Customer Reviews

Novels and Social Writings: The People of the Abyss / The Road / The Iron Heel / Martin Eden / John Barleycorn (Library of America)

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This volume contains some of London's best writing, especially his fictional autobiography Martin Eden, which has given inspiration (and a little despair) to generations of amateur writers. This kind of concise, visceral prose would not be seen again until Hemingway came along in the 1920's. Although the times and conditions he writes about in these pages has changed, the concepts are still relevant today: the division between rich and poor is ever widening, a society based on competition favors that wealthy and connected, those with wealth and power are not always the most intelligent or enlightened people, the evils of drinking and a society who often measures manliness in one's ability to consume large ammounts of alcohol. The book is wonderfully bound, and a real bargin here on Amazon.com. A great addition to any personal library.

There must be a conspiracy in the U.S. publishing industry that keeps gems like these off the shelves of bookshops. It seems they are quite happy for people to keep reading 'White Fang' and other popular stories but London's overtly socialist writings seem not to have as wide a currency. My copies of 'The Iron Heel' and 'The People of the Abyss', both from Journeyman Press and bought in the mid-1970s, have seen better days, so when I saw this edition for sale I snapped it up. It is not surprising that this volume comes to us courtesy of The Library of America, a non-profit publisher. I have seen volumes titled 'The Complete Works of Jack London' for sale in Angus and Robertson that somehow left out all the writings and novels published in this volume. It's not only that London's writings underpin much of George Orwell's classics '1984' and 'Down and Out in Paris and London' but that his searing political and social commentary is still relevant today. The fact that these writings are so hard to find tells us much about the status of 'free speech' in the U.S. and the English-speaking world so dominated by capitalist media conglomerates. To find 'The Iron Heel' and 'The People of the Abyss' was wonderful in itself but to also find 'Martin Eden', John Barleycorn', 'The Road' as well as London's essays, 'How I Became a Socialist', 'The Scab', 'Revolution' and his review of Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' was the icing on the cake. Jack London will one day be recognized in his homeland as one of America's great writers, it's just that they are too brainwashed at the moment to realize it.

I first came upon this volume 25 years ago. It was my introduction to London, and today it is probably still the most valued book on my shelves. Jack London is one of America's greatest writers, and this collection from the Library of America proves it. Though now best known for The Call of the Wild and other adventure tales of the Klondike (LOA also has a collection of those), in his day London was also a renowned writer on political, philosophical, and social issues. The five books and four essays collected here represent some of his greatest work.

For most of his life London was a socialist, and his political writings emphasize class struggle, the plight of the working man in capitalist society, and the inevitability of a socialist revolution. The People of the Abyss is London's journalistic account of the poverty-stricken slums of London's East End. In The Road, he relates the adventures of his days tramping across North America. The Iron Heel is a masterful science fiction novel about a future civil war between revolutionary socialists and a plutocratic oligarchy. Martin Eden is a semi-autobiographical novel about a working class writer who strives to elevate his social status through self-education and hard work. John Barleycorn is London's memoir about his life-long relationship with alcohol. Of these five, only The People of the Abyss seems to have lost a bit of its power and relevance over the past century. The remaining four books are five-star works still as vital as the day they were written. (To read more detailed reviews of these five individual books, click on my name.)

In addition to these book-length works, London wrote dozens of short stories and essays on political and social themes. The selection provided here is satisfactory, but not exceptional. It would have been great if they had included some of his short fiction like "The Apostate" or "Goliah", but instead they have chosen four essays. "How I Became a Socialist" is an obvious choice, given its title and subject matter, but it's really too brief to provide a great deal of insight into London's political thought. "The Scab" is a very good example of London's political essays detailing the failures of capitalist society. More perplexing is the inclusion of London's "Introduction to The Jungle", since it's mostly just a plot summary of Upton Sinclair's novel. "Revolution", on the other hand, is an excellent choice. It's a state-of-the-union address for socialism in 1905, and a stirring call to arms.

The Library of America produces the best books of classic literature available today, with beautiful typography, high quality paper, and elegant bindings made to last forever. These volumes are not needlessly encumbered with introductions and prefaces, but let the authors' masterworks speak for themselves. They do include endnotes which clarify historical events and archaic terms, and a detailed chronology of the author's life. These books are truly a joy to read and to behold. My only complaint about the LOA is why only two volumes on London? He is America's most widely read author worldwide, and deserves the extensive treatment given to Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Twain.

This Library of America edition contains some of the less well known works of Jack London. Many are autobigraphical in nature, others fictional self-portraitures, and all written in a very socialist bent. In these writing, Jack London clearly has a bone to pick with American Capitalism and the upper classes, no doubt from personal grudges stemming from his background and his struggle for success.

In "The People of the Abyss", Jack London goes undercover in the Whitechapel district of London, more than a decade after Jack the Ripper, to vividly describe the social degredation of the inhabitants of the East End. One can see a heavy influence of H.G. Wells in this lengthy essay that seems to be illustrating in non-fictional narrative the degeneration of the worker into the Morlock as described in Well's "Time Machine".

"The Road" is a quite interesting autobiographical narrative of Jack's life as a Hobo, while "John Barleycorn" is a non-fictional account of London's life using alcohol as a theme. The depressing "Martin Eden" is a quasi-fictional autobiography of London's struggles to become a successfull writer.

"The Iron Heel" is a novel of the future set in Berkeley. It bears resemblance to theme and style of Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" and is filled with Socialist drivel a la Berkeley. The climax, set in Chicago during massive riots of the proletariat, is a reworking of scenes from Well's "War of the Worlds."

While there is much of historic interest in these works, which is what attracted me to them since I am a resident of the S.F. Bay where much of these works take place, unless you are a student of London, you will probably find much of the socialist commentary and biographical repition a bit tiresome. Moreover, Jack London can be extremely depressing. I would not advise, for example, reading "Martin Eden" when you are already a sour frame of mind