Other editions of book White Fang

This is the story of a wild dog's journey toward becoming civilized in the Canadian Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, at the end of the 19th Century. White Fang is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild, about a kidnapped civilized dog becoming a wild wolf. The book is characteristic of London's precise prose style and his innovative use of voice and perspective. Much of the novel is written from the view-point of the animals, allowing London to explore how animals view humans. White Fang examines (sometimes graphically) the violent world of wild dogs and the equally violent world of supposedly civilized humans. The book also explores complex themes of morality and redemption.

Born in the Yukon, White Fang is a Wolf, or mostly Wolf - his father was a Wolf, his mother was half dog, but for all intents and purposes it was a Wolf. He looked like Wolf, fought like a Wolf, and thought like a Wolf. Early in his cubhood he was captured by an Indian, and raised as a sled dog, the Wolf nearly beaten out of him, but not quite. Subjected to human brutality and a very little human kindness he becomes a deadly fighter until rescued by a wise and kindly man. A heartwarming story.

White Fang PART I CHAPTER I--THE TRAIL OF THE MEAT Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness--a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild. But there _was_ life, abroad in the land and defiant. Down the frozen waterway toiled a string of wolfish dogs. Their bristly fur was rimed with frost. Their breath froze in the air as it left their mouths, spouting forth in spumes of vapour that settled upon the hair of their bodies and formed into crystals of frost. Leather harness was on the dogs, and leather traces attached them to a sled which dragged along behind. The sled was without runners. It was made of stout birch-bark, and its full surface rested on the snow. The front end of the sled was turned up, like a scroll, in order to force down and under the bore of soft snow that surged like a wave before it. On the sled, securely lashed, was a long and narrow oblong box. There were other things on the sled--blankets, an axe, and a coffee-pot and frying-pan; but prominent, occupying most of the space, was the long and narrow oblong box.

White Fang is a wolfdog who was born wild but becomes more dog-like after being domesticated by a Native American chief named Gray Beaver. Traveling through the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, White Fang struggles for survival. White Fang must overcome bouts of hunger, and survive attacks by a bulldog, a lynx, and several packs of wolves.Much of White Fang is written from the viewpoint of the canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans. White Fang examines the violent world of wild animals and the equally violent world of humans. The book also explores complex themes including morality, conformity, and redemption.This edition is limited to 1,000 copies.

"With night came horror. Not only were the starving wolves growing bolder, but lack of sleep was telling upon Henry. He dozed despite himself, crouching by the fire, the blankets about his shoulders, the axe between his knees! He awoke once and saw in front of him, not a dozen feet away, the whole pack. Fully a score of them, staring hungrily at him. They reminded him of children gathered about a spread table awaiting permission to eat. And he was the food they were to eat! He wondered how and when the meal would begin."