The Sea Wolf
by Jack London
First published 1900 · English · 295 pages
- Novels
- Adventure
- Thriller and suspense
- Children's
A sea novel in which Humphrey Van Weyden, a refined literary critic, is thrown into the water after a ferry collision near San Francisco and rescued by a sealing schooner, the Ghost. Its captain, Wolf Larsen, is brutal, brilliant and widely read, and he refuses to let his unwilling passenger leave. The book becomes a contest of wills and ideas between gentleness and raw power. It is a vivid adventure and a study of philosophy and character.
Quotes
I believe that life is a mess,” he answered promptly. “It is like yeast, a ferment, a thing that moves and may move for a minute, an hour, a year, or a hundred years, but that in the end will cease to move.
Might is right, and that is all there is to it.
These women, capable of the most sublime emotions, of the tenderest sympathies, were open-mouthed and screaming. They wanted to live, they were helpless, like rats in a trap, and they screamed.
"The cap'n is Wolf Larsen, or so men call him. I never heard his other name. But you better speak soft with him. He is mad this morning. The mate-" But he did not finish. The cook had glided in.