Lost Face: Lost Face, Trust, That Spot, Flush of Gold, The Passing of Marcus O'Brien, The Wit of Porportuk, To Build a Fire (Pine Street Books) [Paperback]

Jack London (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pine Street Books | Publication Date: August 24, 2005

At his peak, about the time this collection was first published in 1910, Jack London was the highest-paid and perhaps the most popular living American writer. Lost Face consists of seven short works, including the title story and his finest and best-known short story, "To Build a Fire." Now in paperback for the first time, this collection appears as it was originally published.

Jack London grew up in poverty, educated himself through public libraries, and, in addition to writing, devoted his life to promoting socialism (although he eventually resigned from the Socialist Party). Despite his financial and critical success, in the end he succumbed to alcoholism and depression and died of a drug overdose. During the 1898 gold rush, London traveled to the Klondike to seek his fortune. It was this experience that had the most profound effect on his writing. Not only did he mine the far north environment for subject matter (and all the stories in Lost Face take place in the Yukon), but his laconic style drew upon its cold harshness and loneliness, where people and beasts had to work together or against each other for survival. London's stories are treasured for their insights into the psychology of both people and animals—particularly dogs—and Lost Face is a brilliant collection of some of the finest examples of London's craft.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Painted in broad, sweeping strokes, each tale is a tour de force."—New York Times

From the Publisher

Jack London (1876-1916) is author of Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf, and White Fang, among many other works.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Pine Street Books (August 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081221935X
• ISBN-13: 978-0812219357
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,488,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jack London's little-known short story classics, March 7, 2009

By 

David Hann (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost Face (Paperback)

This collection of short stories contains the well-known classic, "To Build a Fire," and that story deserves its place at the summit of American short stories. What the collection Lost Face has, however, are several other Jack London short stories that are sure to hold your attention. The title story, "Lost Face," depicts how a man's ability to keep his head in a dire situation saves him from a fate worse than death. My personal favorite in this collection is "That Spot," a great story for anyone who has owned or had to deal with a difficult dog. The narrator of "That Spot" remarks that there was something about Spot that made him uneasy, and the reader soon understands what that meant. This is a great collection of short stories, one which I recommend to anyone who likes Jack London's writing.

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than just "To Build a Fire", January 23, 2012

By 

Karl Janssen (Olathe, KS United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost Face (Kindle Edition)

Lost Face is a collection of seven short stories by Jack London, all of which take place in Alaska or the Yukon Territory around the time of the Klondike Gold Rush. It is most notable for being the collection which contains "To Build a Fire," the classic story of a man trudging along the Yukon Trail, alone but for his dog, who finds himself struggling for survival against the 75-below-zero cold. It is London's most famous and widely read piece of writing, about as perfect as a short story can be, and sure to be read in junior high school English classes for centuries to come.

In addition to this renowned masterpiece, Lost Face is loaded with unexpected gems. I had never heard of the other six stories in this collection, and I was greatly surprised at how good they are. By the time Lost Face was published in 1910, London had already published five collections of Klondike tales, ranging from the excellent (The Faith of Men) to the OK (Love of Life). In the latter book, London showed signs of exhausting the subject matter and running out of ideas, but here in Lost Face he comes up with seven very solid, original, exciting tales.

The title story, "Lost Face," recalls the odyssey of a Polish freedom fighter who is imprisoned by the Russians, then escapes from the mines of Siberia and ends up in Alaska. He finds himself faced with torture and death at the hands of a Native American tribe, and desperately tries to come up with a way out of his predicament. "That Spot" is a comical tale in which the narrator recalls a dog he owned during his prospecting days in the Yukon; a magnificent, powerful, keenly intelligent beast who absolutely refused to perform the slightest bit of useful labor. In "Flush of Gold," two travelers on the sled dog trail stop at a cabin on Surprise Lake, where dwells a beautiful, mysterious woman who pines for a former lover. As one of the men relates the woman's history to his companion, the reader discovers the bizarre love story that darkens her past. "The Wit of Porportuk" tells of an Alaskan Indian chief, famous for his generosity and extravagance, who runs up big debts to a miserly money lender. When the time comes to collect the debt, the lender, Porportuk, sees it as an opportunity to claim the chief's beautiful daughter El-Soo for his mate. The girl, however, being very clever and well educated, comes up with a scheme to avoid becoming the greedy old man's property. Neither party's plans prove entirely successful, however, and just when you think you know where the story's going, it turns in a shocking and unexpected direction.

Comparing the stories of Lost Face to London's Klondike tales of a decade earlier, one really gets a sense of how much he progressed as a writer. These seven tales are rendered in smooth and beautiful prose, skillfully plotted, and remarkably vivid in their depiction of time and place. Reading Lost Face transports you to the bygone world of the exotic North. Through London's eyes, it's a wild and unpredictable place where the powerful beauty of nature is ever present and invigorating adventure is commonplace.