Jack London: Martin Eden – by Franklin Walker
by Franklin Walker
June 5, 2019
Martin Eden is not only one of Jack London’s best books; it is also one of his most puzzling ones. It was published in 1909, when London was thirty-three years old and had phenomenally won a world audience with such novels as The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and The Iron Heel, and it appeared at what was to prove to be the very peak of his career. The curious thing is that Martin Eden tells the exciting story of how a writer made good, overcoming in a spirited way all sorts of odds, but it also tells of how that writer, having reached heights beyond his fondest hopes, kills himself in despair. Therein lies the puzzle that has baffled readers and critics ever since the book appeared.
