He looked like a child staring at an empty Christmas tree. '“Well,' said the captain, reluctant to go. A Child Staring at an Empty Christmas Tree This simile, 'like a dark wine poured to the ceiling,' is especially apt since the conversation has intoxicated her husband with visions of killing these intruders, leading to his foolish and reckless murder of Nathaniel York and his human companion. “Slowly, slowly the night came in to fill the room, swallowing the pillars and both of them, like a dark wine poured to the ceiling.' ('Ylla')įollowing a dispute between Yll and Ylla, a Martian husband and wife, over Ylla's dreams of the arrival of humans, night falls and fills the room. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. London is in and committed to his creations to a degree very nearly unparalleled in the composition of fiction.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Few men have more convincingly examined the connection between the creative powers of the individual writer and the unconscious drive to breed and to survive, found in the natural world. The quintessential Jack London is in the on-rushing compulsive-ness of his northern stories, noted James Dickey.

Also included in this volume is To Build a Fire, a marvelously desolate short story set in the Klondike, but containing all the elements of a classic Greek tragedy. White Fang (1906), which London conceived as a complete antithesis and companion piece to The Call of the Wild, is the tale of an abused wolf-dog tamed by exposure to civilization.

Here, indeed, are all the elements of sound fiction. No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find in The Call of the Wild, said H. His story of the dog Buck, who learns to survive in the bleak Yukon wilderness, is viewed by many as his symbolic autobiography. Generally considered to be London's greatest achievement, The Call of the Wild brought him international acclaim when it was published in 1903. Doctorow wrote in The New York Times Book Review. The Call of the Wild -Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time To this day Jack London is the most widely read American writer in the world, E.

The call of the wild and white fang