White Fang
1905
- gold discoveries
- wolfdogs
- classic literature
- american adventure stories
- juvenile fiction
- fiction
- gold mines and mining
- historical fiction
- wolves
- human-animal relationships
The story
The story of a wolf/dog cross, who is raised by Indians, and becomes a deadly fighter.
What it’s like
Cold, spare prose with long stretches of open country: frozen rivers, pine forests, snow that squeaks underfoot and an unrelenting Arctic sky. Jack London writes in a plain, muscular voice that favors short declarative sentences and close, animal-eye perspective, so the Klondike wilderness feels immediate and hard-edged rather than picturesque. Mostly it is the sound of wind, dogs panting, sled runners and the thud of a body in the snow, with a rhythm that moves like a trail, steady over long distances and sharp in brief flashes of action. The mood is lonely and austere, carrying a quiet ache of hunger, cold and survival, softened by slow, hard-won trust between a wild animal and the people who gradually reach him. Violence is present and unflinching: dogfights and attacks are depicted directly and sometimes brutally, though without graphic gore. Best for readers who want a wintry, old-fashioned adventure with a strong animal protagonist, a classic that reads briskly and rewards a slow, cold-weather afternoon.
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