5:4:21 Martin Eden, a book review

I'd read only a few chapters of Jack London's Martin Eden (1909) when I wondered if this was a candidate for a quit. Which is to say the novel gets under way at a glacial pace. Here's an example of why page 7 and its brethren weren't engaging me: His mind seemed to turn, on the instant, into a vast camera obscura, and he saw arrayed around his consciousness endless pictures from his life, of stoke-holes and forecastles, camps and beaches, jails and boozing-kens, fever-hospitals and slum streets, wherein the thread of association was the fashion in which he had addressed in those various situations.

book cover

A coming-of-age novel, protagonist Martin Eden is a young seafarer (age twenty or so), who enjoys the occasional scrape and would probably have been content to keep shipping out to earn his livelihood, except the opening scene finds him visiting an upper-class home. There he finds his vision of loveliness in the person of Ruth Morse. Unattainable, not his class. Nonetheless, Ruth, a few years his senior, sees potential with his raw, youthful energy.

A slow-burn romance ensues. Something like the Pygmalion effect has Ruth, who is getting her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of California in Berkeley, coaching Martin to discard his lower-class speech and aspire to move up in class. Soon he reads nonstop to develop his intellect. Philosopher Herbert Spencer is a breakthrough and gives his life coherence.

Ruth realizes her "project" Martin is much more: He unlocks her womanhood. Romantic attraction has its way. The two often go out bicycling. Not unexpectedly, Ruth's family disapproves of her lower-class beau.

Ironically, Martin's awakening of his intellectual life, at Ruth's urging, also leads him to a radical stance. He would rather be a starving artist, a writer, than earn a respectable living by, say, working in the law office of Ruth's father. Family contempt for uncompromising Martin is inevitable.

Martin is the starving writer, accumulating rejection slips and who must decide between eating and buying stamps to send out his work again. A life not unlike Knut Hamsun's Hunger.

Because I’m of the New Criticism School--only what's in the text matters--I didn’t research outside the work and know little about Jack London's life. But this convincing portrayal of a struggling writer suggests large doses of autobiography.

So, will Martin win Ruth's hand? Well, yes and no. It’s the reader’s discovery in this compelling exploration of a writer’s life-cycle.

Martin Eden by Jack London, 1909, ebook @ https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/5/1056/, 383pp.

Image credit: gutenberg.org


Read more ...

(click to enlarge image)

Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:

.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)


more posts

4:4:21 My Second ThinkPad
3:4:21 My Witless Online Buy
2:19:21 This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, a book review
2:8:21 The Chinese Finger Trap as Trope for the Web
1:17:21 ROBOCALL, ROBOKILL
Christmas Day 12:25:20 Talkin' Bicycles
12:02:20 Before the coffee gets cold, a book review
11:27:20 Abe, a book review
11:1:20 Viz in Decline
10:29:20 A Watch Cap
10:3:20 John Dos Passos's U.S.A. Trilogy, a book review
9:19:20 milkboneboxershorts@yahoogle
Labor Day 9:7:20 The Essential Essential Workers
7:19:20 A Russian Journal, a book review
6:19:20 DUI
5:16:20 Renan's Life of Jesus, a book review
4:25:20 Leatherman Micra, a tool review
3:24:20 Survival Tool, Then & Now
3:2:20 The Plague, a book review
2:28:20 Next Car?
12:22:20 Amazon Effects
12:18:19 Modern Times, Today
11:25:19 Who Killed Civil Society?, a book review
10:25:19 Working at the Food Pantry
9:30:19 Remembering Hal Blaine (1929--2019)
8:24:19 Losing Earth, a book review,
8:18:19 Library-Genesis & Parasitic Paywalls
7:25:19 Disposal Problems
5:18:19 My New Summer Sandals
4:22:19 The 3-Speeder
3:19:19 My Jewish Bloodline
3:3:19 Does Portland Have Tenements in Its Future?
2:3:19 Garage & Garbage
1:26:19 Genial Coarseness
1:7:19 One Writer's Tools
12:20:18 Seven Ways of Looking at Pointless Suffering, a book review
12:16:18 Reading Plan 2018, a Resolution Kept
11:14:18 "A House Divided," an essay
10:27:18 How to Act Rich
9:1:18 The Self-Service Library in Bigfoot Country
8:9:18 Bicycling in the Path of Self-Righteousness
7:28:18 Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America, a DVD review
6:23:18 Why Honor Matters, a book review
5:26:18 Men Without Women, a book review
5:23:18 Haircuts
4:22:18 Why I Shred Junk Mail
4:4:18 Keeping My New Year Resolution
3:24:18 Extreme Water Conservation: Payoff
2:14:18 My Shaving Kit Comes Full Circle
1:23:18 Extreme Water Conservation
12:23:17 Lenin: The Man, The Dictator, and the Master of Terror, a book review
11:27:17 Mapping the Ether, or the Topography
of a Webpage in Real Time

11:21:17 To Save, or Spend, Change
11:13:17 uzbl & "Faster Dial-Up" Redux
10:29:17 The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement
Became the World's Largest Religion
, a book review

10:23:17 Running a Laptop off a $1 Thumbdrive
10:14:17 In Pursuit of the $1 Thumbdrive
10:5:17 Zabriskie Point
9:30:17 19th Century-Style Photographic Prints
7:2:17 DIY Prescription Eyeglasses
6:22:17 Free Geek: "helping the needy get nerdy"
5:27:17 Reading My Great Grandfather's 1868 Diary
4:27:17 The Bickford Fuse, a book review
4:14:17 Why I, Too, Will Not Fly United Airlines Again, Ever.
3:21:17 The Revelation to John
3:4:17 FUD
1:29:17 A Platonic Slide Into Tyranny
12:29:16 We Wanted Workers, a book review
12:10:16 Popular Mechanics Magazine, May 1933, a review
11:27:16 Deoderant Confession
11:10:16 Grisi Neutral [Neutro] Soap
10:24:16 Finding Solace in Camus
9:24:16 A 35-Year-Old Calculator
8:27:16 My Sanctuary
7:27:16 And the Weak Suffer What They Must?, a book review
7:7:16 Yogurt
6:12:16 The Squinty Prius
5:26:16 The Disconnect of Vote-by-Mail
5:17:16 The Still Pond
5:12:16 Marina and Lee, a book review
4:28:16 A Little Catechism Goes a Long Way
4:15:16 Au Revoir, Cloudburst Recycling
3:11:16 Screen Magnetism
2:4:16 We've Got Algorithms
1:18:16 Forgiving Portland's City Bus Line
12:28:15 The Gluten Lie, a book review
12:12:15 Ten Things I Buy at Dollar Tree
12:11:15 Bio-slime
12:3:15 My Logging Habit
11:11:15 The Internet Is Not the Answer, a book review
10:21:15 How I Write When I Write
10:8:15 Dentists
9:17:15 The Other Portland
8:20:15 Gods Without Men, a book review
8:19:15 Oregon's Most Obscure Traffic Law
7:31:15 A Small Death
7:23:15 China Shakes the World, a book review
7:16:15 Out Damn Spot!
5:31:15 My New Library Card
5:21:15 Let Me Be Frank With You, a book review
5:08:15 Portland's Rabbit Hutches
4:21:15 The Sea Lions at Astoria
3:26:15 Sacrificing for a Lower Water Bill
3:10:15 The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, a Book Review
2:5:15 Pinhead Books aka e-books
1:15:15 Good Riddance to Old-School Shaving!
12:20:14 Three Whys I Quit Reading a Book
12.12.14 the life-changing magic of tidying up, a book review
11.12.14 Oil Changes
10.29:14 Grapefruit
10.17:14 Doomsday Preppers, a TV series review
9.30:14 The Trigger, a book review
9:10:14 Clipboard People
8:23:14 Ukraine Diaries, a book review
8:21:14 My Home Darkroom on a Shoestring
7:29:14 Right Speech
6:28:14 Pacific Power's Wily Ways
6:20:14 My New Clarks Sandals
5:31:14 Portland's Water Woes, Again
5:10:14 Faster Dial-Up
4:11:14 Update on Stockpiling Light Bulbs
4:10:14 The Next 100 Years, a book review
3:15:14 A Cruel and Shocking Act, a book review
3:8:14 Ukraine: Another Revolution Gone Awry
2:9:14 The Flight (and Fight) of the Hummingbird
1:25:14 My Frugal Byways
1:20:14 Walden on Wheels, a book review
1:2:14 Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, a book review
12:27:13 Micro-Apartments
11:28:13 The Moneyless Man, a book review
11:23:13 The Lost Art of Walking, a book review
11:10:13 The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, a book review
10:23:13 The Biker Angel
10:11:13 No Self-Serve Gas in Oregon
9:28:13 A Street Cat Named Bob, a book review
9:23:13 The Life & Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, a book review
9:18:13 Autumn Leaves
8:19:13 The Worst Car Driver & Why
8:12:13 The Gardener from Ochakov, a book review
7:25:13 Le Havre by Kaurismaki
7:20:13 This Ain't California
6:27:13 The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, a book review
5:29:13 My Linux (Mis)Adventures
5:25:13 Southern Cross the Dog, a book review
5:5:13 Russian Tumbleweed
4:16:13 "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster
3:26:13 Camera-rama
3:25:13 Moore's Law
3:13:13 Grocery Shopping 
2:28:13 Razor Blade in Moonlight
1:27:13 Made in Russia: Unsung Icons of Soviet Design, a book review
1:6:13 Alleys
12:9:12 White Bread, a book review
12:4:12 Update on Old-School Shaving
11:12:12 Ten Great Buys at Dollar Tree
11:6:12 My New Russian Camera
10:29:12 Leaf Day
10:2:12 The Russian Navy in New York?
9:21:12 The Righteous Mind, a book review
9:14:12 Revolution, 1989, a book review
8:23:12 Train Whistles in the Night
8:2:12 Why I've Stockpiled Light Bulbs
7:22:12 Old-School Shaving
7:16:12 Злектроника МК-52, computer de minimus
7:4:12 Ivan's Childhood by Tarkovsky
6:21:12 The Unabomber, a modern Thoreau?
6:12:12 Do the gods exist?
6:7:12 My "Retail Therapy"
5:28:12 On Taxes, We Should Go Green
5:17:12 Portland's Trash
5:6:12 The Toaster Project, a book review
4:24:12 No Seconds
4:12:12 Portland's Runaway Utility Bill
4:8:12 The Repossession, a book review
3:30:12 How I Got Published in Mississippi Review
3:18:12 Rothko
3:9:12 The End of Money, a book review
3:1:12 gutenberg.org
2:18:12 Beauty Plus Pity, a book review
2:5:12 Kirk's Castile Soap
1:29:12 Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer, a book review
1:22:12 Thirst, a book review
1:17:12 My IBM ThinkPad 1999-2012
1:11:12 String Beans
12:22:11 Spiritual TMJ
12:16:11 1Q84, a book review
12:11:11 How Portland Became Portlandia
12:1:11 The Fixie
11:20:11 Camus' Insight
11:13:11 Old & Worthy
11:7:11 Life Is Tragic
10:31:11 A Matter of Death and Life, a book review
10:25:11 Dead Letter, Email Fatigue
10:18:11 Reinventing Collapse, a book review
10:11:11 Rereading Pirsig
10:1:11 The Sisters Brothers, a book review
9:26:11 The Great Stagnation, a book review
9:16:11 Coffee, The Affordable Luxury
9:12:11 The Genius of Value
9:5:11 Death and the Penguin, a book review

home