211
only for his money and fame. His despair over her inability to love causes him to lose faith in human nature.
He also suffers from class alienation, for he no longer belongs to the working class, while he rejects the
materialistic values of the wealthy whom he worked so hard to join. He sails for the South Pacific and
commits suicide by jumping into the sea. Like many of the best novels of its time,
Martin Eden
is an
unsuccess story. It looks ahead to F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby
in its revelation of despair amid
great wealth.
Jack London was an American writer whose work combines
powerful realism and humanitarian sentiment. He was born in San
Francisco, California. After completing grammar school he worked at
various odd jobs, including canning salmon, shoveling coal in a
power station, and illegally harvesting oysters. London eventually
abandoned regular work to travel the country in search of new
experiences. At one point during this time London was arrested and
briefly imprisoned for vagrancy. His experiences as a wanderer and in
jail led him to embrace the philosophy of socialism and sparked his
desire to become a professional writer. In 1895 London returned to
California to continue his education, first at Oakland High School and
later at the University of California at Berkeley. During this time he
published his first stories and developed a reputation as a socialist
activist.
In the late 1890s London left college to join the gold rush in Alaska’s Klondike region. After he
returned to the San Francisco area he began to write about his experiences. A collection of his short
stories,
The Son of the Wolf,
was published in 1900. London authored more than 50 books during his brief
but colorful life. His vivid and graphic writing style made him very popular around the world, and his
works were translated into a variety of languages. Many of London’s best books and stories, such as
The
Call of the Wild,
examine the reversion of a civilized creature to a primitive state. Other important works
by London include
People of the Abyss
(1903), a nonfiction book about poverty in London, England;
The
Sea-Wolf
(1904), a novel based on the author's experiences on a seal-hunting ship;
The Iron Heel
(1908),
a science fiction book about a capitalist dystopia;
Martin Eden
(1909), an autobiographical work of
fiction about a writer's life;
John Barleycorn
(1913), a novel drawing from London's real-life struggle
with alcoholism; and
The Star Rover
(1915), a collection of related stories dealing with reincarnation (
see
Transmigration). London died on his California ranch at the age of 40. Although for many years it was
believed that London killed himself, his death certificate cites uremia and nephritis. The true cause of his
death remains a subject of uncertainty and debate.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: