The Sea-Wolf is a novel written in 1904 by American author Jack London. An immediate bestseller, the first printing of forty thousand copies was sold out before publication. Of it, Ambrose Bierce wrote "The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime."
Like The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf tells the story of a soft, domesticated lad, an intellectual named Humphrey van Weyden, forced to become tough and self-reliant by exposure to cruelty and brutality. Onboard a San Francisco ferry, which collides with a ship in the fog and sinks, he is picked up ("rescued" is not the right word) by Wolf Larsen. Larsen is the captain of the seal-hunting schooner Ghost. Brutal and cynical, yet also highly intelligent and intellectual (though highly biased in his opinions as he was self-taught), he rules over his ship and terrorizes the crew with the aid of his...
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