Call of the Wild

Jack London (1876–1916) was born in California and led a restless life as a sailor, a labourer and a prospector. In the late 1890s he joined the rush to the Klondike. He found little gold, but he came home with a store of stories, and The Call of the Wild, published in 1903, was the first to make his name known to a wide public. The writing is lean: London drives the action with short sentences and strong verbs, and he rarely stops to explain what the scene itself can show. That economy suits the ear remarkably well. It also rewards a second listening, when the details of the trail, the dogs’ hierarchy and the changing landscape stand out more clearly against the story’s momentum.

The book is a short novel, but it carries a great deal. It is an adventure on the trail, an animal story told from the dog’s side, and a meditation on instinct, hardship and survival. London was reading the science and philosophy of his time, and the tale reflects an age fascinated by the struggle for existence. At the same time it is simply gripping storytelling, with a clear, muscular style that has kept it in print and in classrooms for over a century. It is often mistaken for a children’s book, though its violence and its subject matter are those of an adult novel.

This recording follows the six chapters of the text and lasts about three hours and twenty minutes. Four LibriVox volunteers share the reading.

It is worth hearing today because it is concise, atmospheric and surprisingly modern in its concerns, and because the cold, the silence and the endless trail translate beautifully into sound.