The author of such masterpieces as The Call of the Wild and White Fang, Jack London is one of American literature’s most revered writers. Martin Eden, London’s semi-autobiographical tale, follows a young man who rises out of poverty to pursue a dream of literary and intellectual achievement.

 

A poor, rough-spoken sailor with little schooling, Martin Eden longs to become an intellectual. He wishes not just to read poetry, but to understand it and talk about it with others. Then he meets Ruth, a wealthy young woman, and vows to better himself so he may be allowed to marry her. But when—after years of self-education—Martin finally achieves success as a writer, he discovers that life in the upper class is not what he hoped it would be.

 

Upton Sinclair called this elegiac tale “one of Jack London’s greatest works.”