About this title: THE CALL OF THE WILD, Jack London's masterpiece, tells the gripping tale of a dog named Buck who is wrenched out of his life of ease and luxury to become a sled dog in Alaska. Drawing on his wolf heritage, Buck must fight for survival in an alien environment.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780439227148ISBN:0439227143
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 192 p. Scholastic Classics. Audience: Children/juvenile. read more
Description: Good. Nice copy! INT: book plate inside front cover, slightly tanned pages, no rips, tears, bent page corners, or markings of any kind. EXT: edge wear, cover creases & scratches. read more
"Good book, some parts i didnt lke to read because they were sad, fights and deaths. But i loved the main point of the book. Its about a domestic dog that loses its home and has to run trails in the artic, although he lost his comfortable home, he finds literally the "call of the wild' from his ancestors. Makes me wish i could do it."
"I just started to read it yesterday. Only on the third chapter. It's kinda sad because of all the deaths. I mean I know that their just dogs but its sad all the same."
"Call of the Wild is the classic story of a dog named Buck, a powerful half St. Bernard, and half sheepdog. Buck was living an average life in California with his owner, Judge Miller, until gold was discovered in Canada. Buck was then kidnapped by his owner's gardener and sold to dog traders who taught him to obey by abusing him. He was eventually shipped north to the Klondike where he witnessed cruelty to the dogs around him.
Buck becomes the property of two mail carriers, who work for the Canadian government. He learns to adjust to his life as a sled dog, and relearns his wild instincts by learning to fight, hunt for food, and sleep under the snow at night. Eventually, after fighting with and killing another dog, Buck becomes the lead dog for the sleds. The mail carriers force Buck and the other dogs to carry loads much heavier than they can accommodate, and eventually their poor planning takes its toll on the dogs and the humans. They begin to run out of food and only a few of the dogs survive to John Thornton's camp. Hal, one of the American gold hunters who now had Buck and the other dogs which had survived the original trip tired to force the dogs towards the gold, against the recommendation of John Thornton. Luckily for Buck, Thornton keeps him, as Hal and the other dogs die when they fall through ice which is too soft.
Thornton then becomes Buck's master and they take care of and become devoted to each other. Buck saves Thornton's life and stays with him, but continues to feel the pull of the wild. When Thornton is killed by Yeehat Indians, Buck attacks them, killing several of them. He then heads back out into the wild, where he becomes the leader of a wolf pack. Every year of his life afterwards, Buck goes back to where his master died and mourns him, before returning to the wild.
This is a good book, and the author showed great emotions throughout. The difficulty of the journey and the cruel treatment of the dogs make this a difficult book to read in parts. However, it is a quick read that keeps your interest. Although the book is written from Buck's perspective, it is not difficult to imagine what the animal is going through. It was interesting to watch Buck change from a domesticated dog into a wild one, with an unbreakable spirit and his fight for survival. I would recommend this classic to anyone over twelve, but not to younger readers."
"There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature; and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew and that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.""
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.