The novel "sea wolf". Jack of Londonsea wolf A brief retelling of Jack London's novel the sea wolf

The post was inspired by a reading of Jack London's The Sea-Wolf.

Summary of Jack London's novel "Moskwolf"
The story of Jack London's The Sea Wolf begins with renowned literary critic Humphrey Van Weyden being shipwrecked by the sinking of the ship on which he was sailing across the bay to San Francisco. Frozen Humphrey is rescued by the ship "Ghost", which should hunt seals. Trying to negotiate with the captain of the Ghost named Wolf Larsen, Humphrey witnesses the death of the assistant captain. The captain appoints a new assistant, carries out permutations among the team. One of the sailors named Lich does not like the reshuffle, and Wolf Larsen beats him up in front of everyone. Humphrey offered to take cabin boy's place and threatened to take him over if he didn't agree. Humphrey, being a man of mental labor, did not dare to refuse, and the ship took him away from San Francisco for a long time.

Humphrey was struck by the atmosphere of primal fear on the ship: Captain Wolf Larsen ruled everything. He was endowed with phenomenal physical strength, which he very often used against his team. His team was very afraid of him, hated him, but unquestioningly obeyed, since it cost nothing to kill a man with his bare hands. Humphrey worked in the galley under the unscrupulous cook Mugridge, who fawned and fawned over the captain. Cook passed his work on Humphrey, insulted and humiliated him in every possible way. Cook stole all the money from Humphrey, he went to the captain. Capital laughed at Humphrey and said that it was not his concern, besides, he himself was to blame for the fact that Humphrey seduced the cook into stealing. After some time, Wolf Larsen won Humphrey's money from the cook in cards, but did not give it to the owner, leaving it to himself.

Humphrey's character and body hardened very quickly on the ship, now he was no longer a bookworm, the crew treated him well, and the captain began to talk with him little by little about philosophical questions, literature, etc. Wolf Larsen saw right through Humphrey and seemed to read his mind. Humphrey was afraid of him, but also admired him, the captain was an example of a wild, unstoppable primal force that swept away everything in its path. Capital denied any manifestation of humanity and recognized only force. In addition, he considered life the cheapest of all things, he called life a meal, the strong devour the weak. Humphrey quickly learned that strength is right, weakness is always wrong. Slowly, Humphrey learns the philosophy of Wolf Larsen, despite the fact that she was disgusting to him earlier. He puts the cook in his place, and he stops bullying him.

Due to the state of wild fear, a riot was brewing on the ship, and it took place: several sailors attacked Wolf Larsen and his assistant and threw them overboard. The captain's mate drowned, and Larsen was able to board the ship. After that, he went to find out who attacked him. In the cockpit he was attacked again, but even now he was able to get out, thanks to his inhuman strength. Wolf Larsen makes Humphrey his assistant, despite the fact that he does not understand anything in navigation. The captain is getting better at Humphrey, recognizing his quick successes in real life. The team begins to be bullied even more, which only intensifies the atmosphere of fear and hatred.

One day, the "Ghost" picks up the boat, which was another famous writer Maud Brewster. And this time, Wolf Larsen refuses to deliver the passengers of the boat to the shore: he makes the men members of the team, and Maud offers a comfortable existence on the ship. Maude and Humphrey quickly bond. The captain also took an interest in Maud and once tried to rape her. Humphrey tried to stop him, but something else stopped him: the captain was tormented by terrible headaches, and this time a new attack led to the fact that he lost his sight. It was at this time that Humphrey first saw the captain frightened.

Maud and Humphrey decide to escape from the ship, equip the boat and set off for the shores of Japan. Their plans were not destined to come true, strong storms carried them in the other direction. After many days of wandering and fighting for life, they are nailed to a desert island, where they begin to establish a life, build huts, hunt seals, store meat, etc. Maude and Humphrey grow closer and fall in love. One day, a Ghost washed up on their island. The ship was pretty battered, there were no masts on it (the cook Mugridge sawed off out of revenge for mistreatment by the captain). There was no team on it either - she went to the ship of Wolf Larsen's brother, named Death Larsen. The brothers hated each other and harmed each other, interfering with the hunt for seals, capturing and poaching team members. There was one Wolf Larsen on the ship, completely blind but not broken. Humphrey and Maud came up with the idea to sail away from the island on the Ghost, but Wolf Larsen prevented this in every possible way, as he wanted to die on his ship.

Humphrey and Maud begin to repair the ship, thinking of ways to put up the masts, equip the ship. Yesterday's intellectuals Humphrey and Maud are desperately working on the ship. Several times Wolf Larsen almost got to them, but each time they escaped from his terrible power. Wolf Larsen began to fail, one part of his body failed, then speech failed, then the other half of the body stopped moving. Maud and Humphrey nursed the captain to the very end, who never gave up his understanding of life. The captain dies shortly before the ship is ready to sail. Humphrey and Maude go to sea and meet a ship, a rescue, on their way. Jack London's The Sea Wolf ends with the two confessing their love for each other.

Meaning
Jack London's novel Wolf Larsen shows the clash of two different views on life: the captain's cynical "power" approach is opposed by the more human approach of Humphrey Van Weyden. In contrast to Humphrey's "humane" approach, Captain Volk Larsen believes that life is a struggle between the strong and the weak, that the victory of the strong is normal, and the weak have nothing to blame for being weak. According to Volk Larsen, life is valued only by the one to whom it belongs, in the eyes of others, the life of another person is worth nothing.

As the story progresses, the characters change: Humphrey quickly masters the science of Wolf Larsen and directs his power against the captain, who impeded the realization of his interests. At the same time, it is important to note that the protagonist of the novel "Sea Wolf" still opposes unreasonable cruelty, murder, etc., because he leaves the defenseless Wolf Larsen alive, although he had every chance to kill him.

Volk Larsen himself is also changing: a stronger leaven nevertheless ate him up. His body, which was his support, refused to serve him and buried his unconquered spirit in itself.

Book Reviews by Jack London:
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7. The story "Atu them, atu!" ;
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I also recommend reading book reviews (and the books themselves, of course):
1. - most popular post
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INTRODUCTION

This course work is devoted to the work of one of the most famous American writers of the XX century Jack London (John Cheney) - the novel "The Sea Wolf" ("The Sea Wolf", 1904). Based on the writings of famous literary scholars and literary critics, I will try to deal with certain issues related to the novel. First of all, it is important to note that the work is extremely philosophical, and it is very important to see its ideological essence behind the external features of romance and adventure.

The relevance of this work is due to the popularity of the works of Jack London (the novel "The Sea Wolf" in particular) and the enduring themes raised in the work.

It is appropriate to talk about genre innovation and diversity in the literature of the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, since during this period the socio-psychological novel, the epic novel, the philosophical novel develop, the genre of social utopia becomes widespread, and the genre of the scientific novel is created. Reality is depicted as an object of psychological and philosophical understanding of human existence.

“The novel The Sea Wolf occupies a special place in the general structure of novels of the beginning of the century precisely because it is full of polemics with a number of such phenomena in American literature that are associated with the problem of naturalism in general and the problem of the novel as a genre in particular. In this work, London made an attempt to combine the genre of the "marine novel" common in American literature with the tasks of the philosophical novel, whimsically framed in the composition of an adventure story.

The object of my research is Jack London's novel The Sea Wolf.

The purpose of the work is the ideological and artistic components of the image of Wolf Larsen and the work itself.

In this work, I will consider the novel from two sides: from the ideological side and from the artistic side. Thus, the objectives of this work are: firstly, to understand the prerequisites for writing the novel "The Sea Wolf" and creating the image of the main character, related to the ideological views of the author and his work in general, and, secondly, relying on the literature devoted to this question, to reveal what is the originality of the transfer of the image of Wolf Larsen, as well as the uniqueness and diversity of the artistic side of the novel itself.

The work includes an introduction, two chapters corresponding to the tasks of the work, a conclusion and a list of references.

FIRST CHAPTER

“The best representatives of critical realism in American literature at the beginning of the 20th century were associated with the socialist movement, which in these years begins to play an increasingly active role in the political life of the United States.<...>First of all it concerns London.<...>

Jack London - one of the greatest masters of world literature of the 20th century - played an outstanding role in the development of realistic literature both with his short stories and with his novels, depicting the clash of a strong, courageous, active person with the world of a purebred and possessive instincts, hated by the writer.

When the novel was published, it caused a sensation. Readers admired the image of the mighty Wolf Larsen, admired how skillfully and subtly the line between his cruelty and love of books and philosophy was drawn in the image of this character. The philosophic disputes between the antipode heroes - Captain Larsen and Humphrey Van Weyden - about life, its meaning, about the soul and immortality also attracted attention. Precisely because Larsen was always firm and unshakable in his convictions, his arguments and arguments sounded so convincing that “millions of people listened with delight to Larsen’s self-justifications: “It is better to reign in hell than to be a slave in heaven” and “Right is in strength." That is why "millions of people" saw the praise of Nietzscheanism in the novel.

The power of the captain is not just huge, it is monstrous. With its help, he sows chaos and fear around him, but at the same time, involuntary submission and order reign on the ship: “Larsen, a destroyer by nature, sows evil around him. He can destroy and only destroy.” But, at the same time, characterizing Larsen as a “magnificent animal” [(1), p. 96], London awakens in the reader a feeling of sympathy for this character, which, along with curiosity, does not leave us until the very end of the work. Moreover, at the very beginning of the story, one cannot help but feel sympathy for the captain also because of the way he behaved during the rescue of Humphrey (“It was an accidental absent-minded look, an accidental turn of the head<...>He saw me. Jumping to the steering wheel, he pushed the helmsman away and quickly turned the wheel himself, shouting at the same time some kind of command. [(1), p. 12]) and at the funeral of his assistant: the ceremony was performed according to the "laws of the sea", the last honors were given to the deceased, the last word was said.

So, Larsen is strong. But he is alone and alone is forced to defend his views and position in life, in which the features of nihilism are easily traced. In this case, Wolf Larsen was undoubtedly perceived as a bright representative of Nietzscheism, preaching extreme individualism.

On this occasion, the following remark is important: “It seems that Jack did not deny individualism; on the contrary, during the writing and publication of The Sea Wolf, he defended free will and the belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race more actively than ever before. One cannot but agree with this statement: the object of admiration of the author, and, as a result, the reader, is not only the ardent, unpredictable temperament of Larsen, his unusual mindset, animal strength, but also external data: “I (Humphrey) was fascinated by the perfection of these lines , this, I would say, ferocious beauty. I saw sailors on the forecastle. Many of them struck with their mighty muscles, but all had some kind of drawback: one part of the body was too strongly developed, the other too weakly.<...>

But Wolf Larsen was the epitome of masculinity and was built almost like a god. When he walked or raised his arms, powerful muscles tensed and played under the satin skin. I forgot to say that only his face and neck were covered with a bronze tan. His skin was as white as a woman's, which reminded me of his Scandinavian origins. When he raised his hand to feel the wound on his head, the biceps, as if alive, went under this white cover.<...>I could not take my eyes off Larsen and stood as if nailed to the spot. [(1), p. 107]

Wolf Larsen is the central character of the book, and, undoubtedly, it is in his words that the main idea that London wanted to convey to the readership is laid.

Nevertheless, in addition to such strictly opposite feelings as admiration and censure that the image of Captain Larsen evoked, the thoughtful reader had a doubt why this character is sometimes so contradictory. And if we consider his image as an example of an indestructible and inhumanly cruel individualist, then the question arises why he "spare" Humphrey's sissy, even helped him become independent and was very happy with such changes in Humphrey? And for what purpose is this character introduced in the novel, who undoubtedly plays an important role in the book? According to Samarin Roman Mikhailovich, a Soviet literary critic, “in the novel, an important theme arises of a man capable of stubborn struggle in the name of high ideals, and not in the name of asserting his power and satisfying his instincts. This is an interesting, fruitful idea: London went in search of a hero who is strong, but humane, strong in the name of humanity. But at this stage - the beginning of the 900s<...>Van Weyden is outlined in the most general terms, he fades next to the colorful Larsen. That is why the image of an experienced captain is much brighter than the image of Humphrey Van Weyden's "bookworm", and, as a result, Wolf Larsen was enthusiastically received by the reader as a man capable of manipulating others, as the only master on his ship - a tiny world, like the person we sometimes want to be ourselves - imperious, indestructible, powerful.

Considering the image of Wolf Larsen and the possible ideological origins of this character, it is important to take into account the fact “that, when starting work on The Sea Wolf, he [Jack London] did not yet know Nietzsche.<...>Acquaintance with him could have happened in the middle or at the end of 1904, some time after the completion of The Sea Wolf. Prior to this, he had heard Nietzsche Stron-Hamilton and others quoted, and he used expressions such as "blond beast", "superman", "living in danger" when he worked.

So, in order to finally understand who the Larsen wolf is, the object of the author's admiration or censure, and where the novel took its origins, it is worth referring to the following fact from the life of the writer: “In the early 1900s, Jack London, along with writing, gives a lot of effort social and political activities as a member of the socialist party.<...>He either leans towards the idea of a violent revolution, or advocates a reformist path.<...>At the same time, the eclecticism of London took shape in the fact that Spencerianism, the idea of the eternal struggle between the strong and the weak, was transferred from the biological field to the social sphere. It seems to me that this fact once again proves that the image of Wolf Larsen certainly "succeeded", and London was pleased with what character came out of his pen. He was pleased with him from the artistic side, not from the point of view of the ideology embedded in Larsen: Larsen is the quintessence of everything that the author sought to “debunk”. London collected all the features hostile to him in the image of one character, and, as a result, such a “colorful” hero turned out that Larsen not only did not alienate the reader, but even aroused admiration. Let me remind you that when the book was just published, the reader "heard with delight" the words of the "enslaver and tormentor" (as he is described in the book) "The right is in force."

Jack London subsequently "insisted that the meaning of The Sea Wolf was deeper, that in it he was trying to debunk individualism rather than vice versa. In 1915 he wrote to Mary Austin: “A long time ago, at the beginning of my writing career, I challenged Nietzsche and his idea of the superman. The "Sea Wolf" is dedicated to this. A lot of people read it, but no one understood the attacks on the superman's philosophy of superiority contained in the story.

According to Jack London's idea, Humphrey is stronger than Larsen. He is stronger spiritually and carries those unshakable values that people remember when they are tired of cruelty, brute force, arbitrariness and their own insecurity: justice, self-control, morality, morality, love. It's not for nothing that he gets Miss Brewster. “According to the logic of Maud Brewster's character - a strong, intelligent, emotional, talented and ambitious woman - it would seem more natural to be carried away not by the refined Humphrey close to her, but to fall in love with the pure masculine principle - Larsen, an extraordinary and tragically lonely, to follow him, cherishing the hope of directing him to the path of goodness. However, London gives this flower to Humphrey to emphasize the unattractiveness of Larsen. For the line of love, for the love triangle in the novel, the episode when Wolf Larsen tries to take possession of Maud Brewster is very indicative: “I saw Maud, my Maud, beating in the iron embrace of Wolf Larsen. She tried in vain to break free, her hands and head resting on his chest. I rushed to them. Wolf Larsen raised his head and I punched him in the face. But it was a weak blow. Roaring like a beast, Larsen pushed me away. With that push, with a slight wave of his monstrous hand, I was thrown aside with such force that I smashed into the door of Mugridge's former cabin, and it shattered into splinters. Crawling out from under the rubble with difficulty, I jumped up and, feeling no pain - nothing but a furious rage that took possession of me - again rushed at Larsen.

I was struck by this unexpected and strange change. Maud stood leaning against the bulkhead, holding on to it with her hand thrown to the side, and Wolf Larsen, staggering, covering his eyes with his left hand, with his right hesitantly, like a blind man, rummaged around him. [(1), p. 187] The reason for this strange seizure that seized Larsen is not clear not only to the heroes of the book, but also to the reader. One thing is clear: London did not accidentally choose just such a denouement for this episode. I assume that, from an ideological point of view, he thus increased the conflict between the characters, and, from the point of view of the plot, he wanted to “enable” Humphrey to emerge victorious in this fight, so that in Maud’s eyes he would become a brave defender, because otherwise the outcome would be would be a foregone conclusion: Humphrey could do nothing. Recall, for example, how several sailors tried to kill the captain in the cockpit, but even seven of them could not inflict serious injuries on him, and Larsen, after everything that had happened, only with the usual irony said to Humphrey: “Get to work, doctor! It looks like you have a lot of practice ahead of you on this swim. I don't know how Ghost would have managed without you. If I were capable of such noble feelings, I would say that his master is deeply grateful to you. [(1), C, 107]

From all of the above, it follows that "Nietzscheanism here (in the novel) serves as a backdrop against which he (Jack London) presents Wolf Larsen: it causes interesting debate, but is not the main theme." As already noted, the work "Sea Wolf" is a philosophical novel. It shows the clash of two radically opposite ideas and worldviews of completely different people who have absorbed the features and foundations of different strata of society. That is why there are so many disputes and discussions in the book: the communication between Wolf Larsen and Humphrey Van Weyden, as you can see, is presented exclusively in the form of disputes and reasoning. Even communication between Larsen and Maud Brewster is a constant attempt to prove the correctness of their worldview.

So, "London himself wrote about the anti-Nietzschean orientation of this book." He repeatedly emphasized that in order to understand both certain subtleties of the work, and for the ideological picture as a whole, it is important to take into account his political and ideological beliefs and views.

The most important thing is to realize that "they and Nietzsche followed different paths towards the idea of the superman." Everyone has their own “superman”, and the main difference lies in where their worldviews “grow” from: Nietzsche’s irrational vitality, cynical disregard for spiritual values and immorality were the result of a protest against morality and norms of behavior dictated by society. London, on the contrary, by creating its hero, a native of the working class, deprived him of a happy and carefree childhood. It was these deprivations that caused his isolation and loneliness and, as a result, gave rise to that same bestial cruelty in Larsen: “What else can I tell you? he said darkly and angrily. - About the hardships suffered in childhood? About a meager life when there is nothing to eat but fish? About how, having barely learned to crawl, I went out with the fishermen to the sea? About my brothers who, one by one, went to sea and never returned? About how I, not knowing how to read or write, as a ten-year-old cabin boy sailed on old coasters? About rough food and even rougher treatment, when kicks and beatings in the morning and for the coming sleep replace words, and fear, hatred and pain are the only thing that feeds the soul? I don't like to think about it! These memories still drive me crazy.” [(1), p. 78]

“Already at the end of his life, he (London) reminded his publisher: “I was, as you know, in the intellectual camp opposite to Nietzsche.” That is why Larsen is dying: London needed the quintessence of individualism and nihilism that was invested in his image to die with Larsen. This, in my opinion, is the strongest evidence that London, if at the time of the creation of the book was not yet an opponent of Nietzscheism, then he was definitely against "pure and possessive instincts." It also confirms the author's commitment to socialism.

wolf larsen london ideological

A hunting schooner led by a clever, cruel captain picks up a writer drowning after a shipwreck. The hero goes through a series of trials, hardening his spirit, but not losing his humanity along the way.

Literary critic Humphrey van Weyden (the novel is written from his perspective) is shipwrecked on his way to San Francisco. The drowning man is picked up by the ship Ghost, bound for Japan to hunt seals.

Before Humphrey's eyes, the navigator dies: before sailing, he was very swirling, they could not bring him to his senses. The ship's captain, Wolf Larsen, is left without an assistant. He orders the body of the deceased to be thrown overboard. He prefers to replace the words from the Bible necessary for burial with the phrase: "And the remains will be lowered into the water."

The captain's face gives the impression of "terrible, crushing mental or spiritual strength". He invites van Weyden, a pampered gentleman who lives off the family fortune, to become a cabin boy. Watching the reprisal of the captain with the young cabin boy George Leach, who refused to go to the rank of sailor, Humphrey, not accustomed to brute force, submits to Larsen.

Van Weyden is nicknamed The Hump and works in the galley with cook Thomas Magridge. The cook, who previously fawned over Humphrey, is now rude and cruel. For their mistakes or disobedience, the entire crew receives beatings from Larsen, and Humphrey also gets it.

Soon van Weyden reveals the captain from the other side: Larsen reads books - he educates himself. They often have conversations about law, ethics, and the immortality of the soul, which Humphrey believes in but which Larsen denies. The latter considers life a struggle, "the strong devour the weak in order to maintain their strength."

For Larsen's special attention to Humphrey, the cook is even more angry. He constantly sharpens a knife on the cabin boy in the galley, trying to intimidate van Weyden. He admits to Larsen that he is afraid, to which the captain mockingly remarks: “How is it, ... after all, you will live forever? You are a god, and a god cannot be killed." Then Humphrey borrows a knife from a sailor and also begins defiantly sharpening it. Magridge proposes peace and has since behaved even more obsequiously with the critic than with the captain.

In the presence of van Weyden, the captain and the new navigator beat the proud sailor Johnson for his straightforwardness and unwillingness to submit to the brutal whims of Larsen. Lich bandages Johnson's wounds and calls Wolf a murderer and a coward in front of everyone. The crew is intimidated by his boldness, while Humphrey admires the Lich.

Soon the navigator disappears at night. Humphrey sees Larsen climb over the side of the ship with a bloody face. He goes to the forecastle, where the sailors sleep, to find the culprit. Suddenly they attack Larsen. After numerous beatings, he manages to get away from the sailors.

The captain appoints Humphrey as navigator. Now everyone should call him "Mr. van Weyden." He successfully uses the advice of sailors.

Relations between Lich and Larsen become more and more aggravated. The captain considers Humphrey a coward: his morals are on the side of the noble Johnson and Lich, but instead of helping them kill Larsen, he stays away.

Boats from the "Ghost" go to sea. The weather changes dramatically and a storm breaks out. Thanks to the maritime skills of Wolf Larsen, almost all the boats are saved and returned to the ship.

Leach and Johnson suddenly disappear. Larsen wants to find them, but instead of the fugitives, the crew notices a boat with five passengers. Among them is a woman.

Suddenly, Johnson and Leach are spotted at sea. The amazed van Weyden promises Larsen to kill him if the captain starts torturing the sailors again. Wolf Larsen promises not to touch them with a finger. The weather worsens, and the captain plays with them as Leach and Johnson fight desperately against the elements. Finally, they are turned over by a wave.

The rescued woman makes her own living, which delights Larsen. Humphrey recognizes the writer Maud Brewster in her, but she also guesses that van Weyden is a critic who flatteringly reviewed her writings.

Magridge becomes Larsen's new victim. Coca is tied to a rope and dipped into the sea. The shark bites off his foot. Maud reproaches Humphrey for inaction: he did not even try to prevent the mockery of the cook. But the navigator explains that in this floating world there is no right to survive, you do not need to argue with the monster-captain.

Maud is "a fragile, ethereal creature, slender, with lithe movements". She has a regular oval face, brown hair and expressive brown eyes. Watching her conversation with the captain, Humphrey catches a warm gleam in Larsen's eyes. Now Van Weyden understands how much Miss Brewster is dear to him.

"Ghost" meets at sea with "Macedonia" - the ship of Wolf's brother, Death-Larsen. Brother conducts a maneuver and leaves the hunters of the "Ghost" without prey. Larsen implements a cunning plan of revenge and takes his brother's sailors to his ship. "Macedonia" gives chase, but the "Ghost" is hiding in the fog.

In the evening, Humphrey sees Maud thrashing in the arms of Captain Maud. Suddenly, he releases her: Larsen has a headache attack. Humphrey wants to kill the captain, but Miss Brewster stops him. At night, the two of them leave the ship.

A few days later, Humphrey and Maud reach Effort Island. There are no people there, only a rookery of seals. The fugitives are huts on the island - they will have to spend the winter here, they cannot get to the shore by boat.

One morning, van Weyden discovers the Ghost near the shore. It only has a captain. Humphrey does not dare to kill Wolf: morality is stronger than him. Death-Larsen lured his entire crew over to him, offering a larger fee. Van Weyden soon realizes that Larsen has gone blind.

Humphrey and Maude decide to repair the broken masts in order to sail away from the island. But Larsen is against it: he will not allow them to host on his ship. Maude and Humphrey work all day, but during the night Wolf destroys everything. They continue with the restoration work. The captain makes an attempt to kill Humphrey, but Maude saves him by hitting Larsen with a club. He has a seizure, first the right side is taken away, and then the left side.

The Ghost is on its way. Wolf Larsen dies. Van Weyden sends his body into the sea with the words: "And the remains will be lowered into the water."

An American customs ship appears: Maud and Humphrey are rescued. At this moment, they declare their love to each other.

Jack London

Sea wolf. Fishing Patrol Tales

Wields a sextant and becomes a captain

I managed to save enough money from my earnings to last three years in high school.

Jack London. Fishing Patrol Tales

Compiled from Jack London's seafaring works The Sea Wolf and Fishing Patrol Tales, this book opens the Sea Adventures series. And it is difficult to find a more suitable author for this, who is undoubtedly one of the "three pillars" of world marine art.

It is necessary to say a few words about the appropriateness of separating seascapes into a separate genre. I have a suspicion that this is a purely continental habit. It does not occur to the Greeks to call Homer a marine painter. The Odyssey is a heroic epic. It is difficult to find a work in English literature where the sea is not mentioned in one way or another. Alistair McLean is the author of detective stories, although almost all of them take place among the waves. The French do not call Jules Verne a marine painter, although a significant part of his books is devoted to sailors. The public read with equal pleasure not only The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain, but also From a Cannon to the Moon.

And only Russian literary criticism, it seems, just as it once put the books of Konstantin Stanyukovich on a shelf with the inscription "marine studies" (by analogy with the artist Aivazovsky), still refuses to notice other, "land" works of authors who, following the pioneer fall into this genre. And in the recognized masters of Russian marine painting - Alexei Novikov-Priboy or Viktor Konetsky - you can find wonderful stories, say, about a man and a dog (in Konetsky, they are generally written on behalf of a boxer dog). Stanyukovich began with plays that denounced the sharks of capitalism. But it was his Sea Tales that remained in the history of Russian literature.

It was so new, fresh and unlike anyone else in the literature of the 19th century that the public refused to perceive the author in other roles. Thus, the existence of the marine genre in Russian literature is justified by the exotic nature of the life experience of seafaring writers, of course, in comparison with other masters of the word of a very continental country. However, this approach to foreign authors is fundamentally wrong.

Calling the same Jack London a marine painter would mean ignoring the fact that his writing star rose thanks to his northern, gold-digging stories and novels. And in general - what he just did not write in his life. And social dystopias, and mystical novels, and dynamic adventure scenarios for newborn cinema, and novels designed to illustrate some fashionable philosophical or even economic theories, and "novels-novels" - great literature, which is cramped by any genre. Yet his first essay, written for a contest for a San Francisco newspaper, was called "A Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan." Returning from a long voyage to hunt seals off the coast of Kamchatka, he tried his hand at writing at the suggestion of his sister and unexpectedly won the first prize.

The size of the remuneration surprised him so pleasantly that he immediately calculated that it was more profitable to be a writer than a sailor, a fireman, a tramp, a draft driver, a farmer, a newspaper seller, a student, a socialist, a fish inspector, a war correspondent, a homeowner, a Hollywood screenwriter, a yachtsman, and even - gold digger. Yes, there were such wonderful times for literature: pirates are still oyster, not Internet; magazines are still thick, literary, not glossy. That, however, did not prevent American publishers from flooding all the English colonies of the Pacific Ocean with pirated editions of British authors and (sic!) cheap notes by European composers. Technology has changed, people have not.

In contemporary Victorian Britain, Jack London was fashionable moralizing songs. Even among sailors. I remember one about the lax and brave sailors. The first, as usual, slept on watch, was impudent to the boatswain, drank away his salary, fought in port taverns and ended up, as expected, in hard labor. The boatswain could not get enough of the brave sailor, who sacredly observed the Charter of service on the ships of the navy, and even the captain, for some very exceptional merits, gave his master's daughter in marriage to him. For some reason, superstitions about women on a ship are alien to the British. But the brave sailor does not rest on his laurels, but enters the navigation classes. “Wields a sextant and will be a captain!” - promised the chorus of sailors performing shanti on deck, nursing the anchor on the capstan.

Anyone who reads this book to the end can be convinced that Jack London also knew this moralizing sailor's song. The finale of Tales of the Fishing Patrol, by the way, makes you think about the relationship between autobiography and sailor folklore in this cycle. Critics don't go to sea, and usually can't tell the difference between "the author's anecdote" and sailor's tales, harbor legends, and other folklore of oyster, shrimp, sturgeon, and salmon fishermen in the San Francisco Bay. They are unaware that there is no more reason to believe a fish inspector than to believe a fisherman who has returned from fishing, whose "veracity" has long become a byword. However, it’s simply breathtaking when, a century later, you peep how the young impatient author “writes out” from the story of this collection to the story, tries plot moves, builds the composition more and more confidently to the detriment of the literalism of the real situation and brings the reader to the climax. And some of the intonations and motives of the upcoming "Smoke and the Kid" and other top stories of the northern cycle are already guessed. And you understand that after Jack London wrote down these real and fictional stories of the fish guard, they, like the Greeks after Homer, became the epic of the Golden Horn Bay.

But I don't understand why none of the critics have let it slip until now that Jack himself, in fact, turned out to be a lax sailor from that song, who was enough for one ocean voyage. Fortunately for readers all over the world. If he had become a captain, he would hardly have become a writer. The fact that he also turned out to be an unsuccessful prospector (and further along the impressive list of professions given above) also played into the hands of readers. I am more than sure that if he got rich in the gold-bearing Klondike, he would have no need to write novels. Because all his life he considered his writing primarily as a way to earn money with his mind, and not with his muscles, and he always scrupulously counted thousands of words in his manuscripts and multiplied in his mind by cents of the fee per word. I was offended when editors cut a lot.

As for The Sea Wolf, I am not a supporter of critical analyzes of classical works. The reader has the right to savor such texts at his own discretion. I will only say that in our once most reading country, every cadet of a nautical school could be suspected of having run away from home to a sailor after reading Jack London. At least, I heard this from several gray-haired battle captains and the Ukrainian marine painter Leonid Tendyuk.

The latter admitted that when his research vessel Vityaz entered San Francisco, he shamelessly took advantage of his official position as a “senior group” (and Soviet sailors were allowed ashore only by “Russian troikas”) and dragged along the streets of Frisco for half a day two disgruntled sailors in search of the famous port tavern, in which, according to legend, the skipper of the Ghost, Wolf Larsen, liked to sit. And at that moment it was a hundred times more important to him than the legitimate intentions of his comrades to look for chewing gum, jeans, women's wigs and lurex scarves - the legitimate booty of Soviet sailors in the colonial trade. They found a zucchini. The bartender showed them Wolf Larsen's seat at the massive table. Unoccupied. It seemed as if the Ghost's skipper, immortalized by Jack London, had just left.