Other editions of book A Son of the Sun

By Richard ulaky on August 12, 2013Format: Kindle Edition Verified PurchaseI've read these tales many times. To me, they define "High Adventure." The descriptions vividly capture the locales, the dialogues delineate the wild characters. Men play to the death for fortunes and the fun of it.I've picked up some other collections of South Sea tales by some worthy writers, but London's stories have an edge in focus, and a certain literary rhythm needed to tell a good action tale.Most of these stories are not politically correct, perhaps not even by the standards of the age that they were written. It doesn't bother me and i wouldn't change a single word.In some collections I've seen, the first story, "A Son of the Son", has been cut out, and only the middle part of it, telling of Grief's origin and coming to the Pacific included as a preface. The whole first story is intact in this collection.My favorite, "The Pearls of Parlay", has been included in some of "Best of London" collections, It features one of London's excellent hurricane depictions, a cackling madman, and a scene involving hara-kiri.I love all the tales. As with most adventure, it is a wild mixture of fair play, morality, and capitalistic greed, and nihilism.

A Son of the Sun is a 1912 novel by Jack London. It is set in the South Pacific at the beginning of the 20th century and consists of eight separate stories. David Grief is a forty-year-old English adventurer who came to the South seas years ago and became rich. As a businessman he owns offices in Sydney, but he is rarely there. Since his wealth spreads over a lot of islands, Grief has some adventures while going among these islands. London depicts the striking panorama of the South seas with adventurers, scoundrels, swindlers, pirates, and cannibals.