When Jack London died in 1916 at age forty, he was one of the most famous writers of his time. Eighty years later he remains one of the most widely read American authors in the world. The first major critical study of London to appear in a decade, Male Call analyzes the nature of his appeal by closely examining how the struggling young writer sought to promote himself in his early work as a sympathetic, romantic man of letters whose charismatic masculinity could carry more signifi...

Dark Borders connects anxieties about citizenship and national belonging in midcentury America to the sense of alienation conveyed by American film noir. Jonathan Auerbach provides in-depth interpretations of more than a dozen of these dark crime thrillers, considering them in relation to U.S. national security measures enacted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. The growth of a domestic intelligence-gathering apparatus before, during, and after the Second World War raised unsett...

Part science fiction, part dystopian fantasy, part radical socialist tract, Jack London's The Iron Heel offers a grim depiction of warfare between the classes in America and around the globe. Originally published nearly a hundred years ago, it anticipated many features of the past century, including the rise of fascism, the emergence of domestic terrorism, and the growth of centralized government surveillance and authority. What begins as a war of words ends in scenes of h...

How and why did public opinion—long cherished as a foundation of democratic government—become an increasing source of concern for American Progressives?Following World War I, political commentator Walter Lippmann worried that citizens increasingly held inaccurate and misinformed beliefs because of the way information was produced, circulated, and received in a mass-mediated society. Lippmann dubbed this manipulative opinion-making process “the manufacture of consen...

Like the characters in the popular dime novels of the time, London's heroes display such manly virtues as courage, loyalty, and steadfastness as they conftont the merciless frozen expanses of the north. Yet London breaks free of stereotypical figures and one-dimensional plots to explore deeper psychological and social questions of self-mastery, masculinity, and racial domination. The uneasy relationship between the Native Americans and whites lies at the heart of many of the stories, while...

In Jack London's dystopian novel "The Scarlet Plague," the narrative follows the journey of an aged professor who recalls the devastating effects of a mysterious pandemic that wiped out civilization. London's succinct yet powerful prose sets a bleak tone, depicting a world devoid of order and societal structures. This post-apocalyptic tale explores themes of human resilience, mortality, and the fragility of civilization. Set in the future, London's novel serves as a cautionary tale about t...

Jack London was an American author who wrote some of the most famous novels of the early 20th century. London wrote on a variety of topics and is still one of the most read authors today. This edition of The Jacket (The Star-Rover) includes a table of contents.

"A Daughter of the Snows" is Jack London's first novel.The novel features a strong female heroine, Frona Welse. Frona was born into a wealthy family and educated at Stanford but she takes to the Yukon trail after upsetting her father and his wealthy community of friends with her out-spoken ways and her innocent friendship with the town's prostitute."All ready, Miss Welse, though I'm sorry we can't spare one of the steamer's boats."Frona Welse arose...

In one single pubblication all the six classic novels by the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. The lushly descriptive and tragic Burmese Days, a devastating indictment of British colonial rule, is based on Orwell's own experience while serving in the Indian Imperial Police. With A Clergyman's Daughter Orwell leads us through a landscape of unemployment, poverty and hunger, where Dorothy Hare's faith is challenged by a social reality that changes her life. His beloved satirica...

Virginia Woolfs Night and Day is populated by four major characters: Katharine Hilbery, Mary Datchet, Ralph Denham, and William Rodney. Through delineating their romantic adventures, the novel explores various issues related to love, marriage, self-discovery, self-assertion and happiness. Yet, like most of Woolfs works, it also examines feminist questions such as womens suffrage and the usefulness of marriage and work for women. Katherine is first engaged to William, an unsuccessful writer an...

The Plague (French: La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition. The characters in the book, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, all help to show the effects the plague has on a populace.The novel is believed to be based on the cholera epidemic that killed a large percentage of Oran's populatio...

A masterpiece ahead of its time, a prescient rendering of a dark future, and the inspiration for the blockbuster film Blade RunnerBy 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive andr...