These stories aren’t for everyone. But if you’ve enjoyed his novels, you’ll find value in visiting these short stories from time to time.
High Point: The last story in the anthology–“The Pearls of Parlay”–provides the perfect conclusion.
Low Point: Common themes of many Jack London stories are brutality and futility. If you do not appreciate his writings, you may find these reads particularly unpleasant.
Author: Jack London
Publication Date: 1945
Genre: Fiction
Project Gutenberg: Several stories are available.
LibriVox: Several stories are available
Movie/TV Adaptation: Several stories are available
Jack London’s classic novel Call of the Wild was one of my favorites as a youth. His short stories don’t have the same impact, but if taken in short doses—maybe as palate cleansers between longer reads—they are substantial works.
Best Short Stories of Jack London is an anthology of some of his better tales with settings from the far North to the South Pacific. Most are rather brutal, usually pitting man against a hostile natural world.
Some stories depict futility (“To Build a Fire”); irony (“An Odyssey of the North”); friendship (“The Heathen”); or brutality (“The Wit of Porportuk”). The final story in the collection, “The Pearls of Parlay”, has an ending that might even make you laugh a little.
These stories aren’t for everyone. But if you’ve enjoyed his novels, you’ll find value in visiting these short stories from time to time.
