Seven short stories, written around the middle of London’s writing career. The stories take place in diverse settings and time periods, from prehistoric times to the future. Plots include a worldwide work strike, a sociopath serial killer, a sailor returning home after years at sea, and more. (Summary by TriciaG) [chương_files]
Jack London lived for a time within the grim and grimy world of the East End of London, where half a million people scraped together hardly enough on which to survive. Even if they were able to work, they were paid only enough to allow them a pitiful existence. He grew to know and empathise with these forgotten (or ignored) people as he spoke with them and tasted the workhouse, life on the streets, … and the food, which was cheap, barely nutritious, and foul. He writes about his experiences in a fluid and narrative style, making it very clear what he thinks of the social structures which created the Abyss, and of the millionaires who live high on the labours of a people forced to live in squalor. “… The food this managing class eats, the wine it drinks, … the fine clothes it wears, are challenged by eight million mouths which have never had enough to fill them, and by twice eight million bodies which have never been sufficiently clothed and housed.” [chương_files]
The novel Valley of the Moon is a story of a working-class couple, Billy and Saxon Roberts, struggling laborers in Oakland at the Turn-of-the-Century, who left the city life behind and searched Central and Northern California for a suitable farmland to own. The book is notable for the scenes in which the proletarian hero enjoys fellowship with the artists’ colony in Carmel, and he settles in the Valley of the Moon. [chương_files]
A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called “the jacket,” a canvas jacket which can be tightly laced so as to compress the whole body, inducing angina. Standing discovers how to withstand the torture by entering a kind of trance state, in which he walks among the stars and experiences portions of past lives. The jacket itself was actually used at San Quentin at the time and Jack London’s descriptions of it were based on interviews with a former convict named Ed Morrell, which is also the name of a character in the novel. For his role in the Sontag and Evans gang which robbed the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1890s, Morrell spent fourteen years in California prisons (1894-1908), five of them in solitary confinement. London championed his pardon. After his release, Morrell was a frequent guest at London’s Beauty Ranch. (Introduction by Wikipedia) [chương_files]
Young Joe Bronson, caught between poor grades and his father’s threats of military school, runs away from home. He joins the crew of a sloop named the Dazzler, but quickly figures out his captain, Pete Le Maire (nicknamed “French Pete”) frequently engages himself and those at his command in criminal activity. Will Joe be able to escape this unwanted and dangerous new life at sea? Published in 1902, Jack London sold this book (his first full-length novel) as a boy’s adventure novel set in San Francisco, his hometown. In his autobiography, London recalls lifting several more elements in this novel from his adolescence, as in youth he bought a sloop called the Razzle Dazzle from a oyster pirate nicknamed “French Frank.” – Summary by Mary Kay [chương_files]
Jack London credited his skill of story-telling to the days he spent as a hobo learning to fabricate tales to get meals from sympathetic strangers. In The Road, he relates the tales and memories of his days on the hobo road, including how the hobos would elude train crews and his travels with Kelly’s Army. – Summary by Barry Eads [chương_files]
Francis Morgan, a wealthy heir of industrialist and Wall Street maven Richard Henry Morgan, is a jaded young New Yorker. When his father’s business partner Thomas Regan suggests that Francis take a holiday in Central America, ostensibly to search for the treasure of the Morgans’ legendary ancestor, Francis thinks it’s a splendid idea. But he never suspects what adventures await across the border… – Summary by Goodreads Cast List: Narrator: Lynette Caulkins Francis Morgan: john warren hart Henry Morgan: Benjamin Tucker Leoncia Solano: Krista Zaleski Parker and Priest of the Sun: James R. Hedrick Thomas Regan: John Payton Señor Álvarez Torres and Yi Poon: Wayne Cooke Señor Mariano Vercara è Hijos and Bascom: Greg Giordano Enrico Solano and Lieutenant Parsons: Todd Alesandro Solano: Ted Perkins Martinez Solano, Gendarme, Overseer Ramirez: redrun Alvarado Solano: Andrew Gaunce Ricardo Solano, Juchitán Haciendado: Inkell Solano Maid: Eileen Ellen Solano Servant 1, Trefethen’s Sailor, Carib, Haciendado 3, Caroo, and Newspaper Pedlar: David Purdy Solano Servant 2, Percival, Carib, Old Buccaneer Henry Morgan, Guillermo, Panamanian Judge, Lost Soul, and Canoe Indian: John Kennard Mayan Lad and José, a Mayan youth: Elijah Fisher Captain Trefethen: Max Magnus Carib: Yuqing Pedro Zurita and Police Lt. Burns: Scott Caulkins Rafael and Charlie Tippery: Elsie Selwyn Ignacio and Blind One’s Leader: Joe Bergin Augustino, Capitán Rosaro, and Johnny Pathmore: Bill Mosley Haciendado 2 and Vicente: Major Toast Oil Man and Peter McGill: Archives27 Beleaguered Peon and Bear Broker: Beeswaxcandle The Blind Brigand: Larry Wilson The Blind One’s Daughter: Eliza Old […]
Well-known and well-regarded author Jack London, known for adventurous stories of the outdoors such as Call of the Wild and White Fang shows us a broader scope of interest in his short stories which here run the gamut from darkly comic tales of murder most foul to light and frothy tales of newspapermen (and women) and from crackling sci-fi to stories of sinister shadowy organizations and spiritualism, London illustrates the many talents he holds as a writer beyond his tales of the frozen north. (Summary by Ben Tucker) [chương_files]
Famous American author Jack London brings us four more tales of adventure. “The Red One” is the story of an explorer who tangles with cannibals to discover a mysterious artifact of possible otherworldly origins, “The Hussy” and “Like Argus of Ancient Times” are both adventurous stories of quests for gold, and “The Princess” is a rousing tale of adventure on the high seas. (Summary by Ben Tucker) [chương_files]
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