The Sea-Wolf by Jack London (diy ebook reader TXT) ๐
Description
After a ferry accident on San Francisco Bay, literary critic Humphrey Van Weyden is swept out to sea only to be rescued by the seal-hunting schooner Ghost. Wolf Larsen, the captain of the Ghost, is brutal and cynical but also highly intelligent, and he has no intention of returning Van Weyden to shore. Van Weyden is forced to serve on the Ghost, leaving behind his comfortable world ashore and entering into a psychological battle with Larsen on the sea.
Jack London wrote The Sea-Wolf in 1904 following the success of his previous novel The Call of the Wild, and it has gone on to become one of his most popular novels. London actually served on a sealing schooner during his early career and that experience lends a gritty realism to his depiction of life at sea. The book can be read as a psychological thriller and adventure novel, but can also be read as a criticism of Nietzscheโs รbermensch philosophy with Wolf Larsen embodying a โsupermanโ lacking conventional morality.
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- Author: Jack London
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Harrison heard the order and understood what was demanded of him, but hesitated. It was probably the first time he had been aloft in his life. Johansen, who had caught the contagion of Wolf Larsenโs masterfulness, burst out with a volley of abuse and curses.
โThatโll do, Johansen,โ Wolf Larsen said brusquely. โIโll have you know that I do the swearing on this ship. If I need your assistance, Iโll call you in.โ
โYes, sir,โ the mate acknowledged submissively.
In the meantime Harrison had started out on the halyards. I was looking up from the galley door, and I could see him trembling, as if with ague, in every limb. He proceeded very slowly and cautiously, an inch at a time. Outlined against the clear blue of the sky, he had the appearance of an enormous spider crawling along the tracery of its web.
It was a slight uphill climb, for the foresail peaked high; and the halyards, running through various blocks on the gaff and mast, gave him separate holds for hands and feet. But the trouble lay in that the wind was not strong enough nor steady enough to keep the sail full. When he was halfway out, the Ghost took a long roll to windward and back again into the hollow between two seas. Harrison ceased his progress and held on tightly. Eighty feet beneath, I could see the agonized strain of his muscles as he gripped for very life. The sail emptied and the gaff swung amidships. The halyards slackened, and, though it all happened very quickly, I could see them sag beneath the weight of his body. Then the gaff swung to the side with an abrupt swiftness, the great sail boomed like a cannon, and the three rows of reef points slatted against the canvas like a volley of rifles. Harrison, clinging on, made the giddy rush through the air. This rush ceased abruptly. The halyards became instantly taut. It was the snap of the whip. His clutch was broken. One hand was torn loose from its hold. The other lingered desperately for a moment, and followed. His body pitched out and down, but in some way he managed to save himself with his legs. He was hanging by them, head downward. A quick effort brought his hands up to the halyards again; but he was a long time regaining his former position, where he hung, a pitiable object.
โIโll bet he has no appetite for supper,โ I heard Wolf Larsenโs voice, which came to me from around the corner of the galley. โStand from under, you, Johansen! Watch out! Here she comes!โ
In truth, Harrison was very sick, as a person is seasick; and for a long time he clung to his precarious perch without attempting to move. Johansen, however, continued violently to urge him on to the completion of his task.
โIt is a shame,โ I heard Johnson growling in painfully slow and correct English. He was standing by the main rigging, a few feet away from me. โThe boy is willing enough. He will learn if he has a chance. But this isโ โโ He paused awhile, for the word โmurderโ was his final judgment.
โHist, will ye!โ Louis whispered to him, โFor the love iv your mother hold your mouth!โ
But Johnson, looking on, still continued his grumbling.
โLook here,โ the hunter Standish spoke to Wolf Larsen, โthatโs my boat puller, and I donโt want to lose him.โ
โThatโs all right, Standish,โ was the reply. โHeโs your boat puller when youโve got him in the boat; but heโs my sailor when I have him aboard, and Iโll do what I damn well please with him.โ
โBut thatโs no reasonโ โโ Standish began in a torrent of speech.
โThatโll do, easy as she goes,โ Wolf Larsen counselled back. โIโve told you whatโs what, and let it stop at that. The manโs mine, and Iโll make soup of him and eat it if I want to.โ
There was an angry gleam in the hunterโs eye, but he turned on his heel and entered the steerage companionway, where he remained, looking upward. All hands were on deck now, and all eyes were aloft, where a human life was at grapples with death. The callousness of these men, to whom industrial organization gave control of the lives of other men, was appalling. I, who had lived out of the whirl of the world, had never dreamed that its work was carried on in such fashion. Life had always seemed a peculiarly sacred thing, but here it counted for nothing, was a cipher in the arithmetic of commerce. I must say, however, that the sailors themselves were sympathetic, as instance the case of Johnson; but the masters (the hunters and the captain) were heartlessly indifferent. Even the protest of Standish arose out of the fact that he did not wish to lose his boat puller. Had it been some other hunterโs boat puller, he, like them, would have been no more than amused.
But to return to Harrison. It took Johansen, insulting and reviling the poor wretch, fully ten minutes to get him started again. A little later he made the end of the gaff, where, astride the spar itself, he had a better chance for holding on. He cleared the sheet, and was free to return, slightly downhill now, along the halyards to the mast. But he had lost his nerve. Unsafe as was his present position, he was loath to forsake it for the more unsafe position on the halyards.
He looked along the airy path he must traverse, and then down to the deck. His eyes were wide and staring, and he was trembling violently. I had never seen fear so strongly stamped upon a
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