Lost Face

Jack LondonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 225K words
Chapters: 23

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Lost Face by Jack LondonAuthor: London, Jack, 1876-1916,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 1, 2000

Editor's review

Lost Face is a short story collection by Jack London, offered free in electronic form by Project Gutenberg. London is known for his austere prose and his portrayals of the struggle to survive, and this collection continues his signature themes of polar adventure and tests of human nature. The stories center on choices made under extreme conditions and on the loss of identity and dignity, with tight plots and strong dramatic tension. Readers familiar with The Call of the Wild and White Fang will find this collection a useful complement to his short fiction; those who enjoy adventure fiction and naturalist literature will also appreciate its raw, direct narrative power. The Gutenberg edition is convenient to read on electronic devices and suits short reading sessions on a commute or before bed. Note that the work dates from an earlier era, and some values and expressions carry the marks of their time; read with a critical eye and no need to accept the narrator's position wholesale.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who like Jack London and naturalist adventure fiction
Learners who want to read English short stories in the original during spare moments
General readers interested in polar and wilderness survival themes
Students who need to add American short fiction to their reading

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a full-length novel with a continuous plot
Readers sensitive to early English usage and period attitudes
Readers who prefer light, gentle stories with a leisurely pace

Reading tips

Read one or two stories first to gauge the language level, then decide whether to read the whole collection.
While reading, note the central conflict of each story to compare themes.
Use a dictionary or a bilingual edition alongside the English original to lower the barrier to understanding.
After finishing, revisit how the titles echo the endings to appreciate the author's irony.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story collection?

Lost Face is a short story collection made up of independent stories, not one continuous novel. The stories share similar themes but have separate plots, so they suit reading in separate sessions.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts that are easy to obtain on a computer, phone, or e-reader. This edition is an English public-domain text and usually contains no modern annotations, so you may want a dictionary at hand.

Do I need to know Jack London's work first to read this book?

Not necessarily. The stories stand alone, so you can start reading directly. Knowing that he often wrote about polar adventure and survival trials will help you grasp the atmosphere and the characters' situations more easily.

Comments

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About the author

Jack London Author · American · 1876–1916

Jack London (1876–1916) was an American realist writer born in San Francisco; his original name was John Griffith Chaney. He left school early to make a living, worked as a sailor and a tramp, and once went to Alaska to search for gold. These hard experiences became an important source of his writing. His works cover a wide range of subjects and often focus on the harsh struggle for survival in the northern wilderness, the relationship between humans and animals, and the misery of the lower classes. His style is vigorous and forceful, his plots are tightly constructed, and his writing combines adventure with social criticism. His representative works include The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, White Fang and Martin Eden. The library holds 91 of his works, including White Fang, Martin Eden, The Iron Heel and The People of the Abyss. He wrote about 50 works in his lifetime and is one of the most widely translated American writers of the twentieth century.