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DESCRIPTION
Buck belonged to a judge in California, in the days of the Klondike gold rush in Alaska. Buck was a large dog, half St. Bernard and half German Shepherd. he was not one of the judge's "kennel dogs," nor was he one of the "house dogs." He walked with his master when he was outside, and hunted with the judge's sons. Buck was the king of his outside domain, but even though the judge treated him well, he did not know love.
One day the judge's Chinese cook ran up a gambling debt, and when no one was looking, he took Buck to town on a rope leash and sold him to a Klondike sled dog broker. It was then Buck learned the law of the club and fang. To get Buck into submission, the broker beat him mercilessly with a club. Buck was later sold and took to Alaska to start the menial and hard life of a sled dog.
London's writings are powerful and insightful. Buck goes from pet to work dog, from a life of relative ease to one of the harsh reaities of survival in one of the harshest environments of the world. Buck toughens up and survives, and rises to the top of the sled dog pack. Through a series of jobs where the dogs are nearly used up and destroyed, Buck is nearly killed by a family of idiots who buy them. He is saved by a man who shows him true love. Once his new master is lilled by Indians, Buck is free to join a wolf pack and becomes its leader. From beginning to end, this shows of survival of the fittest and the call of the wild on all dogs.
