The Call of the Wild and White Fang

Presented together in one volume, these are two of the greatest and most popular animal stories ever written. Even to designate them as "animal stories" seems to undervalue them, because these tremendous works are so much more than mere children's tales, although they are admittedly still greatly loved by the young. Penned by Jack London at the beginning of the twentieth century, the first, The Call of the Wild, tells the story of Buck, a domestic dog who is kidnapped from his home in California and forced to pull sleds in the Arctic wastes. In the second, White Fang, a cross-breed that is three-quarters wolf and one quarter dog, endures considerable suffering in the Arctic before being tamed by a white American and taken to live in California. The two narratives are remarkable for the vividness of their descriptions and the success with which London imagines life from a nonhuman perspective.