Adventure · Sea
The Sea-Wolf
A gentle literary critic is pulled from the sea by a brilliant, brutal captain who makes him a cabin boy.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Picked up by the Ghost
Humphrey van Weyden is a wealthy literary critic who has never done a day’s physical work. When his ferry sinks in the fog off San Francisco, he is fished out of the water by the Ghost, a sealing schooner bound for the North Pacific, and its captain refuses to put him ashore. Wolf Larsen is strong, brilliant, self-educated and cruel, a man who reads philosophy and believes life is cheap. He makes Humphrey the cabin boy, calls him Hump, and sets out to see what he’s made of. Jack London, who had sailed on a sealing schooner at seventeen, published it in 1904.
Why it works for learners
The book has two kinds of language, and both are valuable. On deck there’s the physical vocabulary of ships, work, weather and danger: ropes, sails, decks, storms, fists. In the captain’s cabin there’s argument: Larsen and Humphrey debate life, morality and power, and those debates are excellent practice in following, and making, an argument. The contrast between the two men is clear from the first chapter, and the tension never lets up. Be warned that Larsen’s ship is a violent place, and London doesn’t soften it.
Which level to start at
B2 is the natural level. The plot is straightforward, but the arguments are the heart of the book, and they need room. B1 gives you the sea story in clear form if you want it sooner. At C1 and C2 you’ll meet London’s full, muscular style and a great deal of sailing vocabulary; tap any term to see what it means in its sentence.
Read next
- Moby-Dick, another obsessive captain and his crew
- Captains Courageous, a gentler apprenticeship at sea
- The Call of the Wild, London’s best-known story of survival