To Build a Fire, Jack London | Earle Labor and King Hendricks (essay date 1967)
Earle Labor and King Hendricks (essay date 1967)
SOURCE: “Jack London's Twice-Told Tale,” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 4, Summer, 1967, pp. 334–41.
[In the following essay, Labor and Hendricks contrast London's two versions of “To Build a Fire,” concluding that the first is “a well-made boys' story; the second version is a classic for all ages.”]
While Jack London's fiction awaits a proper critical assessment, “To Build a Fire,” that “brilliant little sketch whose prose rhythms … are still fresh,” has firmly established itself as a perennial favorite among the world's readers.1 In it London managed to combine those qualities which distinguish his best work: vivid narrative, graphic description of physical action, tension (e.g., human intelligence vs. animal intuition, man's intrepidity vs. cosmic force, vitality vs. death), a poetic modulation of imagery to enhance mood...
[The entire page is 4030 words long]
Navigate
