The Call of the Wild (Macmillan's Standard Library)

231 pp. Illustrated by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull, with decorations by Charles Edward Hooper. The classic story of a sled dog during the Yukon Gold Rush. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild. London intended this book as a statement on modern life and the process of civilizing human beings.