Customer Reviews

Works of Jack London. (200+ Works) The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, The Iron Heel, To Build a Fire, Cruise of the Snark and more (mobi)

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Over the past several months, I've read dozens of stories and a couple of novels to my wife; it's become part of our evening ritual -- pleasant and sometimes sleep inducing for her and great scope for me -- a ham of the first order.

Her favorite author so far has been Jack London. As Dale L. Walker (Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West) correctly points out:

"London's true métier was the short story .... 7,500 words and under, where the flood of images in his teeming brain and the innate power of his narrative gift were at once constrained and freed. His stories that run longer than the magic 7,500 generally --- but certainly not always --- could have benefited from self-editing."

In fact, his novels are often episodic and loosely connected, a series of short stories if you will, especially one of his best novels, The Call of the Wild (MobileReference).

This collection contains an excellent representation of London's short stores, and several of his novels and plays. The formatting is pretty good, although many of the works run together, and it is necessary to return to the table of contents to read the stories in a sensible manner. MobileReference has a history of improving its eBooks from time to time, and it could make a number of improvements which would make this edition even more useful. For example,

1. Date the works on the table of contents and preferably at the beginning of the work itself.

2. Begin each work on a separate page, and allow one to click on an icon at the end to return to the table of contents where the work is listed.

3. Add the first version of "To Build a Fire" to the collection. Wikipedia has an excellent description of why that would be important.

"To Build a Fire" is the best known of all his stories. Set in a bitterly cold Klondike, it recounts the haphazard trek of a new arrival who has willfully ignored an old-timer's warning about the risks of traveling alone. Falling through the ice into a creek in seventy-below weather, the unnamed man is keenly aware that survival depends on his untested skills at quickly building a fire to dry his clothes and warm his extremities. After publishing a tame version of this story --- with a sunny outcome --- in The Youth's Companion in 1902, London offered a second, more severe take on the man's predicament in The Century Magazine in 1908. Reading both provides a dramatic illustration of London's growth and maturation as a writer. As Labor (1994) observes: "To compare the two versions is itself an instructive lesson in what distinguished a great work of literary art from a good children's story."

Until this version is updated for Kindle, my wife and I will continue to read through this excellent collection. She rarely falls asleep too early if Jack London is on on the evening reading menu. And, it's great joy to read his works -- I often continue to read while she sleeps and then re-read the story again the next night for both our benefits.

Robert C. Ross 2009

You get over 200 works for less than $5. There are only minor formatting problems (e.g. the short stories run together on the same page)

A huge collection of short stories from the late 1800's to the early 1900's.
Well formated for use on the Kindle, with few errors. Well compiled and presented.

Works of Jack London. Huge collection. (200 + Works) Includes The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, The Iron Heel, To Build a Fire, Cruise of ... more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

This is an excellent ebook! There are so many great stories in this collection. I advise anyone to explore the work of Jack London further.

Complete Works of Jack London. Huge collection. (200 + Works) FREE Author's biography and Stories in the trial version.

White Fang.... and much more... Excellent compilation!