Best Novel Classics

9 primary works

Smoke Bellew

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1920

Set in the backdrop of the Alaskan wilderness, the work portrays the hard lifestyle of that area. The struggles and fights of the natives as well as outsiders are elucidated in detail. The work shows that the cuts of life can turn mere stones into diamonds.

The Game

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1920

On the eve of their wedding, twenty-year-old Jack Fleming arranges a secret ringside seat for his sweetheart to view her only rival: the 'game'. Through Genevieve's apprehensive eyes, we watch the prizefight that pits her fair young lover, 'the Pride of West Oakland', against the savage and brutish John Ponta and that reveals as much about her own nature, and Joe's, as it does about the force that drives the two men in their violent, fateful encounter. Responding to a review that took him to task for his realism, Jack London wrote, 'I have had these experiences and it was out of these experiences, plus a fairly intimate knowledge of prize-fighting in general, that I wrote "The Game"'. With this intimate realism, London took boxing out of the realm of disreputable topics and set it on a respectable literary course that extends from A. J. Liebling to Ernest Hemingway to Joyce Carol Oates. The familiarity of London's boxing writing testifies to its profound influence on later literary commentators on the sport, while the story "The Game" tells remains one of the most powerful and evocative portraits ever given of prizefighters in the grip of their passion.
Jack London (1876-1916) wrote such classics as "Call of the Wild", "White Fang", and "The Sea-Wolf". Introducer Michael Oriard is the author of "Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle" and other works. He is a professor of English at Oregon State University.

Adventure

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1920

Adventure by Jack London first published in 1911. Located in the Solomon Islands, this devastating portrayal of copra plantation slavery has scholars arguing whether London was criticizing the racism of the colonialists or approving of it. The basic premise is following the "Adventure" of a plantation owner in the Solomon islands in the late 1800's (I'm assuming), especially after a spunky American women gets shipwrecked off the island and comes to stay for a bit. The character of Joan, is really where the book redeems itself. For a book of that time, it is rare to find such a strong female character. What follows are adventures through the islands and a glimpse of plantation life in that place and time.

The Star Rover

by Jack London

Published 1 December 1915

Jack London's novel brings to life the horrors and inhumanities of prison life.

Martin Eden

by Jack London

Published 1 September 1909

The semi-autobiographical "Martin Eden" is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created. Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, an impoverished sea-man who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of education and literary fame. London, dissatisfied with the rewards of his own success, intended "Martin Eden" as an attack on individualism and a criticism of ambition; however, much of its status as a classic has been conferred by admirers of its ambitious protagonist. First published 1909.

The People of the Abyss

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1903

In 1902, Jack London, posing as an out-of-work sailor, went underground into the belly of the beast: the slums of London's East End. With passion and vision, he used his skill as a journalist to expose the horrors of the Abyss to the world. Because of his ability to blend in with working people and put them at their ease, because he donned their clothing, and spent nights on the street --working odd jobs, sleeping in the homeless shelters--he gained an insight into the slum life which remains unique. By interweaving the personal stories of the people he encountered with political analysis, he produced a vibrant work of nonfiction, which remains relevant to this day. Consider the following: about one in five children in the US live in poverty. Poverty is war, and it rages on with no end in sight, and the management is still guilty of mismanaging the wealth. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the People of the Abyss are among us today.

Jack London was famous for his adventure stories, such as "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild," but he was also a skilled political writer and social critic. He led a varied and colorful life as a journalist, laborer, fisherman, gold-prospector and even a vagrant. Jack London came to the East End of London in 1902, and "The People of the Abyss" is the result of his investigative journalism that paints a vivid and disturbing portrait. It is both a literary masterpiece and a major sociological study. London posed as a stranded American sailor, sleeping in doss houses and living with the destitute and starving - the record of what he saw there remains as powerful today as it was then. Published to coincide with the centenary of his visit to the East End, this important book is an incredible precursor to the writings of George Orwell, and remains a standard-bearer critique of capitalism.

South Sea Tales

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1920

Imparting an intriguing and mysterious air to the Hawaiian island, this is an amazing collection of tales. Creating personas that are either the perpetrators or the victims, London has amazingly depicted the life in South Pacific. With his touch of imagination he has created a fanciful world out of actual places.

Burning Daylight

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1920

A prospector nicknamed Burning Daylight strikes it rich during the Alaskan Gold Rush, but after he's cheated out of his fortune by crooks on Wall Street, he becomes a scoundrel. Moving to Oakland, California, he buys property, and sets up utilities and public transportation systems through overbearing and shady tactics. He becomes self-indulgent with drink and food. And then, for the first time, he falls in love.

The Scarlet Plague

by Jack London

Published 1 January 1920

Jack London's plague novel, in which the world's population has been reduced to a few scattered bands of primitive scavengers, has influenced subsequent science-fiction apocalypses and dystopias -- from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four to the movies Road Warrior and Idiocracy. Outside the ruins of San Francisco, a former UC Berkeley professor of literature recounts the chilling sequence of events which led to his current lowly state -- a gruesome pandemic which killed nearly every living soul on the planet, in a matter of days. Modern civilization tottered and fell, and a new race of barbarians -- the western world's brutalized workers -- assumed power everywhere. Over the space of a few decades, all learning has been lost. Unlike the professor on Gilligan's Island, the narrator is the least useful member of a thriving tribe, whose younger generation (who boast names like Hoo-Hoo and Har-Lip) are mostly descended from a the tribe's brutish founder. He was known only by the title of his former occupation, so the tribe's name is: Chauffeur.
A bleak, at times darkly humorous glimpse into the future by an author best known for red-blooded adventure yarns set in the Klondike Gold Rush.