|
Condition: New.
CHECK your CD manual BEFORE ordering. Your player must be able to play MP3 files on CD or these CDs will not play. Thank you. Audio Source : Public Domain, Librivox 1. The Call of the Wild Jack London (1876 - 1916) Buck, a magnificent mix of St. Bernard and Scotch shepherd dog, rules contentedly at Judge Miller’s place in California’s Santa Clara Valley. But 1897 brings the Klondike Gold Rush, and Buck is the perfect kind of dog to service sleds—so he is stolen and spirited away to the Northland. There he learns a hard life at the hands of tough men and competing sled dogs, which sharpen his instincts and survival skills. Thousands of miles of grueling sled travel and toil nearly wear Buck out, until chance in the form of John Thornton saves him. This “ideal master” proves the only man worthy of Buck’s unconditional love. Despite his newfound companionship, however, the growing lure of Buck’s primitive ancestral heritage, the “song of a younger world” awakened by the wild harsh beauty of his environment, vies for that love. Only chance once again resolves the tension between love and nature… and allows Buck to fulfill his glorious, bittersweet destiny. A personal note from the reader: I think that my characterization of this book follows the way I found myself reading it. For best listening experience, use headphones. (Not earbuds, unless they are of high quality!) - Summary by Jeff Clark Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction 2. White Fang Jack London (1876 - 1916) When White Fang is birthed in a cave to a wolf sire and a wolf/dog halfbreed dam, he is heir to two traditions. At first he is content to explore and learn laws of the Wild. But then his mother is caught and held by old memories of a past relationship with Man, and White Fang follows her into service with the Indians. Life among sled dogs is hardly less cruel and dangerous than living in the Wild, but brutality notches upward when his drunken master sells him to a nasty, twisted hanger-on at a riverside town of white men. He is stripped of everything soft and gentle when forced to fight to the death for a crowd of bettors. Taming this savage spirit and reclaiming the nobility within looks impossible. Fortunately, and heart-warmingly, a man arrives in White Fang's life to try. "White Fang" is often called the mirror image of Jack London's acclaimed "The Call of the Wild" in which a dog follows the reverse arc from tame to free. (summary by Mark) Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Nature & Animal Fiction 3. Martin Eden Jack London (1876 - 1916) Martin Eden (1909) is a novel by American author Jack London, about a struggling young writer. It was first serialized in the Pacific Monthly magazine from September 1908 to September 1909, and subsequently published in book form by The Macmillan Company in September 1909. This book is a favorite among writers, who relate to Martin Eden's speculation that when he mailed off a manuscript, 'there was no human editor at the other end, but a mere cunning arrangement of cogs that changed the manuscript from one envelope to another and stuck on the stamps,' returning it automatically with a rejection slip. While some readers believe there is some resemblance between them, an important difference between Jack London and Martin Eden is that Martin Eden rejects socialism (attacking it as 'slave morality'), and relies on a Nietzschean individualism. In a note to Upton Sinclair, Jack London wrote, "One of my motifs, in this book, was an attack on individualism (in the person of the hero). I must have bungled, for not a single reviewer has discovered it." (Introduction by Wikipedia) Genre(s): General Fiction 4. The Sea Wolf Jack London (1876 - 1916) The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American novelist Jack London about a literary critic, survivor of an ocean collision, who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him. - Summary by Wikipedia Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction 5. The Iron Heel Jack London (1876 - 1916) A dystopian novel about the terrible oppressions of an American oligarchy at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and the struggles of a socialist revolutionary movement. (Introduction by Matt Soar) Genre(s): General Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Espionage, Political & Thrillers 6. The Jacket Jack London (1876 - 1916) A framing story is told in the first person by Darrell Standing, a university professor serving life imprisonment in San Quentin State Prison for murder. Prison officials try to break his spirit by means of a torture device called "the jacket," a canvas jacket which can be tightly laced so as to compress the whole body, inducing angina. Standing discovers how to withstand the torture by entering a kind of trance state, in which he walks among the stars and experiences portions of past lives. The jacket itself was actually used at San Quentin at the time and Jack London's descriptions of it were based on interviews with a former convict named Ed Morrell, which is also the name of a character in the novel. For his role in the Sontag and Evans gang which robbed the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1890s, Morrell spent fourteen years in California prisons (1894-1908), five of them in solitary confinement. London championed his pardon. After his release, Morrell was a frequent guest at London's Beauty Ranch. (Introduction by Wikipedia) Genre(s): Published 1900 onward 7. The Road Jack London (1876 - 1916) Jack London credited his skill of story-telling to the days he spent as a hobo learning to fabricate tales to get meals from sympathetic strangers. In The Road, he relates the tales and memories of his days on the hobo road, including how the hobos would elude train crews and his travels with Kelly’s Army. - Summary by Barry Eads Genre(s): Essays & Short Works, Memoirs 8. South Sea Tales Jack London (1876 - 1916) The eight short stories that comprise South Sea Tales are powerful tales that vividly evoke the early 1900’s colonial South Pacific islands. Tales of hurricanes, missionaries, brotherhood and seafaring are intertwined with enslavement, savagery, and lawless trading to expose the often-barbarous history of the South Pacific islands. You will also gain unsparing insight into the life, culture and relations between natives and Westerners during this period. If you like nautical and sea adventures, if you are interested in the history of the South Pacific islands, and especially if you want to read gripping tales set in the exotic lands, then this book will be perfect for you. However, please be forewarned that it does contain racist content. (Warren Kati - compiled from several book reviews) Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Nautical & Marine Fiction, Single Author Collections 9. Moon-Face and Other Stories Jack London (1876 - 1916) Well-known and well-regarded author Jack London, known for adventurous stories of the outdoors such as Call of the Wild and White Fang shows us a broader scope of interest in his short stories which here run the gamut from darkly comic tales of murder most foul to light and frothy tales of newspapermen (and women) and from crackling sci-fi to stories of sinister shadowy organizations and spiritualism, London illustrates the many talents he holds as a writer beyond his tales of the frozen north. (Summary by Ben Tucker) Genre(s): Action & Adventure Fiction, Crime & Mystery Fiction, Horror & Supernatural Fiction |