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Cover of Sea-Wolf

Sea-Wolf

Jack London

Summary

The Sea-Wolf was published in 1904, during the time of London’s great successes with The Call of the Wild , published the year before. It tells of Humphrey Van Weyden, an amateur literary critic who finds himself picked up by the sealing schooner Ghost when the ship that he is travelling on across the San Francisco Bay collides with a steamer. A new central character emerges in the form of Wolf Larson. Larson is a fierce, strong and ruthless industrialist. After the Ghost rescues some refugees near Japan on its sealing expedition, Larson and Van Weyden come into conflict over the poet Maude Brewster. In time Brewster and Van Weyden manage to escape to a desert island together. However, in time, the Ghost finds itself drawn to them half-wrecked and without a sail. Larson is now in a sorry, semi-paralysed state and even though Van Weyden and Brewster manage to find a way to sail the ship away, Larsen dies a sad and individualistic creature while Van Weyden shows his nature as a moral and decent individual.

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