South Sea Tales Annotated Signet Classic

South Sea Tales is a collection of stories written by Jack London. Most stories are set in island communities, like those of Hawaii, or are set aboard a ship. Like the celebrated Klondike Tales, the stories that comprise South Sea Tales derive their intensity from the author's own far-flung adventures, conveying an impassioned, unsparing vision borne only of experience. The powerful tales gathered here vividly evoke the turn-of-the-century colonial Pacific and its capricious tropical landscape, while also trenchantly observing the delicate interplay between imperialism and the exotic.

A prolific and enduringly popular author--and an icon of American fiction--Jack London is a rewarding choice for inclusion in classrooms from middle school to graduate programs. London's biography and the role played by celebrity have garnered considerable attention, but the breadth of his personal experiences and political views and the many historical and cultural contexts that shaped his work are key to gaining a nuanced view of London's corpus of works, as this volume's wide-ranging perspectives and examples attest. The first section of this volume, "Materials," surveys the many resources available for teaching London, including editions of his works, sources for his photography, and audiovisual aids. In part 2, "Approaches," contributors recommend practices for teaching London's works through the lenses of socialism and class, race, gender, ecocriticism and animal studies, theories of evolution, legal theory, and regional history, both in frequently taught texts such as The Call of the Wild, "To Build a Fire," and Martin Eden and in his lesser-known works.

Excerpt from South Sea Yarns And the foreigner told me tales, continued Bongi wonderful tales, hard -to believe: of stone houses larger than this whole village; of strings going under the sea to other lands by which men talk, sending no ship to bear the tale; of steamers that go on land faster than a horse can run. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is viewed as the classic allegory of man's duality--the good and evil embodied in every person. But could Jekyll's "transforming draught" have been alcohol? In the Victorian era, alcohol was the topic of national debate for decades and people endlessly deliberated its proper place in society. Shadowed all his life by the cloud of alcoholism, Stevenson well knew the good and evil of strong drink. This book investigates Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an allegory of alcoholism--an interpretation that cultural change and the story's renown have perhaps obscured. The author examines patterns of language, plot, characterization and imagery to reveal how mind-altering drink figures as the story's subtext. Early chapters establish the story's literal references to strong drink and its metaphors regarding alcohol. The focus then shifts to drinking in Stevenson's life, the sociology of drink in Victorian Britain, and the portrayal of alcohol in literature, including Stevenson's other works. Possible real-life models for the Jekyll-Hyde character are explored. Subsequent chapters examine the history of Britain's temperance movement, scenes that arose from Stevenson's dreams, how the temperance movement and industrial development may have influenced the story, and the story's interpretation in Stevenson's time. An appendix further investigates the elements of Stevenson's language.

Explores the lives of survivors who were shipwrecked, banished, or abandoned during the past several centuries.