Dogs can be far nobler creatures than some of the two-footed beings they’re unfortunate enough to come into contact with. This, what has been called “the greatest dog story ever written”, is set in the Klondike in the Yukon, the barren icy wastes of northern Canada where gold was discovered in 1896. Jack London knew this world intimately.
The hero is Buck, a cross between a St Bernard and a sheepdog, who starts life as the much-loved pet of the Miller family in California. But this happy life isn’t to last because he’s stolen, beaten into obedience and then sold as a pack dog in the Klondike. (The gold rush greatly increased demand for such animals and many unfortunate dogs were pressed into service and brutally treated.)
Forced to fight for his life against Spitz, the leader of the particular pack he joins, he wins and becomes leader of the team but his life doesn’t improve; as he’s passed from one cruel owner to the next, his existence is one of callous mistreatment. The ghastly specimens that so maltreat him are insults to the human race but, alas, are all too common.
Finally unable to take any more, Buck attacks one of his owners and is almost beaten to death. He’s rescued by John Thornton, a gold prospector, who treats him with kindness. Thornton is one of the few lights in an otherwise dark human domain. Buck well repays Thornton’s kindness: he saves him from drowning and wins money for him by pulling a greatly overloaded sledge in a bet. But in the meantime, he’s more and more attracted to the wilderness, mixing at times with wolves in the forest.
Native Canadians attack Thornton’s camp and Buck fights fiercely to protect his master. He succeeds in driving them off but then finds that Thornton has been killed. He stays to guard the camp and fights against the wolves that move in. But the call of the wild proves too strong for him and he abandons his link with mankind and joins the wolf pack.
A huge success when published, the book continues to attract readers because the harsh world London creates is so convincing.
