Customer Reviews

The Call of the Wild (Aladdin Classic Reprints)

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London is a tremendously talented writer and his understanding of life matches his tremendous knowledge of the snow-enshrouded world of the upper latitudes. His writing is beautiful, poignant, and powerful, yet also somber, morose, and infinitely real. This isn't a story to read when you are depressed. Although The Call of the Wild is a short novel and on the surface a dog's story, it contains as much truth and reality of man's own struggles as that which can be sifted from the life's work of many other respected authors. The story he tells is stark and real, and as such, it is not pretty picture he paints, nor an elevating story he writes.

As an animal lover, I found parts of this story heartbreaking from Buck's removal from the civilized Southland in which he reigned supreme among his animal kin to the brutal cold and even more brutal machinations of hard, weathered men who literally beat him and whipped him full of lashes. Even sadder are the stories of the dogs that fill the sled's traces around him. Good-spirited Curly never had a chance, while Dave's story is only made bearable because of his brave, undying spirit. Even Spitz, the harsh taskmaster, has to be pitied, despite his harsh nature, for the reader knows this harsh nature was forced upon him by man and his thirst for riches.

Buck's travails are long and hard, but it is his nobility of his spirit that makes of him a hero, despite the primitive animal instincts and urges that dominate him. Buck not only conquers the weather, the harshness of the men, the other dogs and the wolves he comes into contact with, he thrives. Hopes for redemption with John Thornton are dashed in the end, and that's when Buck finally gives in fully to "the call of the wild," becoming a creature of nature only. While this is a sad ending, the reader also feels joy and satisfaction at Buck's refusal to surrender and his ability to find his own kind of happiness in the harsh world in which he is placed.

Jack London presents an enthralling tale about the Yukon Gold Rush of the 1890s through the eyes of one dog, Buck. Buck is ripped from his home in sunny California and forced into one of various dog-sled teams in the frozen tundra of Alaska. Buck must learn how to survive in this wilderness and he manages to not only survive, but thrive. Although his masters change, he grows most fond of his last master, John Thornton. However, even his love for John Thornton cannot supress his desire to roam free and wild, like his wolf brethren.

"Call of the Wild" presents a stark contrast between the civilized and uncivilized worlds that Buck inhabits. It is in this uncivilized world that Buck grows to love and eventually becomes a master himself, first as leader of the dog sled team, then as a legendary leader of a wolf pack. Buck quickly learns the "law of club and fang," that is, kill or be killed.

Although it's told from a dog's perspective, the novel is not gimmicky or unrealistic in any way. Buck's yearning to be free may represent a human desire to be free of civilization and all its rules and handicaps. For only in the wild is Buck truly free, as many of us may wish to escape from the civlization that we are trapped in.

Overall, this is a short, yet well-told and thought-provoking story that is enjoyable to readers of all ages.

Eric Godsey

Call of the Wild

I read the book The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The author used a lot of emotional feelings in this story about a dog named Buck. He experiences a lot of feelings from beginning to end.

One day Buck gets kidnapped from his owner. He felt very sad and confused. If I was kidnapped I would feel the same way as Buck did. Buck tried to escape from the kidnapers. The kidnapers saw him try to escape. Then they hit Buck with a club to make him obey. This made Buck feel very angry. He learned never to fight someone who has a club.

The kidnappers sold Buck because they needed dogs for the gold rush in Canada. When he was sold, he was sold to people that took very good care of him. Buck trusted them. Buck felt more like a dog than a pet because he used his instincts to survive in the wild like digging a hole in the ground so he could sleep with warmth.

Buck felt like a dog because he got to pull the sled with the other dogs, he became strong and muscular, braver and he was able to run fast. There was one dog that Buck did not like. His name was Spitz. Spitz had been attacking and biting Buck and the other sled dogs. Buck wanted to become the leader of the pack. One day Buck killed Spitz, in order not to be killed. Buck became the leader and the team worked as a group. Buck felt very confident at this time.

The two owners of the dogs had to sell all of the dogs to some people that didn't know how to take care of them. The people that bought the dogs were not nice to Buck. Buck was always upset with them because they worked the dogs too hard and did not let them rest. They had hardly enough food for the dogs. They were very strict. Some of the team starved to death or were close to dying, even Buck. Buck felt he would die and was hopeless.

One time the owners forced Buck and the rest of the dogs to pull the sled on thin ice. The sled weighed a lot. Buck refused to cross the ice and was beaten for this. John Thornton was a man that loved dogs and took good care of them. Thornton saved Buck from death. The rest of the team and the owners fell into the ice and died.

Buck felt love for the first time in his life and would do anything to help John Thornton. One day Buck went out into the wild away from camp where John Thornton was because he heard a little call from the wild. When he was in the forest he killed a black bear blinded by mosquitoes. He felt very confident.
When he went back to camp, he saw Indians. They had killed many of his best friends, including John Thornton. He felt very angry and depressed at the loss of John. I can't imagine how I would feel if that happened to me.

When Buck killed the Indians, the wild wolves came to Buck. He remembered one call from the wild, a lone wolf he had become friends with. Buck decided to join the wolf pack. Buck felt peaceful because he had returned to the time of his ancestors.

You can see by the range of feelings that happened in this story, that the author used great emotions in the text. If you read this book, I think you will be in Buck's "shoes" and experience the same emotions.

I think I originally read this in 6th or 7th grade. I remember thinking it was okay, but not as good as White Fang. Well, it's a lot better than I remember. Though it may be generally regarded as a young person's novel, it also stands up well to the test of a true literary classic. Yes, it's about a dog, it's also about spirit, survival, will, and the primitive forces in anyone. It's a quick and easy read that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of reading level or interest.

Call of The Wild is an adventerous, wonderful book. You should read it if you like happy endings and like adventures. In the beggining a nice dog from a rich family gets dognapped. As you can imagine it would probably be scary for a dog whos only been hugged and kept in walls. He gets sold to some men who deliver medicine. He works his way up to the top, has fights with husky's , and has many ferocious adventures. It is very sad in the beging but the ending is very happy. White Fang is another good book by the same author who wrote Call of The Wild.

I like the book because it was very different. It was moving and suspenceful at times. It was about a dog and his many owners. He was at Judge Miller`s, train, two sled dog owner and John Thornton. Buck goes through a lot. He pulls a 1000 pound sled. He races a sled to the Alaskan Klondike for gold. He also finally gets an owner who loves Buck for Buck not as a racer or a hero to pull 1000 pounds on a sled but as a dog. Then Buck saves the life of his owner John Thornton and finds a wolf. I can`t share the end though.
I think it was a good book. It was sort of like real life because people go from job to job and at least one person appreciates them for who they are inside. It was like my life because I moved houses when my dad left to visit him. It was like going on a train ride to somewhere new. I didn`t have it as hard as Buck. He was a loyal dog and never gave up. Over all it was a great book. I would not recommend it for any one under 5th grade.
I read it and had a little trouble with the hard words.

"There is an ecstacy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstacy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint and sinew and that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move."

That paragraph is my "review." The Call of the Wild is that paragraph. London's sweeping primordial prose on the experience of Buck, the alpha-alpha dog amidst harshest Alaska, gave me pause, to ponder the animal I am too. In such a short read I gather anyone can touch that "complete forgetfulness of living" and run with the wolves "into the womb of Time."

A no nonsense classic.

Call of the Wild is an awesome book. As I read it got more addictive and exciting. During the most exciting parts my heart would start pounding. As I kept reading to the end it started getting really emotional, so I stopped reading for a few days. After I got to the end I decided that it was such a good book and I should read it again.

Call of the wild is about a dog named Buck that is a half breed (part St. Bernard part Shepherd). He lived in California with Judge Miller. Then, one day a person stole Buck and sold him so he could get money to support his family. So then Buck was sent to the Northland and very exciting things happen to him.

Age: 14

I've lived in Alaska for over 40 years. Reading Jack London was the main catalyst
for my wanderlust, for my original travels to the arctic. I had a boyfriend who
recommended this book and who dreamed of traveling to Alaska. He never made
it to the arctic but I did - and I stayed.

This book is poignant, hopeful and sad - all in one. It is about a great dog named
Buck and his resilience and love for his master, Thornton. Buck is tenacious, resil-
ient and fearless in the face of abuse and adversity of all sorts. He is a great dog!
I chuckled when Buck scared off 12 wolverines. Wolverines are considered the
most ferocious of animals. If you run across a wolverine in Alaska, you pray or
run or shoot.

There was one little anachronism that bothered me. Jack London talks about
crickets in Alaska but there are no crickets in the arctic. I miss crickets so I am
sure about this fact!

When I re-read this book recently, I remembered with nostalgia the very first
time I read it as an adolescent and how it led me to my home in Fairbanks. This
is a great book about the arctic, about a great dog, and a great book overall.

In this book, there is no stop action keeping the reader always wanting to continue. This book is filled with action, adventure, terror, and drama. It is taken place in 1903 in the state of California and in Alaska in the region of Klondike. Jack London puts you in the mind of a dog. This dog, which is the main character, is named Buck. He is half St. Bernard and also half Scottish Sheperd. In the beginning of the book, Buck lives with a judge and his children in his California home. One day, Buck is kidnapped and shipped to Alaska where he is trained as a sled dog. He realizes the many troubles in the Alaska and meets his main enemy, Spitz. Spitz is a vicious and brute tempered dog. Buck grows hungry and goes from a cuddly dog to a devil. Buck and Spitz grow angry at one another and have a malicious dogfight. How will fight for the rest of their life? This book is one of the best books I have read because of how well Jack London puts you in the head of a dog and puts you through a torturous time. Read The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

David LA7