Jack London: The Call of the Wild and White Fang

• ISBN-13: 9781593082000
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 6/1/2004
• Pages: 336

Jack London's two greatest novels, The Call of the Wild and White Fang - originally intended as companions - are here compiled into one volume.
 The Call of the Wild centers on Buck, a dog bred for a life of ease on a Californian estate, who is kidnapped and sold to Klondike gold hunters. To survive the biting cold and his ruthless masters, Buck must listen to the Call and learn the ways of his wolf-ancestors who guide him from within. White Fang tells the story of a half-wolf, half-dog nearly destroyed by the vicious cruelty of mankind. Brought to the very brink of his existence, White Fang is lucky enough to experience the one thing that can save him - human love. Slowly, the ferocious White Fang grows into a creature capable of bravery, loyalty, and affection. 
 Adventurer and activist, philosopher and alcoholic, Jack London was a man of great contradictions and greater talent. Both The Call of the Wild and White Fang are written in London's simple, direct, and powerful style that decades of readers have admired and that subsequent writers, including Ernest Hemingway, have imitated.  

 While I read one or the other of these (can't remember which) when I was in 6th grade (I've always been a very advanced reader), I didn't really fully grasp the greatness of these works. Now, though, I can fully say that White Fang might be one of my favorite works ever. The Call of the Wild is pretty damn good, too.
 In The Call of the Wild, poor Buck is taken from a fairly easy life in sunny California and thrust into the harsh reality of a sled dog. Tossed from owner to owner, he must adapt or die. Luckily, as you might have guessed, he does adapt, although the process is arduous and painful. In my, somewhat vindictive, opinion, the best moment in the novel is when he loses a few of his owners. I'll let you figure that one out.
 White Fang hits all of my buttons. Great writing, great story with a happy ending, and an epic protagonist. That's right, an epic protagonist in the form of a part-dog mostly-wolf wanderer. I can't quite describe why you end up liking White Fang so much - after all, he's basically a cranky POW-returnee. At least, that's how I think of him. London's brilliance lies in his simple understanding of human nature, which he translates into an equivalent animal nature. And because you can relate, White Fang is sympathetic and the reader begins to feel that if this animal were real, the two of them would be best friends. Even though that's extremely unlikely. Plus, like I said, he gets his well-deserved happy ending and the reader can safely leave him without worrying because he has finally received what he deserves - love. Sorry that got mushy there at the end, but I don't care.
 Overall: A+
 I don't ever really give out A+'s, but London's writing style, despite its at times simple nature, is quite beautiful. It strikes a chord in the reader, and I found myself often wanting to go out in nature and just spend time alone. Also, the plot of the stories, while centering around a character that lacks the ability to speak, loses nothing for that fact. The stories themselves aren't so different, but since they were written as companions, that kind of makes sense. They have an amazing symmetry: Buck goes from being a tame dog to being a king of the wild, while White Fang finds himself tamed at last with a new master far from the wilds of his youth. Wonderful.