陈楚楚 2010124320

e

Outline• Life Story a. occupation b. main experiences c. two marriages d. death e. business f. political view • Works Martin Eden• Famous remark

Part 1 Life Story

SpyJournalist

Jack London (John Griffith London ) 1876-1916

1.1Main Occupation:

Novelist

Journalist

Essayist.

Short story writer

American

His life /the power of will successful writer/ in

America /the early 20th Century /a pioneer /in the burge

oning world of commercial magazine fiction/

first fiction writers to obtain worldwide

celebrity /a large fortune

Achievements:

• Born /San Francisco /January 12, 1876/ an illegitimate son.

• Before 10: Work / study• 13: a cannery• 15: captain /an oyster-pirate( 蚝贼 ) boat• 17: venture /on a sealing ship• 19:high school Quickly completing high school education in

Oakland High School ( self-educated)• 20:A special student /the University of

California /one semester.• Joined /great Klondike gold rush• Joined Socialist Labor Party/ both Marxism /

Nietzsche / Darwinism. • Died /November 22, 1916

1.2Main experiences

1.3Marriages

• First marriage (1900–1904)

Jack with daughters "Becky" (left) and Joan (right)

Bessie Maddern London and daughters, Joan and Becky.

In London/ Elizabeth Bessie Maddern /April 7, 1900 / two daughters/divorced in

1904.

Marriages

• Second marriage (1905-1916)

Charmian Kittredge

/in 1905 / no child

1.4 The death

• on November 22, 1916

/ a sleeping porch /a cottage /his ranch

/many older sources/his death as a suicide

/uremia([juəlri:miə], 尿毒症 )

/in extreme pain and taking

morphine （吗啡）

Grave of Jack London

1.5 Business

• great passion /agriculture/well on the way of creating a new model /ranching through his Beauty Ranch

1.5.1 Beauty Ranch (1905–1916)

• 1,000 acre (4 km²) ranch in Glen Ellen Sonoma County, California

The old Winery Cottage, where London died (in the left sleeping porch) on November 22, 1916

1.5.2 Snark

The Snark in Australia, 1921

1.5.3Wolf House

• Spent three years• Cost more than 80 thousand dollars• Burt at 2 am the second day after it was

completed in Aug.1913

1.6 Political view

joined the Socialist Labor Party /April 1896 /Acclaimed withdrawing/estrangements with other socialists

Part 2

works

2.1 Works an assiduous and prolific writer / kept

writing/ at lest 1000words everyday / writing

career /less than 20 years /produced a large

amount Novelettes 19 Short Stories 150 Plays 3 Reportages ， Essays and Theses 47Total :9million words

Works & Three Periods• Before 1900 ： To the Man on Trail 《为赶路的人干杯 》

• The Odyssey of the North 《北方的奥德赛》 1899• 1900—1910 ：“ North Story” The Son of the Wolf 《狼之

子》 The Iron Heel 《铁蹄》 1908 The Sea-wolf 《海狼》 1904 Martin Eden 《马丁 . 伊登》 1909

Burning Daylight 《天大亮》 1910(turning point)

• After 1910 : “Pacific short story ” The House of Mapuhi 《 马普希的房子》 1911

“ Social problem novel”The Mexican 《墨西哥人》 1913

Other Major Novels

• The Call of the Wild 《野性的呼唤》 1903• The People of the Abyss 《深渊中的人

们》 1903• White Fang 《白牙》 1906• Love of Life 《热爱生命》 1906• How I become a Socialist 《我怎样成为社会党

人》• The War of the Classes 《阶级之间的战争》• What Life Means to Me 《生命对我意味着什

么》• Revolution 《革命》• Under the Deck Awnings 《在甲板的天蓬下》• White Wolf 《白狼》

White Fang

The sea-wolf

The Call of the Wild

In 1903 he wrote “The Call of the Wild”, an all-time best seller. This book made him immediately popular, and his name was soon known all over the county

Martin Eden

Love of Life

2.2 Writing Style

• Forceful and colorful• Subjectivity /enthusiasm• Naturalism /Romanticism• Limitations: formless/ clumsy /vigorous

style/stiff / stereotyped characters /dialogues• considered as “Father of American Proletarian

Literature”

2.3 2.3 Martin Eden

Major characters

Summary

Themes

2.3.1 2.3.1 Main characters

• Martin Eden

• Ruth Morse

• Lizzie Connolly

• Russ Brissenden

• in Oakland/ in the bottom of

• society of 20th century

• an impoverished sailor

/pursues, obsessively and

aggressively /dreams of

education and literary fame.

2.3.2 Summary

• As education progresses/

/increasingly distanced from his

working class background and

surroundings.

• the main driving force: – his love for Ruth Morse

• Martin Eden: – a rough, uneducated sailor from a

working class background

• the Morse: – a bourgeois family

• The literary establishment

doesn’t discover Eden’s

talents as a writer.

• The publishers and the

bourgeois are finally at his

feet .

• The novel ends with Eden

committing suicide by

drowning

– a detail which undoubtedly

contributed to what researchers

call the 'biographical myth' that

London's own death was a

suicide.

2.4 Themes

• Social Class

• Socialism

• Individualism

• Love

• Disillusionment

• Suicide

• Success

• American

dreams

• Hypocrisy

• Vanity

• Martin Eden

– rejects socialism (attacking it

as ‘slave morality’)

– relies on a Nietzschean

individualism

– then attacks individualism

Individualism VS Socialism

Although Jack London was a socialist, he

invested the semi-autobiographical character

of Martin Eden with a strong individualism.

Part 3 Jack’s famous remark

• Youth is always young and elderly will only grow old. 青年总是年青的，只有老年才会变老。 　

• The only way to get smart is to buy with the youth . 得到智慧的惟一办法，就是用青春去买。

“ I would rather be ashes than dust! 我宁愿化作灰烬，也不要做尘埃。I would rather be a superb meteor,every atom of me in magnificent glow,than a sleepy and permanent planet.我愿做一颗华丽的流星，愿我的每一颗粒都呈现那动人的光辉，而不做那沉睡并永远不灭的行星。The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”人的恰当功能是活，而不是生。我不会用延长日子，把时光浪费，我要利用时间。