User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
4 out of 5 stars for both
The Call of the Wild and
White Fang by Jack London.
The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck who is “dognapped” and is put into a dog sled team in Alaska, and then later has to learn the ways of the wild. It is a very entertaining short story.
White Fang digs a bit deeper than the
The Call of the Wild. It had a deeply theological and religious theme throughout. White Fang is a wolf, born in the wild that has to learn faith in humans early in his life, then his faith is tested through many trials, and then he has to make the difficult climb back to find his faith again in humankind.
The beginning of
White Fang is some of the most edge of my seat reading I’ve had in a long time. It is overall a very unforgettable adventure.
I really enjoyed both of these stories and they work very well together. They are basically opposite stories and have kind of a yin/yang thing going on with the first one being a dog going into the wild, and the second one a wolf becoming domesticated. Jack London really had a way with words and in creating feelings in me as a reader. This was a perfect set of stories to read this time of year!
Matt
Rating: really liked it
I've read a good number of books with protagonists as dogs, but only in these two books I can really see the world from a dog's point of view.
True, the stories are violent, but that goes with the setup of the north. But the details are so realistic, and growth so credible. I really had the impression of traveling to that northland, and living with these dogs, day by day.
For both these stories, the ends are expansive and inspirational. They left my heart rich yet light!
Rating: really liked it
Note, March 2, 2016: I've just edited this review to insert spoiler tags (which didn't exist when I originally wrote it) in a couple of places.
(Note, March 5, 2014: I posted this review a few years ago, but in reading over it just now, I realized I needed to correct a typo.)
Actually, I read these two novels in different editions than this omnibus volume. And, while I read White Fang sometime in the 90s, I'd already read The Call of the Wild in high school.
London is one of my favorite authors --despite his ideological dependence on Marx and Darwin, and his Naturalist outlook (in which human behavior is viewed as purely the product of social forces, inborn instincts and biological needs), all of which are very different from my own attitudes. He has very strong storytelling skills, and he writes with a kind of clear, direct diction that makes his prose highly readable. Here, his vivid evocation of the frozen North benefits from his own personal knowledge and experience of that environment.
Given his Naturalism, London was better at portraying animals intimately than at doing the same for people (and probably more at home doing so). The behaviors and their determinants that he portrays for his sled dogs are perfectly appropriate and realistic for them. And critics who argue that he uses (view spoiler)
[Buck's transition from sled dog to alpha of a wild wolf pack as a coded message advocating a similar transition from civilization to savagery for people (hide spoiler)] miss an important point: (view spoiler)
[in White Fang, the canine protagonist's transition is in the opposite direction, from wild origins to a place as friend and protector of a human family (hide spoiler)].
Rating: really liked it
As this is two books in one bonus edition I shall review each separately, although there are a great many similarities between them.
The Call of the Wild:
This book does for dogs what Watership Down did for rabbits - it’s brutal and heartbreaking - tissues at the ready!I realised about 5 pages in that this was going to break me.
We follow the story of Buck a beautiful (I think) dog and his life which is interesting and full of adventure, he’s such a likeable character it is hard not to love him.
Written in 1903 the writing does come across as old fashioned but it still works today, it is easy to understand and it flows nicely and naturally.
This is a heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story, if you like dogs then you will like this tail/tale! The only way this book could be improved is by making it longer so I think it deserves a 5.
White Fang:
This story, written shortly after The Call of The Wild provides pretty much a direct comparison between the two. There are some very obvious similarities here and I found that the story of White Fang was essentially like Call of the Wild in reverse. Together the two stories go full circle which has a nice symmetry to it.
Here we follow White Fang, who seems to be about 99% wolf, again a loveable character though.
So as you can see from the comments above this is another old fashioned story about dogs in the wilds of North America. The author writes almost poetically at times which creates a very atmospheric story which flows nicely, my only real criticism is that it can be a little repetitive at times, this is a very small flaw.
It crept up on me once again just how brutal and sinister this book is - did I learn nothing from The Call of the Wild? At times a little slow but a nice read, with moments of heartbreak and sorrow and also of happiness with some cute moments to really make you smile.
Unfortunately for this book the first one was better. White Fang had a good start but towards the end it became predictable to me, having said that however it was still an enjoyable read and as I said with the first one, if you like dogs you’re going to love this.
A very respectable 4*/5
I cannot decide overall whether to give 4 or 5 out of 5 for this, I’ve changed back and forth several times already!
Rating: really liked it
Last summer, I read Jon Krakauer’s
Into the Wild. I found Christopher McCandless’s fascination with Jack London to be interesting, but it was hard for me to fully understand where McCandless was coming from, having never read London’s works. I also have a deep respect for animals and a disgust at their ill-treatment at the hands of human beings. For those two reasons, I chose to read
The Call of the Wild for my Literature class.
The cover of the book captivated me. I enjoyed studying the picture of the wolf-like dog in the snow, trying to read the expression on his face. Based on the book’s title and what I read in
Into the Wild, I expected the book to be about a return to a primitive lifestyle and primordial desires. I did not expect to really enjoy it, as I thought it would probably be very “masculine.”
Upon reading, I was immediately caught up in Buck’s story. I couldn’t seem to put the book down. I thought about Buck when I was not reading, and even felt Buck in some of the music that I heard. I did not know it would be so heartbreaking, or that I would be so touched by this fictional animal.
I loved the ending of this book. It was not at all what I expected it to be. I thought that the ending would be sad, but it turned out to be powerful- even mystical. London does an excellent job of conveying how, in spite of Buck’s struggles and suffering, he may be better off in the wild than he was at the farm. He is a naturally wild animal, and he is able to be fully alive when his uncivilized side is allowed to emerge. It makes me think of how men, too, struggle with suppressing certain instincts and desires when they are trying to conform to society’s expectations. I can see how this book influenced McCandless, as he likely wanted to allow his own “wild side” to surface.
I also like how London shows how human beings can be so silly and ridiculous, in spite of their claim to having high intelligence. He portrays animals as simpler but somehow smarter than humans, and he has a valid point. Human beings, in their greed, sometimes ignore any survival instincts they have left. Animals, on the other hand, know what they need to do to survive, and they put survival above all else. It makes me wonder whether humans are as smart as we would like to believe.
This book gives us a lot to think about. What makes humans so different from animals? Is it better to live basically by following natural instincts, or is it better to conform to society? Should we explore our wild sides, or should we work to suppress them? Do human beings have an innate need to gain power over others, like Buck had a need to be the leader of his pack? How do we reconcile that with our society’s negative attitude toward omnipotent leaders? Are not human beings pack animals? In what ways do we continue to exploit animals and cause great suffering in order to make money? Is that behavior acceptable, given that many believe we possess higher intelligence?
I think all of these questions can make for interesting class discussions and debates. I can imagine organizing a debate on animal medical research, or on using animals in advertising, animals on factory farms, etc. This book could be taught in conjunction with
Into the Wild, or at least by showing clips of that movie and discussing how Buck and Chris are alike. I would also like to conduct an activity where students explore their own “wild sides,” either through poems or personal narratives. They could provide examples of how they still feel natural instincts for which there is no logical explanation, and how they choose to act on or ignore those instincts.
5Q 4P
Rating: really liked it
[3.5 stars overall]
[6/2/21, review of The Call of the Wild]
As a native of Oakland I should have read this years ago. I actually knew the story of this novella less well than I thought. The basic outline of a dog (part Saint Bernard and part Scottish Shepherd) who is stolen and made to be a sled dog in Alaska is all I knew. I was delighted to find it is actually told from the point of view of Buck the dog. London manages to deftly avoid (mostly) any anthropomorphizing, and so you have Buck's point of view throughout which believably reads as that of a dog. To be sure a noble and magnificent dog. A major virtue here is a complete lack of sentimentality. Buck had a great life before he was stolen, yet he spends little time mourning that life or his previous family. He doesn't have the luxury, as he's plunged into a life of hardship and sometimes dire abuse. He just adjusts and gets on with it. He eventually comes to take pride in being a sled dog, but the men (women are all but nonexistent here) continually go out of his life and new owners come into it. The worst stretch of Buck's life doesn't come from sadists, but rather incompetent greenhorns whose ignorance of life in the North results in terrible suffering among Buck and his mates. This section is genuinely hard to read. London cared passionately about the treatment of animals (he protested abuse of circus animals long before it was trendy) and spares the reader nothing here. Eventually Buck passes to the one owner he comes to love, John Thornton. But that isn't how the story ends; the title gives a clue to Buck's actual destiny. Four stars. I'll return to this review after I've read
White Fang.
And when, on the still cold nights, he pointed his nose at a star and howled long and wolflike, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. And his cadences were their cadences, the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning of the stillness, and the cold, and dark.[7/9/21, review of White Fang]
White Fang is essentially the inverse story of
The Call of the Wild, instead of a domesticated dog who learns to live wild, it's the story of a wolf cub (one quarter dog) who learns to live with humans. It has most of the same virtues of CotW, though at twice the length. The added length isn't a benefit, as CotW had a rushing momentum the longer story lacks. Again we get the unsentimental reality of dire abuse meted out to White Fang, and the predatory nature of life among the wild creatures of the frozen North. The opening sequence of a team of sled dogs and two men being stalked and hunted by a pack of wolves is maybe the high point, London excels in depicting the spartan implacable nature of what it takes to exist and go on existing in an unforgiving environment. A low point, alas, comes with a depiction of an Indian, Gray Beaver, who for a time is White Fang's owner. Not at first; initially a stoic and believable character, but when the plot needs to have White Fang fall into the hands of a vicious (white) dog fighter, in the space of two paragraphs Gray Beaver is turned into a foolish raging drunk who all but gives away his prized wolf in exchange for alcohol, because injuns can't hold their liquor, dontcha know? When White Fang leaves the North with his eventual final owner for Santa Clara Valley, some intensity is lost, though one can't begrudge the wolf a placid landing spot after all he's endured. In truth London was ahead of the pack in his insight that a vicious animal is made, not born. For most of the story White Fang, due to the vicious enmity of other dogs starting as a cub, comes to regard all other dogs as enemies and chooses a lonely solitude, becoming more savage than any creature he meets as a matter of survival. It takes alot for that to change, and only very, very gradually. Three stars.
Rating: really liked it
Great descriptions, but don´t like the "humanisation" of animal feelings and actions.
Rating: really liked it
I neither read the sypnosis nor did I have any idea about both the stories. Actually, I was provoked read them because of the special interest of Christopher McCandless in Jack London's tales.
Christopher is someone I admire alot (to know who he is read Into the Wild). He admired Jack London and his work very much. Christopher was a outdoor guy, a tramp. So I was expecting these stories to be some kind of adventure stories. But I was wrong.
This is a finest book, I've read on dogs/wolves. Personally, I am a dog lover so I was not so disappointed when I came to know this is completely not what I expected.
Jack London is one of the finest authors of those times. One can never understand a living being this much. He has his own style of expressing the situation. The fierceness, the softness, the love, the anger, each and every action of a dog is expressed very excellently by London.
Both the stories were very interesting. Probably, this is one of the longest reads of mine. I never wanted to rush through the book. No one ever wants to rush through this book. Every sentence, every expression of the story is felt when reading this. Both the stories, follow the dogs, even though tamed and bred by man since thousands of years, they carry the wild memories which are inherited from their ancestors. The want of the dogs to chase, hunt and feel the warm blood on their muzzle are still alive deep down inside their brains.
FINEST READ...
Rating: really liked it
In a letter to his publisher George Platt Brett, Jack London defined White Fang (1906) as “A complete antithesis to
The Call of the Wild” (1903). While
The Call of the Wild portrays the process by which Buck, a domestic dog, becomes gradually wilder driven by the attraction that the Wild exerts on him;
White Fang narrates the life of an untamed wolf who, after being in contact with humans, becomes progressively civilised. Therefore, both stories share a common subject and yet face each other as two images reflected on a mirror. Thus, reading them together allows us to think about the many interactions between them.
In my opinion, one of the biggest merits of Jack London in these two works is the creation of a solid dog’s psychology, which he achieves through a complex narrative based on sensorial experiences and a code of knowledge reduced to an action-reaction system –in a dog-like way. In fact, his dog-characters are more credible than many human-characters of other books I have read.
Indeed, that doesn’t mean that there is not a certain degree of anthropomorphism in Buck’s and White Fang’s characters –after all, Jack London was writing for humans, and not for dogs. This anthropomorphism is especially notorious in the idea of the initiation journey present in both books -even if Buck’s and White Fang’s paths have an opposite direction, metaphorically and physically. This voyage of discovery may be clearer in
The Call of the Wild, with its culmination in the adventure with the moose (almost a ritual sacrifice), but is also important in
White Fang, though there it takes place in a more psychological level. The end of White Fang’s journey has some moral resonances, as the redemption of the main character, the unbeaten wolf-dog, comes precisely with his final defeat, so what happens next can be read as a kind of second life for White Fang.
In London’s narrative, the motor of this voyage is clearly double: on one hand, the Wild, with its unrestrained attraction, and on the other, the presence and actions of mankind. But the very nature of the Wild–this strong notion so central in London’s imaginary– is ambivalent: it delimits a space of terror, of savagery, but also a space of liberty, as Buck apprehends rapidly after arriving in Alaska. The same occurs with the dual nature of humans, who are capable of the highest and most noble deeds as well as the most despicable and stingy actions.
It is precisely the contact with the Northland and with the Wild in its purest form what reveals this radical human essence in its two forms: the good and the evil. Because humans themselves, uncovered of their clothes of civilisation, are part of the Wild as well, and the Wild is the fight of every being for its survival, beyond any convention (I wonder, in this regard, whether London was familiarised with Schopenhauer’s philosophy). Like the She-Wolf of the first chapters of White Fang –one of the most remarkable and disquieting openings I have ever read– attracts and seduces male dogs to their very death, the Wild attracts men with the promise of gold and adventures to finally divest them of everything but of their essential motives: greed, hate, cowardice, love.
How London manages to convert a story about dogs and wolves into a deep reflection of the human nature is part of the mystery surrounding his genius.
Rating: really liked it
The Call of the Wild - 5/5Pros:1. Interesting characters, from Buck (the shepherd x St Bernard), to Sol-leks (the half blind sled dog), to Perrault (the Frenchman), to Mercedes and John Thornton.
2. An vivid depiction of the gold rush in Northern North America which led to the need for sled-dogs
3. The author goes into the brutality of that time, in man and beast
4. Emotional moments
5. The writing is tight, with few words wasted
Cons:1. None that I can think of. Probably just that it was too short. Characters and situations could have been expanded upon.
White Fang - 3/5Pros:1. Excellent introduction. Vivid and memorable (view spoiler)
[(Two men and their dog team were hounded by starved wolves. They ate most of the dogs, then got one man. The other had to use fire and stay awake for days to keep the fire going and keep the wolves at bay by shouts, until at last he alone was left sitting in a circle of fire. (hide spoiler)]2. Wonderfully realistic (I think) depiction of the world from a newborn wolf's point of view. (view spoiler)
[ There's a white wall through which the father disappears. (hide spoiler)]3. One aches for the character. The author manages to manipulate one's emotions, so that one feels all the ranges.
Cons:1. The author repeats himself over and over. This story could have been cut by a third. It felt like he was trying to make a point but either had no confidence in himself to carry it over, or had no confidence in the reader to understand him the first time.
2. The animal cruelty is hard to stomach.
----------------------
Of the two I enjoyed The Call of the Wild more. It was clear, concise and more to the point.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 out of 5 Stars
I think I liked Call of the Wild a little more than White Fang, but both are very great stories. I don't think I've ever read a book or story from the perspective of a wolf or dog, and Jack London captured the spirit of the wolf very well. It was also a book that captured the environment and showed just as much importance as the wolves themselves.
Rating: really liked it
Review of "The Call of the Wild" (June 24th 2020)
I stumbled into the right mood to read "The Call of the Wild" which though initially a bit of a surprise to me seeing as how I'd never felt the desire to read the book, made complete sense in hindsight. I needed to be out in nature; a place far removed and as far removed from my current circumstance as I could imagine it. I needed the description of the wilderness; the ice-covered lakes and quiet. Things have been increasingly chaotic in my life, unravelling little frayed threads here and there, that the imagined effect of being immersed in this quiet wilderness was quite literally the best gift I could have given myself.
Buck, of course, threw a wrench into those plans with his gargantuan self taking over the air and the space in the room. Never does a moment go by that you forget you're seeing and feeling from the perspective of Buck, somewhat removed due to the presence of the narrator, but still. His forced acclimation from pampered house-dog to hard labour on a sled team in the Yukon is a painful thing to read, especially the brutal clubbing and whippings at the hands of his various owners. Even when we're told Buck experiences love for his last owner, John Thornton, Thornton uses him to win a bet in what I find to be ultimately crass and grossly capitalistic. While Buck isn't shown to be let down, it seemed like yet another sour mouthful for Buck.
In spite of these narrative bumps, ss you go along on Buck's journey, you may pause and think to yourself that London did try to do something special here with Buck's story. Whether he succeeded or not, and why, is up to you. But aside from the predictable sensate-heavy Buck (of course, I suppose), what really stands out for me is the ancestral memory that Buck experiences the closer he gets, geographically and behaviourally, to the untamed dense and dark forests. This will have me thinking for a few more days, that widening of the scope from Buck to dogs in general. I know I'll read this again, I have to. I also know I'll read more of London.
Rating: really liked it
Are you special? Well of course you are! You are built up from your trials and pain. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Like White Fang, you are here for a purpose. Someday you'll realize what the purpose is.
White Fang by Jack London is an amazing story about a half-wolf, half-dog that goes through many struggles and truly learns about himself. He goes on a captivating journey of courage and strength; life. It also follows a team of sled dogs led by a man named Henry. It tells of their journeys and experiences that helps White Fang grow up.
Jack London's use of figurative language and amazing imagery make the story seem real. He uses amazing story telling and gives the book a real-life feel. It may be a little hard to grasp at first, but
White Fang turns out to be a life-changing book. Jack London wrote this book to teach us a very important moral in life.
The theme of this book is quite simple. Through White Fang's struggles, he grew up. We must learn life's rules on our own and learn to take our own responsibility. Though we do have people to help us in life, we also have to pitch in on teaching ourselves. We are in charge of ourselves, our actions and our responsibilities.
This book is a great, heartwarming story for both children, young adults and adults. The story is easy to follow, and it has an amazing moral. I recommend this book to anyone that is in for an interesting story of love and rules of life. I hope you enjoy the book!
Rating: really liked it
Picked it up when I was on a shopping spree, I knew it was probably about dogs and wolves, but apart from that I didn't knew what to expect.
So, I just started reading and let the book surprise me.
I started with White Fang which, apart from some focus switches in the beginning, I ended up really liking. It was fast-paced action from the beginning to the end, I just couldn't put the book down. There is a healthy dose of violence, but it's far from over-the-top. Instead, it really adds something to the story.
After reading some other random book in between, I read Call of the Wild. It's only about half the length of White Fang, which makes it
really short. The same fast-paced action from White Fang continues here.
The writing style in both books is pretty straightforward, nothing too complex, which I found good.
Overall, I have to admit that I like White Fang better, probably because it's just that little bit longer to add some more depth to the story. It may also be because that's the one I read first, so the writing style in Call of the Wild didn't captivate me any more, it was just the good story and action that kept me going. Both are very good reads though, definately recommending this to anyone.
Rating: really liked it
I read 'The call of the wild' in secondary school, so a few days ago I started out reading only White Fang.
After completing that, and reading the afterword, I was compelled to read TCOTW again and I do not regret it at all. It is still one of my favourite tales about animals and the wilds.
The total rating would be 4.5*'s but I can give TCOTW a hearty 5* rating. It was wonderful to read it again after so many years. It still captured that spirit of adventure, of danger and wild abandon. Mr London wrote marvelously.
(view spoiler)
[ Although I do not agree with the authors depiction of ancient man being half ape, I understand where he got that idea. (hide spoiler)] I love Buck. He represents the unbreakable spirit and wild nature itself.
White Fang was a good read, some parts were hard, and I understand why animal lovers would object to the abuse, but I think they are missing the point of the author.
To reflect accurately the life and times of White Fang, he had to show how savage it was.
The two books make a powerful combination, and I am happy it was published in this format.
I will be rereading this in a couple of years.
