London wrote three books about animals and one about a ship, and the animals are not really animals: Buck and White Fang are arguments about whether the wild can be survived, told from the inside of a dog.
The order below is publication order. The Call of the Wild came first in 1903, The Sea-Wolf in 1904, and White Fang in 1906 as its mirror image: a wild animal brought into civilisation rather than a tame one taken out of it.
Word counts are for the editions here. The Call of the Wild is a novella at 32,000 words and about two hours, which is why it is still the book people read first.
The Call of the Wild (1903) is 32,000 words and was written as a companion to the dog stories he was already selling; The Sea-Wolf (1904) is 107,000 and his first attempt at a psychological novel, with a captain who quotes philosophy while the ship goes to pieces; White Fang (1906) is 75,212 and reverses the first book, a wolf-dog coming into civilization instead of a dog going out of it.
Order matters less than mood. Call of the Wild is two hours and ends like a myth, White Fang is five and ends like a novel, and The Sea-Wolf is seven and contains the most interesting character he wrote, Wolf Larsen, who is neither dog nor hero. Read them in publication order if you want to watch him discover that a story about animals can carry an argument about people.
Where to start
The Call of the Wild — Two hours, one dog, one arc from California to the Yukon. It is the shortest book here and the one that explains why the other two exist.
Jack London in publication order
Numbered by the date on each book page. Word counts and reading times are for the text on this site.
| # | Year | Title | Form | Words | Reading time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1903 | The Call of the Wild | Novella | 32,000 | 2 h | Published in 1903, after serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post. |
| 2 | 1904 | The Sea-Wolf | Novel | 107,000 | 6 h | Published in 1904; a sea captain’s philosophy turned into a plot. |
| 3 | 1906 | White Fang | Novel | 75,212 | 4 h | Published in 1906, serialised in Outing magazine. |
| All three | 214,212 | 12 h |
How to read Jack London
- Shortest first. The Call of the Wild is 32,000 words; White Fang 75,212; The Sea-Wolf 107,000. The first is a single evening.
- The pair. The Call of the Wild and White Fang are deliberate opposites and read well back to back. One goes wild, the other comes home.
- The Sea-Wolf is different. It is a sea novel and a philosophical argument between a literary critic and a brutal captain. Read it after the dog books, not before.
Each book has a page here with chapter summaries, the word count, reading time and free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB downloads.
Jack London’s shelf · Classic fiction · All authors · Books by decade.