenching & heartbreaking.
