Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780140187724ISBN:0140187723
Description: Very Good. Paperback With Shelf Wear To The Edges & Corners Of The Cover. Clean Pages. Great Customer Service. We Stand Behind All Of Our Products. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin, New York
Date Published: 1946
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Some peeling to clear plastic on wraps. Minor browning to pages. Creasing to wraps. Pastedown inside front wrap. Light shelf wear. Solid reading copy with clean pages. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin, New York
Date Published: 1946
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Some peeling to clear plastic on wraps. Minor browning to pages. Light shelf wear. Solid copy with clean pages. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Macmillan
Date Published: 1919
Description: Good. NO JACKET. G/NO DJ, red covers with gilt lettering, some wear to the covers at corners, spine edge faded, inscription and bookplate on inside of front cover, some slight tearing to the top of a few pages, pages slightly agetoned else interior clean. read more
"This is one of the best books I've ever read. A remarkable attempt by Jack London in dissecting a person's evolution of being as they happen upon the path of enlightenment. Martin Edin (M.E.--a hint at the author's identification with the hero?) is a roughneck sailor who is blinded and transformed by the inner and outer beauty of a woman he meets, but this is just the beginning. Looking into her eyes he caught, "glimpses of the soul, and a glimpse of his own too." His former mode of being had come to an end.
Throughout the story his journey is chronicled as an intellectual and moral advance that conducts him from the dark haunts of his former 'cave' of a life, and gives entrance into a world of truth and love that was too white hot in radiance for the sleepy bumps he used to call his eyes. He educates himself through a personal track of reading books (indiscriminately at first, but in time becoming more direct and intentional), and soon he soars above even his erudite peers in his apprehension of philosophy and scientific verities. "And so you arise from mud, Martin Edin,...and you cleanse your eyes in a great brightness, thrusting your shoulders among the stars...and wresting highest heritage from all the powers that be."
He mounts to a dizzying height of cultural development and cerebral prowess...yet he ultimately finds himself engulfed in loneliness and emptiness. He had opened the windows of the cramped quarters of his former existence, and having completed his trek of this new world he discovered, he finds that it is hermetically sealed from all outside life and anything that could possibly make him happy again. He had found truth, but lost love...and he finally wrestles with the decision about what to do with it all. His answer will shock you."
"Great story by one of the best story tellers! It was tremendously impacting reading for me. I believe this should be required reading for anyone with aspirations of becoming an author or an artist in any genre. Some say this story is partially auto-biographical.
It is an amazing story of a man's struggle to lift himself upwards towards his goals. The strength of personality protrayed in Martin Eden is phenominal! I loved his seeking of knowledge for it's own beauty. I so related to his love of knowledge and his growing understanding of the underpinnings of societies artifice and shallowness.
It is also a facinating look at social class. Some would say of the class structure of the early 1900's but there are parallels to today's world. The social constraints are just more subtle.
I highly recommend this book. Keep with it. I struggled with the part on socialism, individualism, and such. However, once past that point, the book picked up again."
"The story of a young seaman, Martin Eden is a loosely autobiographical story of London - a working class boy who through incredible personal drive became an internationally acclaimed writer.
The drive to succeed, to be respected and part of the bourgeoisie, eventually leads Eden to discover the shallowness of the culture and people he wished to emulate. He pursues the love of an upper class girl, who initially loves him despite her parents' disapproval, and then rejects him before he achieves fame and fortune. After his success, she begs him to rekindle their love.
Eventually Eden discovers he cannot accept or respect the bourgeois lifestyle. Yet he also finds he cannot retreat to the working class, as he long ago left that culture. The book ends with Eden's suicide. London, a staunch socialist, saw Martin Eden as an attack on obsessive individualism and the drive to attain money and fame."
"A well written and thought provoking book about a working class sailor, who propels himself to an affluent social status, after vigorous, or even obsessive, self study. The book is fascinating because it is semi autobiographical. The very idea of any person subjecting them to self study (sleeping on only 4 hours a night), then succeeding at the goal of becoming a writer, is amazing. Besides the glimpses into London's life, the book is engaging because of the amazing character development that Eden undergoes, evident in changes in his speech, his confidence (which reaches an arrogance at some point), and his changed perceptions of the once looked up to bourgoise class. It is these changes in perception which ultimately led to his demise. Eden seems to have underwent some kind of existential crisis, upon realizing that all his efforts and the valued uppper crust life were meaningless. Eden embraced the philosophy of "the only God is the unknowable." I feel that Eden's journey up the social ladder brought him to a certain understanding of the previously unknowable, leaving him feeling empty and suicidal. While still a working class, uneducated sailor, he had something to strive for. Yet upon realizing his goals, he realized that they were empty and base: bougeoise scholars were lacking in their range of knowledge; were inconstant as friends, treating him differently only when he gained success. Even his love, which had given him glimpses into immortality, was fickle. Although depressing, it is an interesting and thought provoking read, well worth one's time."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
