Customer Reviews

The Sea-Wolf (Oxford World's Classics)

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Many consider The Sea-Wolf by Jack London to be among the best sea stories ever written. I found it a moving and epic tale. Not only did it achieve great popular and literary success, but it also was effectively realized in several cinematic versions (most recently as a TV mini-series). The story ranks in the great tradition of one of London's literary influences, Herman Melville, while I saw similarities to another story of a life changed by sea voyage, captured by Rudyard Kipling in Captains Courageous.

Drawing upon his experiences seal hunting in the North Pacific, London created a story with a lot of realism. He put himself and his contradictory nature into the two opposing characters, the captain Wolf Larsen, a ruthless and rugged individualist, the superman, and Humphrey van Weyden, a weak, but highly cultivated and virtuous gentleman. It is in the clash of these two forces that London gives vent to his innermost struggles: idealism versus materialism, conscience versus instinct, desire versus soul.

This is not a book that one easily forgets. True, you can read it as a simple adventure story of life on a turn-of-the-century seal-hunting schooner, but it is far more than this. It is essentially the story of Wolf Larson- and Wolf Larson is the entire mainstream of 19th and 20th century America in microcosm.

Larson is no simple brute. He is, rather, a complex brute. He is a master of men and a master of the seas- but that is ALL that he is. Larson is an intelligent, driven, ruthless master of industry (in this case, seal hunting.) He has succeeded through his own abilities, hard work, and talent- or so he would have you believe. Truth is, brutal backstabbing, deception, exploitation, and disregard for the law has played an equal measure in his rise and dominance. You see, Larson believes in the rule of the jungle. He believes in it so much that he is driven to prove that this is all there is to existence. He must always seek to degrade and destroy anyone who seeks to rise above this state. This is also why he must disregard the possibility of the existence of a human soul. Larson is an intelligent, hard-nosed materialist that simply cannot conceive of anything beyond a social Darwinist hell of survival of the fittest. And Wolf Larson must be the fittest of them all. As much as money means to Wolf, it is really power over other beings- men and animals that means the most to him. Without this power to sadistically degrade and dominate others, the money would have no meaning. Ultimately that explains why he has risen to command his own vessel at all costs- he is a control freak that MUST be in absolute, totalitarian command of his whole world. This is why he only mans his ship with the lowest, most bestial types of human being, and does everything in his power to make them worse- not unlike many modern corporations. This is also why the sudden presence of a higher sort of individual, with ideals that transcend mere survival and materialism are so totally threatening to him.

There are moments when one is almost tempted to sympathize with the Wolf as a champion of freedom- until you realize that in his sort of world his "freedom" means that everyone else must be a slave.

Ultimately, the Wolf meets the inevitable fate in a world ruled like the jungle. When he loses his sight and strength, the monsters that he has surrounded himself with turn on him. In the last measure there is nothing great about Larson after all, for in facing death he proves to be a petty, murdering, weakling that would rather take all those around him down with him. It seems that despite his grand pretensions, he was no Lucifer at all, but merely a sick, pathetic, sociopath incapable of making the leap into being truly human.

So imagine taking the real world brutality that London's wolves or dogs face in his Youkon novels. Now add that survival of the fittest and the most banal might make right themes from nature and apply them to a seafaring novel. That combination makes this novel.

The main protagonist is the victim of a ferry shipwreck near San Fransico and is swept out to sea where he is picked up by Captain Wolf Larson's sealing vessel. Larson refuses to returm him or to let him board another nearby vessel heading into San Fransico and so he is forced to serve on the vessel. He is in every way the antithesis of the sealers: weak, educated, literary, and not accostomed to manual labor. Half the story is the growth of the protagonist into more of a "man" through his experiences.

The genius of this novel however is in the character Wolf Larson, the ship's captain. He is stronger, meaner, and smarter than any other man he has met. By his own might he rules the ship. He is also well read and self educated, and his literary knowledge bonds the two main characters together. Larson takes the essence of nature, where the strongest rule and dominate, and applies it to man. Man is a part of nature and therefor not subject to any higher laws. Larson intimidates, beats up, murders, and takes any other measures of strength necessary to rule his vessel. In the end, even when he is dying and needs the protagonist to have any hope of escape, he still tries to commit murder to his would-be saviours. Why? Just to prove he still can. Its a brilliant study of humanity and a dichotomy of beliefs in the very nature of humanity versus nature.

A must read for any fan of London, American literature, or just a very good read (like me).

A philosophical and contrasting look at the differences between men who do the dirty work in the world and those who sit high up in their ivory towers, unable to see the workings of the machinery that is the human social animal. A good read.

Jack London is pretty famous for his adventure stories "White Fang" and "Call of the Wild," but "The Sea Wolf" is less-well-known. I think the reason for that is that it is one-part-adventure story, and one-part-philosophical-treatise. The later part is a bit heavy-handed at times, and may not appeal to all readers.

As it happens, I liked both parts. The adventure is fun, and the philosophy is well-expressed through the discussions of the protagonist with one of the most interesting antagonists I've seen in literature - Captain Wolf Larsen. There is an adage that good writers "show not tell." For example, rather than state in words that a character is angry, it's better to demonstrate the anger through that character's actions. That's hard to do when you want to describe complex characters with complex emotions. Jack London does it very well with Wolf Larsen. I was at turns angry, sympathetic, in agreement with, and violently opposed to Larsen's behavior. Makes for interesting reading.

Simply, an excellent read. Interesting story, quality writing, and deep character development. For me, this is one of those books [another is Old Man And the Sea, perhaps The Great Gatsby] I will read again and again over the decades. There are precious few books I would re-read, but re-reading this one and others is like listening to an old friend re-tell a story of his or her while we share a particularly pleasing libation and pick at some warmed cashews. Tangentially, as I read this, I could see Gregory Peck in the role of Wolf Larsen.