Audiobook · read by volunteers
White Fang
Jack London (1876–1916)
Read by Gord Mackenzie, Hugh McGuire, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Jessica Jeffries, jskinner, Julien Smith, Philip Kolterman, Gesine, Osmia · 25 chapters · 8 h 28
About the book
He is born in the wild, one quarter dog and three quarters wolf, and he learns early that the world belongs to the strong. White Fang follows a young animal from the frozen forests of the Yukon to a life among humans, where he must survive hunger, cruelty and the hard law of the camp. Jack London tells the story largely through the eyes of the animal itself, so that every scent, sound and blow is felt from within. Along the way the book asks a question as old as storytelling: can a creature shaped by violence learn to trust, and what does it take to change him? Twenty-five chapters, read by several volunteers across about eight and a half hours, carry you from the white silence of the North to a world he could never have imagined. A gripping and surprisingly tender adventure for readers of all ages.
Introduction
Jack London, who lived from 1876 to 1916, grew up in California and went north to the Klondike during the gold rush of the 1890s. The experience gave him the material for some of the most vivid animal and adventure stories in American literature. White Fang, published in 1906, was written as a companion to his earlier and very successful Call of the Wild, which appeared in 1903.
The two books are often paired because they mirror one another. The Call of the Wild shows a pampered dog returning to a primitive life; White Fang shows a wild animal gradually brought into the company of people. The story is told mainly from the viewpoint of the animal, which gives the narration an unusual immediacy. Themes of morality, redemption and the contest between nature and civilisation run beneath the action, and London’s own ideas about survival and environment colour the text without overwhelming it.
The book has remained popular with young and adult readers alike and has been adapted for the screen many times. It is also an interesting piece of its period, written when interest in evolution and the boundaries between animal and human behaviour was strong.
This LibriVox edition is arranged in twenty-five chapters, grouped into parts, and lasts about eight and a half hours. Several volunteers share the reading, including Gord Mackenzie, Hugh McGuire and Kara Shallenberg. Together they make a lively and varied performance. Its descriptions of the Northern wilderness, of cold, hunger and the pack, are among the most memorable in adventure writing, and the story moves quickly enough to hold younger listeners as well.
Public domain
Jack London died in 1916: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text