White Fang

Ahmad Sharabiani

Rating: really liked it
White Fang, Jack London

White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916), and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolf-dog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906.

The story takes place in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories, Canada, during the 1890's Klondike Gold Rush and details White Fang's journey to domestication.

It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild, which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.

Much of White Fang is written from the viewpoint of the titular canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans.

White Fang examines the violent world of wild animals and the equally violent world of humans.

The book also explores complex themes including morality and redemption.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1974میلادی

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: محمد قاصی؛ تهران، بنگاه مطبوعاتی صفیعلیشاه، 1332، در 221ص؛ چاپ دوم تهران، نیل، 1335، در23ص؛ چاپ دیگر سازمامان کتابهای جیبی، 1340؛ در 207ص؛ چاپ پنجم 1343؛ چاپ نهم فرانکلین، 1354، در 258ص؛ چاپ دیگر هدایت، سال 1369، در 275ص؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 19م

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: شاپور رزم آزما؛ تهران، آرمان، ؟، در 256ص؛

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: محمد شاطرلو؛ تهران، دادجو، 1364، در 206ص؛ چاپ دیگر 1388، در 159ص، شابک 9789642621569؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، راستی نو، پر پرواز، 1388، در 159ص، شابک 9789642646340؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، یزدانیار، 1393؛ در 159ص؛ شابک 9786009184811؛

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: خسرو شایسته؛ تهران، سپیده، 1364؛ چاپ چهارم 1370، در 111ص؛

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: مژگان حائری؛ تهران، نهال نویدان، 1374؛ در 128ص؛

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: بهار اشراق؛ ویراستار پریسا همایون روز؛ تهران، قدیانی، 1386؛ در 302ص؛ شابک 9789645361981؛ چاپ سوم 1394؛ با همان شابک

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: مهدی علوی؛ تهران، دبیر، اکباتان، 1389؛ در 112ص؛ شابک 9789642621743؛

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: کیومرث پارسای؛ تهران، چلچله، 1392؛ در 226ص؛ شابک 9789648329438؛

عنوان: سپید دندان؛ نویسنده: جک لندن؛ مترجم: سیدرضا مرتضوی؛ تهران، آفرینگان، 1394؛ در 64ص؛ شابک 9786006753881؛

دنباله ای بر کتاب «آوای وحش» از همین نویسنده است، داستان در گذران تب طلای «کلوندایک» رخ می‌دهد؛ «جک لندن» زندگی سگی را که خون گرگی دارد، دنبال می‌کنند؛ ایشان در این رمان، به مسائل اخلاقی و رویارویی وحشی‌گری و تمدن انسانی، می‌پردازند؛ در این رمان داستان «باک» سگ اهلی و محبوب یک قاضی را، تصویر می‌کنند، که در پی رویدادهایی، سر از محیطی خشن و بی‌رحم به نام «کلوندایک»، در روزگار هجوم جویندگان طلا، به ایالت «یوکان»، درمی‌آورد؛ دستاورد تجربیات نویسنده‌، از زندگی ایشان در قطب شمال است، و تا کنون به بیش از هفتاد زبان برگردان شده، و میلیون‌ها نسخه از آن، در سراسر گیتی به فروش رسیده است؛ «جک لندن» به گویش خودشان «آوای وحش» را در سی ‌روز با جان کندن نگاشته اند

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 02/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 29/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Miranda Reads

Rating: really liked it

September Tier List Video is up! Check it out for all my September reads!

The Written Review

“The Wild still lingered in him and the wolf in him merely slept.”

The wolfdog known as White Fang has had a difficult life.

Cruel companions, cruel owners and a cruel world shaped him into what he is - violent, distrustful and aching for something he knows not.

When he finally stumbles into the hands of a kind master, he is completely thrown.

The world as he knows it is bleak and cold but the new master? He holds the spark of warmth that White Fang so desperately craves.

But after a lifetime of abuse, will he be able to trust?

This book was never on the "to-read" list from my elementary years, but this has been one that I have always been curious about.

I thought this was such an interesting story - we follow White Fang from his earliest years as a pup to his adulthood.

It was heart-wrenching and heartwarming and definitely worth a read.

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Henry Avila

Rating: really liked it
Can an animal part wolf, part dog, be rehabilitated and become a domestic pet? The exact opposite of, another Jack London novel, The Call of the Wild. So the premise is, in White Fang. A runaway former Indian bred she- wolf, Kiche, along with forty odd others, in a wolf pack, are following three men on a dog sled, two still alive. Famine grips the territory in the Yukon, during the Klondike Gold Rush, Canada, just before the start of the Twentieth Century . The wild animals are starving, literally they're just skin and bones . Bill and Henry need to get to civilization quickly before the wolves have dinner. A dead man is on the sled, in a coffin (some kind of British nobleman, name never given), why such a person is here, the two live ones can't figure out, and never asked. Their job is to take him to a little remote town... (Strange goings on), Bill feeds the seven dogs with fish, at camp, but Henry tells his partner they have only six. Fires ring the fugitives from the law, of the survival of the fittest, the higher the flames arise, the better, how long the wood will last, is something the men don't want to think about. A dog disappears in the bitter cold , horrific night, at another stop another and , well you get the picture , no more dogs, or bullets. One gentleman is left, the hungry wolves come in....The wolf pack breaks up into smaller and smaller groups, the famine ends. Kiche the she-wolf, with some dog blood, takes a mate, One-Eye, an older animal. A litter of five, are born by the Mackenzie River, but only one cub, later named White Fang, reaches maturity. In the future, a vicious ninety pounds of anger, kill before they kill you is his way. He learned it early, to live is the only important thing. All else doesn't matter, nature is cruel, the brave, the strong prosper, the weak, fall down and stay down. Grey Beaver captures the cub, his late brother had owned his mother, Kiche, so he claims him as his. The tribe agrees, and takes him to the Indian village, later sells the valuable grown up wolfdog, to Beauty Smith (who brought the liquor bottles), while drunk, an alias that the white man doesn't deserve, not by a long shot, he is the ugliest man around. The beatings that White Fang received, from Grey Beaver, is increased greatly by Smith, he likes punishing the animal, it makes him feel brave and he is the biggest coward in Fort Yukon. His new owner has contests, dog fights, inside a cage, the crowd of men cheer on wildly,( humans, the real beasts), bet on their favorites, during the carnage, with any opponent fool enough to challenge White Fang . Turning the already brutal wolf dog, into a smart, perfect, killing machine. Until Weedon Scott, arrives, a kind man with political influence. The question, will Scott rescue the unloved wolf dog, who has never known gentleness from people, just whippings, and the club, on the head, or a kick to the body, get the salvation he desperately needs ? Probably Jack London's best book.

Lyn

Rating: really liked it
White Fang, Jack London’s 1906 companion (and thematic mirror) story to his classic The Call of the Wild begins with an archetypal London setting, a scene of desperate survival in a harsh, cruel environment.

Following the growth of a hybrid wolf-dog as he grows and fights and survives in the frozen north, White Fang embodies and demonstrates many of the common themes of London’s work such as survival of the fittest, isolation from society, and a primitive naturalism.

In the spirit of Joseph Conrad and Algernon Blackwood, London subtly personifies “the wild” until it is as much a character as one who gets a line of dialogue. Blackwood’s novella The Wendigo is a close companion to White Fang in that the frozen, inhospitable and unforgiving northlands comes to add an antagonistic quality to the narrative.

In many ways White Fang, more brutal and less dramatic than Call of the Wild, is the more quintessential London novel, though my pick for best London book is still The Sea Wolf.

Debra

Rating: really liked it
I think I am one of the few who did not have this book as required reading in school.

White Fang chronicles the harsh realities of life. When this book begins, two men and trying to bring back the body of a third using their dog sled team. There has been a lack of food and night by night one of their dogs go missing. Finally, they see the culprit - a she wolf who is luring their dogs away. Food is scarce, and she is part of a wolf pack trying to survive. Soon the men are being hunted by the wolves and it becomes a battle to survive. Besides She-Wolf (half dog half wolf), an older wolf called one eye is with the pack. Eventually they mate, and White Fang becomes their surviving pup.

Initially life is good for White Fang. He is inquisitive and lets his instincts help him learn to explore and hunt. But one day he and his Mother come across men "Gods" and their lives change. Soon Mother and Pup are separated, and White Fang gets his introductions into the harsh realities of life. He learns the pains of separation, the pains of beatings and the pains of not fitting in with the other dogs and wolves. White Fang is sold and has an even more sadistic owner who turns him into a fighter. Eventually White Fang is saved and begins a new life where he eventually knows kindness and trust. He becomes part of a family again.

So now that I have told you the plot of the entire book, I will tell you that I really enjoyed this story. I liked how the story is mainly told through White Fang's POV. It gives the reader a great look at White Fang's impulses, instincts, personality, fears and thoughts. Well written and with a sweet ending. London captured the environment and elements brilliantly. I love when I read a book and feel as if I am right there during the action. I'm glad that I selected to read this as part of a group read.

See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com

Lynne King

Rating: really liked it
I was reminded of Diana, the Huntress with her lop-eared hounds driving her chariot and her nymphs as her hunting companions when I read this book. And it is as that Goddess that I accompanied the wolf White Fang (the only survivor out of a litter of five puppies), on his incredible journey through life. I was the hidden onlooker basking in all the trials and tribulations that overcame him, be it through periods of famine, extreme brutality by human beings, his necessity and desire to hunt and to kill. Due to all of this he was hated both by man and dog. So having no kindness in his life how could he possibly ever like a person, never mind love him.

This isn’t your ordinary wolf with a touch of dog thrown in for good measure, but a very intelligent creature who soon realizes from the time of being a puppy that it’s a question of survival living in this harsh Canadian climate and where you have the choice of being the one who eats or ends up being eaten; it is indeed survival of the fittest. He soon finds out that he doesn’t actually have a choice in the way that he can lead his life. He realizes the power of men, the “gods” as he calls them, and being faced with famine, he quickly realizes what direction his life has to take.

Incredible dogs are met such as Lip-lip, Collie, Dick the hound, White Fang’s mother, Kiche, the reddish furred wolf-dog who had violent inclinations, and One-Eye the successful rival out of three fighting to be the object of her attention and desire, and ultimately the father of White Fang:

The battle began fairly, but it did not end fairly. There was no telling what the outcome would have been, for the third wolf joined the elder and together, old leader and young leader, they attacked the ambitious three-year old and proceeded to destroy him. He was beset on either side by the merciless fangs of his erstwhile comrades. Forgotten were the days they had hunted together, the game they had pulled down, the famine they had suffered. That business was a thing of the past. The business of love was at hand - even a sterner and crueler business than that of food-getting.

And in the meantime, the she-wolf, the cause of it all, sat down contentedly on her haunches and watched. She was even pleased. This was her day – and it came not often – when manes bristled, and fang smote fang or ripped and tore the yielding flesh, all for the possession of her.

I really loved White Fang, despite whatever he got up to because you as the reader were allowed to enter into his reasoning mind. That was so clever of the author and I often had tears to my eyes in parts and even a lump in my throat. One of those occasions showed White Fang, barking for the first time.

And what an incredible mix of individuals who blend in so well within the fabric of this book: The evil ones such as the Indian Gray Beaver, and Beauty Smith, who trained dogs to kill in blood sports versus the good individuals such as Judge Scott, Weedon Scott and his wife Alice and Matt, the dog-musher.

I defy anyone who will not be overwhelmed with the brilliance of this book by London. Once I had picked this book up, I could only quickly eat, and couldn’t put it down until I had finished it.

Jack London through his magnificent descriptions has embraced life in the northlands during the Yukon Gold rush in the 1890’s and shown such a graphic insight of the savagery of life then, with human beings, especially their violence towards their sled dogs. Nevertheless, he counters this by also demonstrating kindness and loyalty. But this author’s incredible imagination keeps the reader hanging on with enthusiasm regardless of what happens. There was a sensational section with a man bent on revenge, to name but one of the different wonderful sections of this book and in several other cases, the men and women who came to realize the worth ofWhite Fang.

In conclusion, this is one of those books that has to be read. As for future reading, I can see myself re-reading it many times in the future as this is an absolutely wonderful read and there’s nothing more to be said!

Lee (the Book Butcher)

Rating: really liked it
I missed this as a child not sure why given my love for call of the wild. My guess is my librarian mother withheld it because the animal cruelty would have probably upset a younger me since it did an older me.

There's alot of trigger warning for White Fang. Violence toward animal is no laughing matter. but it is told to suit a purpose. the opening scene of a wolf pack hunting a sled team. Taking one dog after another and even one human until ran off is very vivid. The wolf-dog White Fang is a vicious killer of dogs an "enemy of all his kind" as jack London puts it. he is a brute of an animal and London does a great job explaining why he became that way. It's sort of comparable to Frankenstein for dogs. relying alot on the basics of Darwinism. But don't despair a positive force comes to white fang's aid and changes everything with kindness! A great tale about the power of kindness used toward animals.

This is the second Jack London novel i have read. Obviously White Fang is an insta favorite as is Call of the wild. they have similar themes but different topics. have to see if he has anything else worth reading by jack London so far the two I've read have been spectacular .

Ron

Rating: really liked it
I first read White Fang around the age of eleven or twelve. I think that's about right, but I'm not exactly certain. I do know that I read it soon after finishing London's other famous novel, The Call of the Wild. That first book, about a dog who's stolen and put into a life of hardship, would have been my favorite of the two at the time. It remains so, but the gap between them is not so wide now. What I don't recall realizing as a kid was how these two books, one about a dog, the other about a wolf, are stories told in reverse of one another. White Fang is so named by the Alaskan Indians who take him, a similarity to Buck's fate, but Fang is only a cub at the time. His life is only the way of fighting from it's beginning. First it comes with the many dog puppies of the Indian's camp, then with the white man haphazardly named, “Beauty Smith”, a man who represents all but what is good or kind. And in theory White Fang's path in life crosses Buck's here, going in separate directions. To this point he had never truly found trust in a man, until one comes along who can show him the way.

Sara (taking a break)

Rating: really liked it
I know why I loved this as a kid. It is a raw adventure, with a natural charm, and the idea of a wild wolf-dog that is tamed by one man’s kindness would have been irresistible to my nine year old self. Even as an adult, it reads like a heroic tale, as White Fang fights his way through life’s difficulties, like Odysseus trying to find his way home. There can be little doubt that Jack London understood the nature of a wild animal and the dangerous life in the Northern climes.

The descriptive powers of London made me shiver with the chill of the cold and the fear that must accompany a night spent with a fire being the only thing standing between a man and a hungry wolf pack. There are moments of animal cruelty and even nature’s cruelty that make one cringe, but the story is true to life, and life is often unkind. But there is also a feeling of hope, of the possibility of survival, and of the love that a dog, or even a wolf, can offer a man, whether he deserves it or not.

Klinta

Rating: really liked it
This book made me have nightmares of wolves attacking me and this book kept me up turning pages, because of a wolf learning new ways of life.

This book at first confused me, but in a way, I understood the Indian (Native American) ways, then I became enraged and at last - happy. I felt like I went through my own range of snarling and learning the human laws, learning affection, at last encountering a human that had similar views to treating animals as I do. It's quite the journey.

This book touched me deeply, it made me see a new perspective on animals and I appreciate it a lot.

Nilguen

Rating: really liked it
What a captivating literary work!
I am SO grateful to have read this adventurous novel by Jack London.

Beware, some passages are certainly not for the faint hearted!
Look who is talking! I weeped when reading those passages looking at my dog at times, who enjoys having his loved ones around him 24/7 nowadays, dozing off and giving me an awkward look tilting his head to one side.

So, let me start off my review by giving you the core message of this novel that resonated 100% with me:

Human beings as well as animals are influenced by their environments:
If you treat them with cruelty and unfairness, they become ‘evil’, however, if you treat them with love and fairness, they become ‘good’.

I know ‘being good’ can be interpreted in 1001 ways, but let us imagine for a split second that wars, racism, and all cruelties can be avoided by ‘being good’ nurtured with infinite love that we experience in our environments and replicate the same towards all living beings.

Now, let me recap the story of White Fang whose story is in consonance with the quintessential message above:

White Fang stems from a mixed race, a wolf and a dog, and is exposed to a relentless fight in wilderness of the Arctic’s against hunger and various dangers by nature.

Nevertheless, nothing compares to the torture he experiences from humankind as a hard-working sled dog or in captivity by Beauty Smith, aka Jim Hall.
Jim is described by an antithesis as he is ugly to his core torturing animals and, unfortunately, born at disadvantage by birth, he is intellectually underdeveloped and mistreated by his surrounding.

Finally, saved by Weedon Scott, White Fang leaves his phase as a fighting dog behind him and shows his new true colours of loyalty and attachment to his owner, who instills him with affection and support.

By nature, White Fang is a quick-learner and very adaptable to his environment, whilst he enjoys his new life in California at the estate of Scott’s family called Sierra Vista.

White Fang is now at the peak of his life!
Thankfully!! This is the passage of the book when I had a smile all over my face.
Yes, he ran into some unapologetic incidents coined by his previous experiences, but Scott is determined to re-educate White Fang with love and support to become ‘good’.

In the meantime, Beauty Smith broke out of San Quentin after much torture and is chasing after Scott’s father, the judge who had unknowingly become part of a police conspiracy and passed a verdict of 50 years of imprisonment on him.

As Beauty Smith breaks into the Sierra Viesta, unconscious of White Fang’s presence there, he gets to surrender to his fate by White Fang’s deadly attack, whilst White Fang suffers from injuries of Smith’s gun shots.

Ultimately, White Fang will survive and the story will end to my utmost satisfaction as he recovers and falls in awe with his offspring by the Collie belonging to the estate of Sierra Viesta. ❤️

Jack London’s well-researched novel is a complete new experience to me whilst I indulged myself in his eloquent writing style. 🙏🤗

#Heart4Animals

Trish

Rating: really liked it
My second book by Jack London. As a kid, I watched Disney's movie with Ethan Hawke and loved every second of it. The majesty of the nature scenes, the thrilling albeit tragic life of the wolf (the German title of the story is "Wolf's Blood").
Since I keep working my way through a wide range of classics, Jack London was not to be missed and his books were really perfect for winter (incidentally, the weather got really icy every time I picked one of them up).

We follow a she-wolf as she chooses a mate and has a litter. One of the pups is the titular White Fang. Through his eyes we experience the life among his siblings, famine, encounters first with Natives and then with white humans, dog fights, pain and betrayal but also love and even humour.

Despite the age of London's stories, they address topics that are still relevant today - such as human greed, falsehood, friendship and more. The author's musings regarding human nature incorporated in this adventure were poignant and mostly accurate (I disagree about Beauty Smith not being culpable).

I seriously hated most humans here. *lol* Naturally, people thought differently about animals then compared to now, but even then one should have valued life, whether furry or not. I can consider the times a story takes place in but animal cruelty is wrong no matter what century.
Thus, despite Grey Beaver already having been horrible, Beauty Smith was the worst because he pollutes the already tarnished White Fang! To a certain degree, that made them alike: both had bad pasts full of negative experiences. The noteable difference, showing that the author also thinks animals are the better people, is how (view spoiler)[White Fang manages to turn around and lead a good life thanks to his benevolent master in the end (hide spoiler)].

Best of all are the nature descriptions. It seems to be Jack London's greatest gift. The characters are nicely fleshed out and the story is solid and keeps you at the edge of your seat, but it wouldn't work the same way if it weren't for the reader landing smack in the middle of ice and snow in the American North, the wild north full of woods and lynxes and all kinds of other wildlife. Moreover, as mentioned in the previous book I read by him, it shows that he was actually there himself. He knows what the cold feels like, how the different hours of light and dark can have a significant impact on one's mood, what noises keep one on edge the whole time and how one must rely upon one's companions (furry and otherwise).

Longing is what this book is all about. Longing for freedom and independence, but also for a place one can call home, longing for companionship and love, longing for the vast wilderness and spirit of nature.

Brenda

Rating: really liked it
White Fang was originally published in 1906 by Jack London and the story is still an exceptional read to this day.

The wolf-cub was born to the she-wolf along with four other siblings. One-Eye was the male wolf who continued to bring food until the day he didn’t return, and the she-wolf had to search for food. When the famine hit, all of the wolf-cub’s siblings died from starvation, so he and his mother set out in the search for food.

Living first with an Indian tribe, the wolf-cub was named White Fang and he learned subservience to his human owner, but was a loner, determined to never allow other dogs or wolves within his orbit. His second owner was a cruel man and the Yukon was a cruel place. White Fang’s life was harsh and he had no choice but to turn into a killer – it was kill or be killed.

But White Fang’s life changed when he met Weedon Scott…

I had White Fang recommended to me by a Goodreads friend and I’m grateful for that recommendation. I read The Call of the Wild back in 2013 and loved that one, and this one was no different. Recommended.

I downloaded this copy from Project Gutenberg.

Fabian {Councillor}

Rating: really liked it
I can still remember the day I received the hardcover edition of this novel as a christmas present by my grandmother four or five years ago. At a time when I was still recuperating from the classics thrown at us in school with the pure result of me feeling disgusted by everything which has been published more than one hundred years ago, I decided White Fang to be a piece of literature I'd better not pick up. And so it rested on my book shelf for more than three years before I brought myself to open it again. The first of altogether five parts turned out to be arduous to read, since I expected an animal's viewpoint, but read a story about two men trying to survive in Canada's wilderness. I finally stopped reading at page forty or so and put it back on my shelves.

Then, one year ago, I returned to "White Fang", telling myself continuously it couldn't be that bad, and exactly at that point where Part Two began, I fell in love with this book. White Fang's story is told in such a magnificient way, you can't help yourself but root for his wolf, hope for his survival, suffer with him through everything he has to endure. Jack London's novel became one of the first classics I enjoyed, and although some time still had to pass before I would turn my attention towards other classics, it ultimately broke the ice between me and classics, a long lasting antipathy fabricated by my teacher's abilities to kill any interest in reading all those great books out there.

Highly recommended!

Loretta

Rating: really liked it
Although I did enjoy White Fang, I did not enjoy it as much as The Call of the Wild. Glad I finally read it though!