On the surface, The Sea Wolf is a story about seal hunting expeditions to the Bering Sea. Beneath the surface, this book is an allegory about the nature of a human's life.

The Sea Wolf is one of those novels that explores philosophy as its primary purpose. The idea is to take abstract philosophical ideas, and make the philosophies come to life by putting them into interesting circumstances. So while there's an adventure tale on the surface of The Sea Wolf, that story is there merely to provide examples of the philosophical points. So don't be surprised if the adventure falters from time to time in favor of developing the philosophical examples. In the Sea Wolf, action is included primarily for character development rather than the reader's visceral entertainment.

In this book, Jack London was obviously fascinated by the new theories of Social Darwinism that grew out of Darwin's Origin of Species, indicating that the most capable people survived and prospered while the least capable fell by the wayside. Another influence was Nietzsche's concept of the amoral superman. A third influence was Milton's poem, Paradise Lost, and the role that Lucifer played in that story. To explore these points, Mr. London developed Captain Wolf Larsen, owner of the seal hunting schooner, Ghost. Captain Larsen is as amoral and strong in body and mind as you can imagine. Think of him as 100 percent traditional masculinity.

For a counterpoint, Mr. London looked to the traditional concepts of the Christian gentleman. Such a man is concerned with matters of the soul, helping others, ideas, and pursuing perfection. Taken to its extreme, such a man becomes almost like a woman. To develop this contrast, Mr. London uses the character of Humphrey van Weydon (known as "sissy" van Weydon to his friends while growing up) who is a literary critic.

The story evolves through putting Humphrey van Weydon into Larsen's world. The book's key theme is that a true man combines the virtues of a Christian gentleman with the masculine strength and independence of his sex's superior qualities over many women (like a successful jousting knight), but this true man can only be completed by the company and spiritual connection to a good woman (much like the medieval knight had to have his lady as a source of platonic love). As you can imagine, this theme will not inspire those looking for a nonstop, heart-pounding adventure tale.

The power of the story comes in the book's first half, when you will not know what to expect next from Wolf Larsen. If you are like me, you will feel a little involuntary discomfort every time Larsen comes near van Weydon . . . or anyone else, for that matter. The book's second half will be less appealing to most male readers, but will be the more appealing part for many female readers.

The book's strength is the way that the van Weydon character develops. You will come to appreciate his trials and the ways he handles them. If you find that you don't like that character after 75 pages, I suggest that you read no further unless you are otherwise enjoying the book.

May all your endeavors be worthy of your highest ideals and potential!

Maud Brewster, like many of London's female characters (from Skeet, Curly and Mercedes in The Call of the Wild to Beth, Alice and Collie in White Fang), is underdeveloped, a mite hysterical, and completely dependent on the male characters. Without much in terms of psychological complexity, Maud provides a poor, poor reason for Humphrey Van Weyden to rebel against Wolf Larsen.

The first half of this book and its final few chapters are superb because London's male characters and their struggles are vividly portrayed. The knife-whetting contest between Mugridge and Hump; the homoerotic segment where Hump tends to a naked and wounded Larsen; Johnson and Leach's struggle against Larsen's iron fist -- London obviously loves these characters and gives them the light of day. Maud is another story.

In any event, the first half of this book is the top-notch tale of a Miltonic hero's slow slide from power, and the ending a moving fulfillment of this character's destiny (life, in the end, *is* yeast...but a savagely active and beautiful yeast, at that). Another one of London's terrible worlds unfolding its brutal majesty before us -- and, of course, another book inexplicably relegated to the children's section of many a book store.