Call of the Wild & White Fang

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

With an Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, University of Reading.

The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906) are world famous animal stories. Set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, The Call of the Wild is about Buck, the magnificent cross-bred offspring of a St Bernard and a Scottish Collie. Stolen from his pampered life on a Californian estate and shipped to the Klondike to work as a sledge dog, he triumphs over his circumstances and becomes the leader of a wolf pack. The story records the 'decivilisation' of Buck as he answers 'the call of the wild', an inherent memory of primeval origins to which he instinctively responds.

In contrast, White Fang relates the tale of a wolf born and bred in the wild which is civilised by the master he comes to trust and love. The brutal world of the Klondike miners and their dogs is brilliantly evoked and Jack London's rendering of the sentient life of Buck and White Fang as they confront their destiny is enthralling and convincing. The deeper resonance of these stories derives from the author's use of the myth of the hero who survives by strength and courage, a powerful myth that still appeals to our collective unconscious.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Call of the wild
• 1 Into the Primitive
• 2 The Law of Club and Fang
• 3 The Dominant Primordial Beast
• 4 Who Has Won to Mastership
• 5 The Toil of Trace and Trail
• 6 For the Love of a Man
• 7 The Sounding of the Call. White fang
• Part 1 The wild
• 1 The Trail of the Meat
• 2 The She-Wolf
• 3 The Hunger Cry
• Part 2 Born of the wild
• 1 The Battle of the Fangs
• 2 The Lair
• 3 The Grey Cub
• 4 The Wall of the World
• 5 The Law of Meat
• Part 3 The gods of the wild
• 1 The Makers of Fire
• 2 The Bondage
• 3 The Outcast
• 4 The Trail of the Gods
• 5 The Covenant
• 6 The Famine
• Part 4 The superior gods
• 1 The Enemy of His Kind
• 2 The Mad God
• 3 The Reign of Hate
• 4 The Clinging Death
• 5 The Indomitable
• 6 The Love-Master
• Part 5 The tame
• 1 The Long Trail
• 2 The Southland
• 3 The God's Domain
• 4 The Call of Kind
• 5 The Sleeping Wolf