Our reading group read this book and the six people present all enjoyed it - some more than others. The consensus - it was more of a period piece dealing with moral conflict rather than a horror story (although we all agreed it was quite disturbing). Almost all of us were disappointed in the ending. Still, we were all glad we read this very well written book.

I loved this book. It was not the horror story that I was expecting, but more of the classic tale of suspense and spine tingling situations. If you need a lot of "blood and guts", this is not the book for you. If you want a great book to read, cozied up the the fire with a cup of tea, prepare to enjoy!

This is a literate, well-written thriller in the Poe tradition. What happens to the landlords when a strange lodger insists on paying handsomely for simple lodging? And what about the terrible murders that just begin as he moves in? Could they be related? But he is so nice. And he pays so well! The plot is simple. The setting and characters are tightly drawn. But readers are in for a frightening ride!

The cold Alaskan air could burn anybody's skin and heart, but not this wolf named Buck. He showed he had heart in everything that he did. One of the many things Buck did during his three thousand miles was earning ownership from all the dogs on the team and from all of the men and women who owned him. He showed courage by pulling twenty five-pound sacks of flour for one hundred yards all by himself. This book is a good one to read if you love adventure, excitement and danger. I would recommend this book to anybody, but mostly the younger children because of its many fun adventures.

This review is by a family of three kids. Our mom read this book aloud to us. Here are our opinions:
Anne (12): I think this was a really moving book, but some of the writer's opinions, I didn't quite agree with. Jack London says that we are shaped by our society, but I believe that we can change ourselves, because we have free will.
Michelle (11): It was a great book, but I didn't like the middle portion, because White Fang was all hatred, killing all the dogs he met.
John (9): The best part was when White Fang was sitting at the shore as boats came up, waiting to kill all the dogs. I think White Fang was good and bad. He would be a good guard dog. But he was bad because he tried to kill. He never let any dog retreat to save themselves.
Mom: This was really a good book, but I recommend it as a read aloud. The reading level is way above my kids heads, but they understood it in context as a read aloud. There are some very ferocious parts that I skipped as I read, because I thought them too graphic. But the book did inspire us to discuss the idea that we are shaped by our surroundings, and that we have free will to make our way. But also, we shape other's lives by our own choices -- so we are responsible before God to others.

London's near epic tail of a wolf struggling to adapt to civilization is one marked by adventure, excitement and emotion. London flawlessly depicts the nature of wild beasts and the environment in which they live.
The storyline follows a young gray cub called White Fang, who is thrown into the midst of human culture against his will. The young cub develops into a dominant wolf and experiences confrontations beyond his vivid imagination. White Fang possesses unique and distinctive qualities for a wolf which is wonderfully detailed in the characters countless struggles.
This is truly a well-written book, with more than enough excitement to keep any apathetic reader intrigued. Although an interesting and insightful look at the nature of animals, the book's beginning can be considered a toil to accomplish and perhaps even tedious for some.
Fortunately, with the introduction of mankind, the story sweeps into action as White Fang strives to fuse with society, and the domesticated animals that come along with it. White Fang's Possession changes multiple times during the novel, keeping readers enthused and captivated. Be advised however, the exhilaration reaches a climax only halfway into the book, and never achieves the high level of excitement at any point afterward.
Despite the less absorbing material in the first and last parts of the book, Jack London's timeless account of a ferocious wolf molded by the fingers of civilization is well worth the read. The emotional attachment one attains from reading the pages of White Fang is more than enough to engage readers of all types. Don't miss out on this book.

... Do you like good writing? Are you socially aware? Do you really think the only thing good is Call of the Wild? Be prepared for the GOOD stuff.
He doesn't write the fluff. It's all socially relevant or life an death stuff. And it's all written VERY well.
Favorite Stories : the Apostate, and the 2 versions of To Build a Fire ( one the Boy Scout version, the other the real deal.)

... READ IT! LOVE IT!

I first read this collection about two years ago and still go back to selected works from time to time. If all you have read by London is "The Call of The Wild", then you have not been exposed to the depth of his writing.

Stories like "A piece of steak" and the more popular "To build a fire" show London's ability to highlight the human spirit. "Strength of the strong" has deep political connotations and probably inspired "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, a contemporary of London.

There are really so many great stories in this collection. I advise anyone to explore the work of Jack London further.

I thougth that it was a good book. There is some good action in it but at the same time its a very sad book. Although the character is a dog you can relate to him how he is a outcast and no one likes him to learning the way of the wild and becoming a good sled dog. He is a fast learner to the law of club and fang and is a strong leader. This was a good book with a great ending and i would suggest reading it.

I remember reading "To Build a Fire" in school in eighth grade. It is a fairly short story about a man travelling in extremely cold conditions who falls in a creek and, in order to stay alive, has to build a fire. It by itself is a great story, but along with "White Fang" and "The Call of the Wild," this is just an excellent book for anyone who likes life and death struggles and, well, dogs and wolves.

The book White Fang was about a wolf-dog that lived with his
owner.Then one day his master got drunk by drinking and his master
sold him to a mean man.

Frequent with biographies, the subjects by nature or design overshadow their conveyance, the lives greater than the telling. With Alex Kershaw's handling of London, the disjunctive telling of the life seems to overshadow the greatness of the subject. Kershaw provides documented anecdotal events in London's life, but these episodes are weakly connected, seemingly the paragraphs lack smooth continuity, making the reading of some sections an effort to connect the sequence of events a muddled mess. In a section of Chapter 4, "The Boy Socialist," Kershaw describes London's burn-out from cramming for entrance-exams for Berkeley, his passing with distinction, his fleeing the world by setting sail, his re-course to moor, his impulse to get drunk on shore, and then his arrival "at Berkeley in autumn 1896, in high spirits" (46-47). THEN, we're offered an ancedote about London's comeuppance in a boxing ring, a recollection by a contemporary about his attire, followed by the philosophical influence of Herbert Spencer's book (48). Kershaw's neglect of the biographer's role (and duty) to segue events, providing coherence and significance in the synthesizing of complex elemental parts to a life whole, distracts me from the subject. Yet I expect all biographies to be as great in the telling as their subjects, like Johnson's Boswell or Wolfe's Donald or Joyce and Wilde's Ellman or Genet's White. Kershaw does indeed emerge as a singular teller of a great life, and his telling is marked by fleeting absurdities involving subtly recurring images of human mastication and digestion: "Bite as he did, Jack did not fully digest the philosophies. He chose only that which tasted good, and then wolfed [sic] it down. The tastiest morsel . . . ." (48). Unfortunately, I was stuck with the tab, and here's my tip.

A brilliant book because it captures the magic of London's life and reads as if he had written the book himself - fantastic stuff, and the academics should take note - this is how you bring a man and writer alive, not kill him with turgif analysis and prose. London would be proud.

Simply the best biography I have ever read. Jack London wrote stories that pale in comparison to the excitement and drama of his life.

Never has Eliot's famous verse "Not with a bang, but a whimper" come in so handy as when applied to the last few chapters of Jack London's "The Sea Wolf". The book is superbly written, but for a book to be included in a list such as the Easton Press collection of "The 100 greatest books ever written", it should be able to hold its own not only for style, but also for the tale itself, the "myth" behind it. The Sea Wolf does a fantastic job of building such a myth for about two-thirds of the novel. Then Ms Brewster appears, and suddenly the plot peters out. What begins as a gripping, sobering account of life at sea under a ruthless captain and a brutal crew, ends as a bland, unconvincing account of childish romance and "survival". If London had only combined this book's literary richness with the heart-rending plot of The Call of the Wild or White Fang, he would be truly immortal.

The book is a classic study of two characters - the Luciferian captain Wolf Larson, and the gentleman-turned-neophyte-sailor Humphrey Van Weyden. As Hump learns to survive the brutal conditions aboard Larson's ship, the Ghost, he grows from a soft academic type to a strong and resourceful survivor. Larson, the captain, is presented as a monster with no regard for human life. Larson is intrigued with Hump and engages him in philosophical discussions, but absorbs none of Hump's basic goodness. As Hump develops into a man, Larson degenerates into a blinded, diseased, pitiful creature. Hump overcomes his adverse conditions and even finds love, while Larson self-destructs. The adventure aboard the vessel is described in vivid detail, and the author clearly knows sailing. A wonderful story!

The Sea Wolf, by Jack London is a very interesting and unique book. The story starts with a gentleman, a Mr. Humphrey Van Weyden taking a nice cruise on San Francisco Bay. All of but a moment, a simple twist of fate changes his life forever. The large ferry-boat he was on, the Martinez was suddenly struck by a steamboat in the dense and sometimes deadly San Francisco fog. As he was floating through the water he is picked up by the schooner Ghost whose captain is known infamously for his cruelty, Wolf Larsen. Soon he is thrust into a world of hard labor and death waiting around the corner always.
The book is a coming of age story, although it is unique because the one coming of age is already 35 years old. His whole life Humphrey Van Weyden never had to work for anything. He was a scholar; his job was a literature critic because his father had made all of his money for him. Once employed on the Ghost he must learn to fend for himself or be killed. But he finds that his incredibly muscled brute of a captain with no regard for human life or suffering actually has an incredible intellect. They end up discussing the philosophy of life multiple times. Soon, a pretty scholaress from the east of which Humphrey enjoyed reading very much appears on the Ghost setting a gap between Humphrey and Wolf Larsen. From then on the story takes an interesting turn and keeps you on the edge of the railing if not your seat.
If you like swashbuckling adventure, great philosophical arguments and outlooks on life unique to the brain of Jack London, even a love story here and there, then I would recommend this book against all others. I have never read anything like it at all.

This book is a great way to get started researching and learning about Jack The Ripper. It manages to give you ample information while staying objective when dealing with the many Ripper theories that have sprung up over the last 100 years. If you are looking for the facts behind the myth, then this is the book for you.

If you have an interest in Jack the Ripper/Victorian London, but are somewhat overwhelmed by the flood of theories, counter-theories and media sensationalism (like myself), this book is essential. The authors have laid out the Chronology of the five murders (the "accepted" Ripper killings), along with bios of the victims, and their autopsies. The most interesting part though is the chapter relating theories of Jack's identity, by the Ripperologists themselves. The authors don't critique these theories, simply provide them for the reader's edification. A small criticism might be that the theories aren't cross-referenced. Some of the Ripperologists destroy other theories published in the book, and it becomes confusing to determine what the "current" theory is regarding Jack's identity.
Overall though, for those with that general interest noted above, or simply want a single-volume compendium of Ripper literature, this book is highly recommended. I would suspect that those with a deep knowledge of Ripper theories, and the details of the murders might find this a rehash...

As I read this book for the first time I havent't got any knowledge about Jack the Ripper, but after this book I've a got a good view and description about the Ripper and London in the 19th century. In some sections of the book, I felt like ''overinformed'' by the pathological descriptions, you almost must have studyed some semestras in medicine to understand everything. On the other side , it comes along very well,without pictures, because of the explicit descriptions. You are impressed by all of these theories ,given in the book, and the sections are logically seperated from each other. At the end, a good book for a beginner.

The best thing you can say about Jack Maggs is that Peter Carrey has fashioned a darker, more realistic, more interesting Dickensian London for the reader to inhabit. Although the plot takes a long, uneventful time to get set up, the periodic flashbacks are brilliantly executed. The story told within the flashbacks of Jack Magg's brutal childhood were by far the best part of the novel for me. Carrey's descriptions of poverty, burglary, and depravity were vividly recounted to great effect. The other outstanding element is the creative portrayals for the secondary characters. Tobias Oats in particular was well fleshed out and had a life of his own. The plot is well executed and relatively complex, but not as compelling or intricate as Dicken's best or Paliser's 'The Quincunx'. The story unfolds in a somewhat flat manner and lacks the urgency one would expect. Overall, worth the read, if for no other reason than to soak up the long ago London world Carrey has painstakingly re-created.

I always expect the same things from Peter Carey novels: great characters, poetic language, and an imaginative premise. Jack Maggs delivers on each of these. His protagonist is a criminal with a painful past, but a good heart -- not exactly original, but Carey brings such life to his creation the reader can feel Maggs' presence on every page. His pain is a real thing, and drives the novel. It's also interesting to watch him enter the lives of a few ordinary Londoners, and change their paths, and even their personalities, simply by virtue of his presence.

Tobias Oates (intended as a fictional Charles Dickens) is also very well developed, and very human. Carey has a talent for making his characters capable of both good and evil, and by the novel's end, it's difficult to pin any of his cast as either heroes or villains.

While this novel is based on a character in Charles Dicken's Great Expectations, I think its unfair to compare the two books. Jack Maggs is not a Dickens rip-off: the characters, the voice, the language, the humour, are Carey's own. There has been an attempt by Carey to sketch a London similar, in spirit, to Dickens', but this is a book with its own emotional centre, and it stands on its own.

After reading some of the reviews here, I was surprised to find that the novel did not drag, and that it quickly became a page-turner. The plot steadily builds, with several well-placed and effective twists to keep things interesting (and unpredictable). Carey has managed, again, to lead me into a climax I could not predict, and while the scene had incredible potential, I think it lacks. He seems to rush through it. This is not Carey's best novel (see Bliss) but it is very good indeed, and worth reading if only for Carey's incredible use of the language, which is economical, poetic, and poignant, and also for the characters, which in many cases rise above the subject matter.

This is the first Peter Carey book I have ever read, and it certainly won't be the last. Carey skillfully (& loosely) bases his latest novel on the Dickens' classic "Great Expectations". But whilst the character of Jack Maggs is obviously based on Dickens' Magwitch, it would be an over-simplification to say that Jack Maggs IS Magwitch.

You see, Carey skillfully uses the character of Jack Maggs in order to re-write the character of Magwitch. It's as if Carey felt the need to write his latest novel because of his anger at Dickens' often cold and distant attitude towards Magwitch in "Great Expectations". And Carey is justified in being angry! After all, Carey is Australian and Magwitch was one of the first "Australian" characters in novelistic fiction. But in Dickens' English hands Magwitch is just a pitiable villain. Contrast this with Carey's deeply complex, but ultimately admirable hero, Jack Maggs.

Maggs, unlike Magwitch, is someone we Australians can be proud to call an "Australian".

The subject of Jack London's alleged racism comes up from time to time. My personal belief that he lived in a racist time, and accepted contemporary views uncritically, neither promoting nor opposing them. One can easily assemble evidence either way. I don't believe that a real racist could written stories showing empathy for the downtrodden in the way that London does in "The Chinago," "Koolau the Leper," and "The Mexican."

This being said, if one wanted to make Jack London out to be a racist, "Adventure" would certainly be a good place to start. There are passages in it that are so dreadful that you don't know whether to laugh or to cry. They are so bad that I am very reluctant even to quote them. One of the less offensive:

"'Jump!' he shouted fiercely at the end, his will penetrating the low intelligence of the black with dynamic force that made him jump to the task of brushing the loathsome swarms of flies away."