Resumen
Resumen de Luz del Día
Para quién es
For readers who love adventure stories with a moral question beneath them, the Klondike gold rush, and the clash between wild country and city money.
De qué trata este libro
Burning Daylight is a novel by Jack London, published in 1910. It follows Elam Harnish, a big, restless man of the Yukon who gets his nickname from his lively way of talking about burning daylight, which means wasting time. London had gone north himself during the Klondike gold rush, and he knew the cold, the sled trails and the gambling halls that fill the first half of the book.
The story then moves from the frozen north to the offices of San Francisco, where a man built for open country tries to win at another kind of game. Along the way you meet a hard bargain, a rough kind of friendship and a quiet woman who sees him more clearly than he sees himself. The book asks what money does to a strong man once the adventure is over. Let us begin with the man the north made, and how he earns his nickname.
En este resumen
- 1The north makes a man called DaylightFree
- 2Trail, risk and the great strike
- 3A rich man goes south to the city
- 4Financiers who play for keeps
- 5Dede Mason and the hunger for another life
- 6What the story says about wealth and the land
Idea clave 1 de 6
The north makes a man called Daylight
The book opens in the Yukon, in the years of the gold rush. Elam Harnish is already a figure in the mining camps. He is tall, tireless and cheerful, and he is known for his restless hatred of wasted time. His favorite phrase about burning daylight gives him his name, and the name sticks to him for the rest of his life.
London shows him first through his strength. Daylight can drive dogs, haul freight and outlast almost anyone on the trail. He is also a gambler, and he treats a card table much as he treats the wilderness, as a place where a bold man takes a chance and accepts what comes. He drinks and bets, yet he keeps a rule of fair dealing that the other men respect.
The world of the camps matters here. There are no banks to speak of, no police to lean on and few comforts. A man is judged by what he does in the cold, and by whether his word holds. Daylight's good name rests on exactly that.
The early chapters also hint at what he lacks. He has no home and no one waiting for him. He spends his energy as freely as other men spend gold dust, and he has never stopped to ask what it is for. That empty space is what the rest of the novel will fill, for better and for worse.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Elam Harnish
- Known as Burning Daylight, this restless Yukon miner and gambler enters the financiers’ world and employs Dede Mason.
- Dede Mason
- Daylight’s independent stenographer in San Francisco sees beyond his money and questions the life he leads.
- Dowsett
- A New York financier, he approaches Daylight as a partner while pursuing his own financial interests.
- Letton
- A financier associated with Dowsett, he joins schemes involving Daylight and the wealth brought from the north.
- Guggenhammer
- A polished financier allied with Dowsett and Letton, he deals with Daylight without sharing his frontier code.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 117,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 7 h 45 min
- Listening time13 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 10 other languages
Questions about Luz del Día
What is Burning Daylight about?
It tells of Elam Harnish, a strong Klondike gambler who grows rich in the gold rush, moves to San Francisco, and finds that business success and money do not give him the life he really wants.
Why is he called Burning Daylight?
Elam Harnish earns the nickname in the Yukon camps because of his habit of talking about burning daylight, which means wasting time. The name becomes his fame across the north and follows him south.
Who is Dede Mason in Burning Daylight?
Dede Mason is Daylight's stenographer in San Francisco. She is independent and thoughtful, and her view of life makes him question what he has been chasing with his money.
Is Burning Daylight based on a true story?
The hero is invented, but the setting is real. London published the novel in 1910, and he drew on his own Klondike experience and on the gold rush world for the Yukon scenes.
Is Burning Daylight hard to read?
No. London writes in a plain, fast style, with clear action and direct speech. The story is easy to follow.