The Call of the Wild
Ratings340
Average rating3.7
Summary: When Buck, a majestic St. Bernard-shepherd mix is stolen from his owner to be sold to a prospector heading to Alaska in search of gold, he begins an action-filled, often brutal adventure. The book gives several rather graphic descriptions of violence toward and between Buck and the other dogs and humans he encounters.
Lovely prosePage 5 “He opened his eyes and into them came the unbridled anger of a kidnapped king.”Page 84 “Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof, were his; yet he retained his wildness and wiliness.”Page 85 “He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past to the present, and the eternity behind him, throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed as the tide in seasons swayed.”Obviously this was written before [b:Hatchet 50 Hatchet (Brian's Saga, #1) Gary Paulsen https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385297074l/50.SX50.jpg 1158125] but it made me think of it due to the survival aspect, then I recalled that [a:Gary Paulsen 18 Gary Paulsen https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1595914847p2/18.jpg] wrote the introduction and I chuckled at myself.I loved this playful moment of Buck: “Buck caused even the weazened face of Perrault to twist itself into a grin one morning, when François forgot the moccasins and Buck lay on his back, his four feet waving appealingly in the air, and refused to budge without them.”I did not love the dialogue that was in nearly cryptic vernacular, but I understand its use.
I went into this blindly. I thought I knew what the plot was about but I was way off. Had I known, I don't think I would have picked it up. I have a very low tolerance for animal abuse and violence. I read on since this is a classic (and not a long one at that) hoping it would improve. I also don't like heavily accented writing because it messes with my brain and throws of the rhythm of my reading. My rating is solely on personal taste. I can see why it's a classic and while people like it, but I couldn't get past the gruesome content.
Although the book is marketed as a Young adult book, in my opinion, the message and the realities of human greed and exploitation of nature and animals were strongly portrayed, although it was written from the singular circumstances of the Yukon gold rush and general treatment of sledge dogs and guard dogsother than this I liked how realistic was London towards Buck's attachment of his old family and the new kinder master Thornton, also his instinct of getting back to his space like in the primitive nature of a beast I can see why the title suits the story so much.
But I wasn't too interested in the adventure parts especially Thronton and Buck's many adventures in the woods, they were hard to visualise for me
3. 25 stars from me.
I went in knowing nothing about what this book is really about and while I partially enjoyed this, the novel was not very impressive.. It's written from a dog's perspective and that alone makes it very interesting and quite sweet at times but there were quite a few passages that didn't interest me at all. I didn't really connect with the writing as well, so something that could make someone emotional really didn't do it for me.
I have forgotten the last time I read a book so beautiful. It's a cliché adjective, but it is appropriate.
Call of the Wild is a short novel set in the 1890s during the Klondike Gold Rush. Since it involved climbing through a lot of snow, people needed dogs, for transportation of goods as well as themselves. Dogs that were sold, abducted and stolen were subjected to months of toil and cruelty. And one of those poor souls was the main character of the story, Buck.
I have no particular liking or dislike for animals. I don't mind them being around me, but I don't go around petting them. I expected this to be a story heavily revolving around the dog's perspective and picked up this book just to see how this guy could fill so many pages, with the story of a dog; the content was bound to get repetitive. This is one of the books, I thought I wouldn't like, but ended up loving. It is very unusual.
The author often went outside the perspective of the dog - you wouldn't realize the pages turning, and there's a certain freshness and energy to the story throughout.
After the sudden change of circumstances in Buck's life, in the first chapter which heralds the transformation of a pampered pet into a beast; there is a disillusionment - and the new reality filled with a chain of transient, cruel, owners(with clubs as a means of ‘discipline') teaches him the ‘law of club and fang'.
The first part of his journey is about survival. The second part is his life with his final and favorite owner.
*The third and final is the Call of the Wild.
If I start describing them, the review might end up longer than the book. I'd rather point out two aspects of the book I especially liked.
1. The author is a master in setting a scene.
This is when Buck is in a fight with Spitz, another dog.
“Spitz was untouched, while Buck was streaming with blood and panting hard. The fight was growing desperate. And all the while the silent and wolfish circle[other dogs watching the fight] waited to finish off whichever dog went down. As Buck grew winded, Spitz took to rushing, and he kept him staggering for footing. Once Buck went over, and the whole circle of sixty dogs started up; but he recovered himself almost in mid air, and the circle sank down again and waited.”
This brings to my mind the boxing scenes from movies like Raging Bull and Million Dollar Baby. The imagery is so sharp, almost movie-like.
2. The ‘Call' has both figurative and literal meaning.
There is a recurring theme of the transformation of Buck being explained to be due to the Call of the Wild. This figurative ‘call' is the call of his ancestors.
“And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became alive again. The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down. It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and the quick wolf snap[ don't you hear the crunch!?] In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, and the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always. And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolf-like, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him.”
The language is simple and beautiful. The novel is short and sweet. The prose is poetic.
“Never was there such a dog.. .....when he was made the mould was broke.”
The whole book is filled with descriptions of Buck, which would leave any reader in awe of this exceptional creature.
Worth multiple reads.
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Far more brutal than I expected.
I'd known that Call of the Wild (and White Fang) were firm favourites of friends, and I knew they were books held in high regard - and I kind of assumed it was good for dog lovers.
I had originally thought of reading this aloud to my daughter (absolutely a dog lover) but I'm glad I didn't.
This story quickly gets to Buck being beaten, and beaten and then beaten some more. I guess the story is about finding strength when pushed to your limits, but I'm no English scholar so I could have totally missed the point!
Buck is certainly heroic (or perhaps stoic) in the face of insurmountable hardship, and perhaps this is representative of the times that London lived in?
What amazed me was, apparently, the Kindle version of the book is 45 pages - and it took me a week to read - either my page numbers are wrong or I stumbled through this book!!!
When I see a dog turn a phrase far better than I can and wax philosophical about matters I've barely pondered, I can't help but think that modern public schooling has failed me. Buck, protagonist of The Call of the Wild, is one smart dog. He's smarter than me. Just think of what a cat could create.
I remember that once upon a time I was fascinated by Jack London. I was that age—probably 9 or 10 or thereabout. I had a copy of The Call of the Wild, maybe White Fang. I'm pretty sure I saw a movie or two, but I don't recall now what London titles they may have been. I think I tried to give The Call of the Wild a read, but I honestly wasn't much of a classics reader at that time in my life. I enjoyed reading, but only simple books that pulled me in. Looking back, I can see why it's unlikely I made it past page ten—this book is full of dense exposition and vocabulary that even a dictionary wouldn't have helped illuminate when I was that age.
These days, my forays into reading are largely planned out far in advance. I have to-read lists and schedules, titles I plan on reading during certain times of the year. Books I must finish before I read others. I'm not obsessive with too many things in life, but I can be that way when it comes to books. Slowly, I'm trying to add a little spontaneity to my reading. That's exactly how my engagement with The Call of the Wild came about. I woke one morning without the slightest intention of getting around to this novel in this lifetime, and by evening I was halfway through it.
I don't know that I really have much to say about this novel. It's difficult to articulate my feelings about a story that's best quality is my own personal nostalgia. Would I have loved this story had I never encountered it before? Probably not. It's adventure-based, dense, and it holds some archaic thoughts that are off-putting regarding the treatment of animals, as well as various stereotypes humans held of one another at the time. Further, it certainly doesn't help that in my adulthood, I've realized I am much more of a cat person. Perhaps my greatest barrier to truly enjoying this story is the animal perspective. Chalk that one up to my own lack of imagination; it's a struggle for me to get behind a non-human narrator with a human-like perspective.
Even so, I enjoyed this novel. The transformation of Buck may be obvious from the first chapter, but seeing it play out is captivating. This is a classic adventure. It has enthralled many, particularly children, for over a hundred years. In the same way that the lamppost in the forest of Narnia pulls me completely into that novel, so does Buck bounding back to John Thornton. Its simple nostalgia, but its something I cannot ignore.
spectacular. will make you love dogs more. will make you want to destroy and rebuild your life, to eschew modern distractions, and to rediscover your wild genetic inheritance
I was just in Skagway for work and figured it would be fun to read a contemporary description of the Klondike Gold Rush, in the form of this high-school-summer-reading-list-staple of a dog coming of age and discovering his wild, primordial self through kidnapping, abuse, enforced labor, and eventual freedom in the arctic wilderness. The politics of this book are... interesting? And much of the dog's-eye-view philosophizing is... verbose? But it is a fun glimpse into the crazy world, characters, and brutal exploitation of the gold rush, and what “the last great adventure” in “the last Frontier” meant for a rapidly industrializing Victorian public.
“The Call of the Wild” comes in at a solid 3.5 for me and resulted in a better-than-expected book club discussion yesterday.
Both at the novel's initial publication and today, some readers argued that the novel suffers from anthropomorphism. But, how can an author present a story from the point of view of an animal without using some references that human readers can understand? Humans couldn't see the world from a dog's eyes and still can't today, no matter how many mini-cameras we strap to canine heads. The description of Buck's desperation to find shelter during his first night in the Klondike and his amazement at finding Billy burrowed under the snow seemed very realistic. Buck flourished when he could work, not just lay about looking fluffy. That's why he loved Thornton as his master, not Judge Miller.
This isn't a book about dogs, though. It's a frame for presenting what Jack London saw tramping around the Klondike in the late 1890s. It's Darwinisim, it's fate vs. free will, it's civilization vs. the wild.
One member of my book club suggested that nature is the hero of the book. Buck comes of age in the opposite direction from the typical human coming of age tale; he sheds the comfiness and ease of civilization for the harsh reality of the wild. The law of club and fang represent the struggle to live in the frostbitten ruggedness of Gold Rush era Klondike and Buck responds with aplomb. With all of the mugs of imported tea and marinated pork chops stripped away, your own strengths must surface or you don't survive. Jack London used the novel to present a semi-autobiographical tale: “It was in the Klondike I found myself.”
The leader of my group found the book extremely ham-fisted in support of socialist political views. Materialism and greed are shown as the very things that will get you and everyone you're with killed. However, I didn't feel that I was being bashed over the head with London's opinions; trying to drag around too much stuff when you have to haul it yourself (over frozen tundra and up and down mountains no less) is a fools errand.
Although “The Call of the Wild” often gets characterized as a children's book, I think it's arguably an all ages book. Some folks in my book club expressed disgust with the amount of violence in the book and felt it was inappropriate for children. Yet, I think this book is entirely appropriate for children to read or have read to them, but perhaps over age 5. The world isn't and wasn't sanitary. Wouldn't it be better for children to see animals, whether a beloved pet or in the wild, as a being to be considered on it's own and respected?
Buck is a dog, jerked from a life of comfort and easy living, sold to a messenger who makes deliveries by dog sled across the cold wilds of Alaska. Buck changes, becomes stronger, fiercer, braver, bolder.
This ended up being much better than I thought it would be based on the first page. It's not a perfect book, being a bit choppy in places, but it is engaging and visceral. I'm not big on dog stories, but I found myself identifying with Buck in many ways both endearing and disturbing. Overall, a nice little (short!) book.
I loved this book when I was younger. I used to (and still do) really enjoy reading anything about surviving in the wilderness or nature. Pretty much anything outdoorsy :)