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Title: Martin Eden by Jack London ISBN: 0140187723 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6
Rating: 4
Summary: Not his best, but close enough
Comment: "Martin Eden" is my fifth foray into the works of Jack London. Although I don't find the excitement within that was apparent in "Sea Wolf," the passion is certainly evident. I have read that "Martin Eden" inspired more bad writers to sequester themselves with paper and pencil in unheated attics than any other book, and it is easy to determinewhy. Eden's obsession with learning and then creating the immortal printed word -- after falling for a woman above his class in society/socialist-conscious San Francisco -- is a powerful force that London expounds convincingly. Then, without warning, the sage advice "be careful what you wish for, it may come true," rears its ugly head. London also includes a line about ghosts that should be a classic, but isn't, and his description of a suicide ranks as the best of its kind. A WORD OF WARNING: Do not read the foreward until after. It tells too much of the story and robs some of the author's intended suprises. This is unforgivable. May the publisher rot in hell.
Rating: 5
Summary: The most underrated book I've ever read
Comment: If there's such a thing as an American canon, this book should be there. Everytime I recommend this book to a friend, they ask, "Who's it by?" "Jack London." "Jack London! The author of call of the wild?"
Well, yes. He's the one, but wait!, this book is like nothing else Jack London has ever written, and bears scant semblance to his Sea Wolf or Call of the Wild. In short, this is serious literature (advance apologies to Call of the Wild and Sea Wolf fans), and it's worth reading.
This book reminded me a lot of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome (another wonderful book). Both begin with hope, engage in change, and end in pathos. Martin Eden is a self-educated, self-made man (see why I say it should be in the American canon?) who attempts to garner the love of a young college student who pushes him out of what she sees to be his stifling chrysalis and become more like her and her fellow intelligentsia. The plot thickens when he does not only this, but surpasses them all in erudition with a passionate, eager mind, a more eager heart, and lots of hard work, all in the name of love. And then in the book's climax, he decides to ... oh, I can't tell you that. You'll hate me, and I'll ruin the book for you.
What I can tell you, however, is that if you go to a bookstore, and pay full price for this book, you'll love it and feel that you've gotten a good bang for your buck. If you get it at a discount, you'll walk away feeling as though you've five-finger discounted this little gem.
Read it ... you'll be glad you did.
Rating: 5
Summary: Martin Eden: A Journey into the Interior
Comment: If you are looking for pleasant summer reading, pass this one by. It ain't pretty and it ain't pleasant, but it ranks as one of the Great American novels of all time. Was it autobiographical? You betcha. More so than most airbrushed autobiographies of our time. Jack London was the first author to awaken in me the love of the printed word. I was 9 years old. The title that awakened me was Call of the Wild. I, like Marcia and everyone else, thought that Jack London was just an aborigine, wandering around in the vast metropolis and utterly lost. Years later I read The Sea Wolf, and my opinion changed.
I no longer thought of Jack as an aborigine, but as a refined young man, rudely abducted from the civilized world and forced to accept the law of the strongest. Later still, I read Martin Eden, and I was devastated by the tortured visions of that same young man who was tranfigured by that experience and who was no longer acceptable as a member of civilized society. There's a whole lot of bitterness in Martin Eden, folks! And, the more I read of Jack's life, the more I am convinced that it is autobiographical. The fact is that Jack became a monster. At the same time, he became the most successul novelist of his time. In terms of money, we can only gasp at the financial success he enjoyed. He turned out novel after novel, and each of them was gobbled up by a hungry public. In the end, the SAME PEOPLE who had rejected him because of his crude mannerisms and calloused knuckles sought him out because of his MONEY. Do you really want the brutal truth about Jack London? And are you really prepared to weep for one of America's great sons? If so, then read Martin Eden. Otherwise, pass it by.
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Title: The Sea Wolf by Jack London ISBN: 0553212257 Publisher: Bantam Classic and Loveswept Pub. Date: 1992 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: John Barleycorn (Modern Library Classics) by Jack London ISBN: 0375757929 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 11 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The People of the Abyss: Centenary Edition by Jack London, Brigitte Koenig ISBN: 0745318029 Publisher: Pluto Press Pub. Date: 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Iron Heel by Jack London, H. Bruce Franklin ISBN: 1556520719 Publisher: Lawrence Hill & Co Pub. Date: 1990 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Klondike Tales (Modern Library Classics) by Jack London, Gary Kinder, Christopher Gair ISBN: 037575685X Publisher: Princeton Review Pub. Date: 13 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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