Ranging from traditional approaches to the most contemporary perspectives, such as feminist and gender studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature offers readers a variety of clearly articulated approaches to interpreting literature. This thor[...]

Jack London was born a working-class, fatherless Californian in 1876. In his youth he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling West Coast - by turns playing the role of hobo, sailor, prospector, and oyster pirate. He spent his brief life rapidly accumulating the experiences that would [...]

Impressed into service aboard the seal-hunting "Ghost," Humphrey Van Weyden becomes an unwilling participant in a tense shipboard drama. With a wary eye, he watches the vessel's abusive captain, Wolf Larsen, an enigma who can abandon two sailors on the open water, then return to reading the moral ph[...]

Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that "the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." Newsboy, factory "work beast," gang member, hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader, war correspondent, utopian farmer, and world-famous adventurer: London is the closest thing Americ[...]