The Call of the Wild (yourbooks)

you axed me this question, and the book is quite gripping and and easy read. It is an adventure/survival story taking place in the Canadian north woods. Although fiction, the story could play out as several past airplane crashes in wilderness areas. The author spends chapters on survival techniques such as fire starting, food gathering, shelter construction, weapon making, fishing, and bird catching. However, the immediate problems of sanitation, bowel movements, body cleanliness are totally lacking. Any one in this situation should have these issues at least mentioned.

Amazing! Thanks to the author for this book, I can't stop reading, I never expected the outcome for buck and I hope there are others who agree eith me! I give 20 stars 🌟

Call of the Wild is a fascinating story which sucks the reader in and takes you into the heart of it's main character. So glad I reread it after 20 years.

Beautiful story of a dog, Buck, who is a St. Bernard from his father's side a sheep dog from his mother's. Throughout the story Buck proves that he is a dog like no other. His grit and tenacity see him sail through the worst treatment that can be wrought by man on animal. (Warning:If you have a pet or if you are an animal lover it might prove extremely challenging to sail through many parts of the book). Just when Buck finally finds a master who he dearly loves and is loved, he hears a call, the 'call of the wild'. He knows that he cannot ignore the call.This is a slim volume, can perhaps be read in one sitting if you have some time. I had not imagined that such a book would keep me riveted, for it is not about mystery,suspense, adventure or action. It is about a dog! No wonder this is a classic.Update (June 2019): After reading this book, I was keen on visiting the Jack London Square at Oakland,CA and I did. A thoroughly enjoyable place that does justice to this son of Oakland. Bronze statues of Mr. London and a dog along with plaques about his life present the visitor a nice peek into his life. Sadly he died relatively young, in his forties. A must see is the log cabin he is believed to have spent some time at while in Alaska. An enthusiastic admirer of his identified the cabin in a remote part of Alaska (based on accounts in his works I think), retrieved it and had it reconstructed!(if you plan to read the book, feel free to skip the rest of this below)The Alaska Gold Rush of late 19th century (1896 or so) attracted something like 100,000 prospectors, mostly from the San Francisco/Seattle areas to the Yukon region.Well cared, healthy, powerful dogs attracted unheard of premiums. This prompted a greedy gardener to kidnap his employer's dog and sell it off to work the sleds. While being transported from sunny Santa Clara Valley, Buck changes many cruel hands, however his last tormentor is particularly vile. He clubs Buck to pulp leaving him clinging to life. The experience infuses a steely character in Buck. While anything could break his body, nothing could break his spirit.Buck has to fight many competitors to finally establish supremacy of the pack.His masters recognize his remarkable character and reward him by according him the pride of place, to lead the pack. Demands of transportation make the dogs overworked, underfed and exploited, Buck included. He, like the rest of his pack is reduced to skin and bone. He is sold to ignorant but cruel masters who continue the exploitation, but Buck would have none of it. His greatness is recognized by a camper who adopts him and then begins Buck's wonderful life. He regains everything he had lost and seems even more virile and strong than the best of past times. Buck serves his master, even helping him add to his fortunes. When everything seems hunky dory, something tells Buck his place is in the wild. When the call of the wild is received it does not go unheeded.Meanwhile his master and associates are killed by native Indians.Trust Buck to take revenge and kill them all, establishing his superiority over even man himself. After this inflection point and after having lost his beloved master, Buck is even more convinced that his place is in the Wild and he returns to it, as if he had belonged there all the time.

I enjoyed reading this book. I had read this book when I was a young girl and after seeing the movie recently, wanted to read it again. I didn't really remember the book and the movie sure is different. I found myself wishing the book were more like the movie. And that doesn't happen often. But I love Buck and always will!

Read and be awed. The kind of story and writing that forms ones being. And London wrote Martin Eden, too. Genius.

I finally got around to checking off titles on my "Classics" bucket list. I couldn't read this one fast enough! Such power! Such emotion! So honest and raw. And so WELL WRITTEN! We tend to forget about that part these days. I found myself completely engrossed in Buck's tale. It is so relatable in many ways. Beautiful! I think everyone needs to read this book. At a little over 100 pages, you;ll be finished with it before you even know it!

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London Buck was born into a pampered life of civilization. He was raised in the south with a big family; 3 generations worth. But unfortunately, one of the men who worked on the farm was a gambler, and like most gamblers, he often lost; had mouths to feed and debts to pay. So one night, that man decided to kidnap Buck and sell him to another man for a few bills--I say "kidnap", but that word is not quite appropriate: Buck is not a child, but a dog, and because gold has been found in Alaska, large dogs like him are bringing a premium price in Alaska. Immediately upon arrival at his destination, Buck is beaten into submission by a club-wielding man in a red sweater. This is his first introduction to the law of the wild; with might comes law. Not long after he has been purchased to join a dog-sled team, a fight breaks out between the team leader and a different new dog named Curly. The fight ends with Curly's death. This is his second introduction to the law of the wild; mercy is a weakness. Because of his natural tendencies towards pride, he himself gets into a lot of fights with the team leader. However, he is much to cunning to bring it to an immediate stand-up battle; instead, he reinforces the other dogs' tendencies towards anarchy, bringing down the efficiency of the pack overall. This irritates the team leader to no end. Finally, they have it out, and Buck emerges triumphant; the old team leader is never heard from again. Buck takes his earned place (by virtue of his might) as the new team leader, and immediately brings the other dogs back into line. Their efficiency becomes so great that they set a new record on a run. The rest of the story continues on, and Buck slowly slips further and further away from civilization; following the call of the wild, he eventually joins with a pack of wolves. As a favorite quote of mine proclaims, "beneath the veneer of civility, we're all children of Cain." Nowhere (to my knowledge) is this thought further explored than in this book. It is both a great story, and an interesting look at just how easily it would be for civilization to fall away. Really, excluding all of our neat gadgets, not much has changed: all of our vaunted rules and mores exist merely because we're much too afraid to venture out alone at night.Memorable Quote: Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof, were his; yet he retained his wildness and wiliness. He was a thing of the wild, come in from the wild to sit by John Thornton's fire.For more reviews like this, please check out my profile!

An amazing adventure story about a dog called Buck. Buck goes through hell in this book as a man takes him from his home and sells him to become a sled dog. He is a tough one though and never gives up on life. He takes on every challenge with amazing spirit and strength.As I read Buck's story I admired his never ending motivation to survive. Yet, I hated the brutality in the story and winced a fair few times at the tearing flesh and descriptions of death and injury. Some of the human characters are vile and callous. The sled dogs work hard for little reward or comfort. Buck made me feel grateful for my privileged life. He also showed me that the world is a tough place and you have got to fight to survive.It's a short story and takes a couple of hours to read.The Author Jack London wrote numerous other works throughout his life. I will definitely read more of his work. I will never forget the story of Buck. It's made a lasting impression.

This elemental story imagines a dog plucked from an indolent early life as a household pet, to become part of a sledge team working in the harsh world of the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush. Struggling to survive, the former domesticated animal begins to regress through past generations to its wolf forebears. The story itself makes a similar journey back into the history, taking the form of the archetypal myth of the hero, where a youngster leaves the comfort of home and heads into the unknown. Writers such as Christopher Vogler suggest that such a story evolved back in the early history of humanity, as a teaching tool to prepare the young to go out beyond the tribe's home territory into a hostile world. In both subject and form, The Call of the Wild reaches back to the time when dog and man first came together, when they were rather similar, hairy creatures struggling for survival. This makes sense of the humanisation of the dog, even though its animal character is closely observed.I found The Call of the Wild immensely powerful and involving. By the end of it I actually felt bloodied and battered, as though I'd come through a formative experience. The Call of the Wild deserves its status as one of the best novels ever written.

"Humans inhumanity is all too human."Buck a domesticated dog is stolen for use during the gold rush in the Yukon; use is not a word I use lightly here, enslaved would begin to describe it better. This is not a childrens book by any standard; the description of cruelty of humans towards animals is brutal and unrelenting, also the descriptions of the survival of the fittest is not restricted in any way, expect gore and cruelty in bucket loads.This is a tale of adventure and survival, that takes you into a world where nature is king and master of men and animals, one mistake one miscalculation and your life is gone.I finished this short book in one sitting and enjoyed the resilience of buck but found some of the violence a bit disturbing.

I loved that the story is told from Buck's perspective, I loved that you can follow his ascent to his rightful place, I loved the descriptions of the humans and world around him (I'm from the UK and we have no places even remotely similar to Canada)! However, due to the period in which the book was written, the style and language made it terribly hard work! A lot of attention was needed to get from one paragraph to the next... Good job the tale held my attention as I COULD have put it down very early on otherwise!

I wondered if this was really for children. It does say so on the front cover. It seems overly aggressive, violent and inappropriate for my 6 and 9 yo. There’s quite a lot of growling and attacking noises (the main sound effects) which really resonate around the car! The story is weak. It’s also terribly short (maybe 40 mins?) I was expecting the interesting part to begin once the destination was reached but it just ended. I wouldn’t recommend it.We had Moonfleet and Tom’s midnight garden from BBC cds and they were both brilliant. This is a terrible.