![]() ![]() The “aha” moments flow organically from the story and thus become the reader’s and not the author’s. To his credit, London avoids the moralizing that sometimes crippled fiction of this era. The author is content to lay out the story, plain and simple, and let the reader draw any conclusions, moral or otherwise. ![]() The story is laced with a rich vocabulary of nautical terms and sailor’s language-one of the many gifts London brings to these pages. ![]() It is the sea-crazed Dane who succumbs to his own evil nature. Van Weyden and Maud overcome the multiple obstacles and threats posed by Wolf Larsen. In the midst of this heavily testosterone-flavored narrative is Maud Brewster, a well-mannered young lady who becomes romantically engaged with Van Weyden and thereby rouses the somnolent beast within Larsen. His foil is the sea captain Wolf Larsen-a murderer, narcissist, bully, and madman. The story revolves around Humphrey Van Weyden, an upper middle class youth who seeks “adventures” and “experiences” as seasoning for the writer he hopes to become. Set in the Pacific Ocean, the book reveals how raw nature can cause a human being to lose their grip on reality. It is the story of a man whose struggles with good and evil result in his demoralization, disintegration, and death. The Sea-Wolf is Jack London’s journey deep into the heart of darkness and madness that each person carries within themselves. ![]()
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