White Fang
by Jack London
First published 1903 · English · 274 pages
- Adventure
- Fantasy
- History and politics
A novel set in the Yukon wilderness and later in California. It follows a wolf-dog born wild in the North, who passes through the hands of Native people, a cruel fighting-dog owner and others. Shaped by hardship, he learns what kindness and cruelty can do to a creature. Often read as a companion to The Call of the Wild, it reverses that book's path, moving from wilderness toward civilization. It is a gripping story about survival, environment and the possibility of trust.
Quotes
It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.
The aim of life was meat.
I reckon you've called the turn, Bill. That wolf's a dog, an' it's eaten fish many's the time from the hand of man.
She was made glad in vague ways by the battle, for this was the love-making of the Wild, the sex-tragedy of the natural world that was tragedy only to those that died. To those that survived it was not tragedy, but realisation and achievement.