Résumé
Résumé de Le Visage perdu
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
You will love this book if you enjoy adventure in snow and wilderness, sharp storytelling with a dry sense of humor, and tales of honor, nerve and cunning that fit into a single sitting.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Lost Face is a collection of seven stories by Jack London, set in the far North of Alaska and the Yukon. They reach from the Russian fur thieves of the early trade to the gold rush camps along the great river. London went north himself in the gold rush of 1897, and the cold, the distances and the rough camp customs fill every page. The tales are short, sharp and often darkly funny. Each one puts people in a place where hunger, frost or the lack of law shows what they are made of.
You meet a Polish exile who bargains with his torturers, a man who carries a leather bag over Chilcoot Pass, a traveler walking alone at seventy-five below zero, a dog nobody can get rid of, a woman haunted by a cabin at Surprise Lake, a judge in a camp with no law, and a chief's daughter who puts herself up for auction. Together they ask what pride, honor and trust are worth when nobody is watching. Let us begin with the story that gives the book its name.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A doomed man sells a false secretFree
- 2A borrowed bag becomes a sacred duty
- 3Cold judges a man without imagination
- 4A dog nobody can get rid of
- 5A haunted cabin and a camp's rough justice
- 6A chief's daughter pays her father's debt
Point clé 1 sur 6
A doomed man sells a false secret
The book opens with the story that names it. Subienkow, a Polish exile, sits in the snow at Nulato in Russian America with his arms tied behind him. Around him lie the fur thieves the local people have put to death, and a huge Cossack called Big Ivan is still screaming under the hands of the women. Subienkow does not fear death. What he cannot bear is the thought of begging and howling like an animal, because he sees himself as a dreamer, a poet and an artist.
While he waits, he looks back along his trail. As a young man he dreamed of a free Poland, and that dream carried him through arrest in Warsaw, the Siberian mines, a bloody escape and the rotten ships of the fur thieves on the Bering Sea. Every step took him farther from the European cities he longs for. At Kotzebue Sound he heard the whisper that the great river Kwikpak and the Yukon are one, and he joined Malakoff to build the fort at Nulato. The walls rose under the lash, and Yakaga, a man Subienkow once struck across the face with a dog whip, now watches him with a grin.
Then Subienkow sees a way out. He calls the chief Makamuk and, through an interpreter, says he owns a great medicine that makes skin hard as iron, so that no blade can cut it. He will trade the secret. Makamuk offers his life, and Subienkow laughs in his face. He raises his price again and again, asking for sleds, dogs, six hunters, a hundred beaver skins, dried fish, his rifle and even the chief's daughter, all while rolling a cigarette as coolly as if he were haggling over a foxskin.
Yakaga whispers that the medicine must leave some spot unprotected, and Makamuk agrees that a spear can find it. Subienkow brews his potion from spruce needles, willow bark, birch bark and moss berries, flings a finger from a living man into the fire beneath the pot, and sings a French love song into the pot. He proposes a test in which Makamuk himself swings an axe at his neck. The tale is about nerve, pride and the thin line between savagery and cunning. Read it to see what the test costs and who pays.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- The man in To Build a Fire
- An unnamed traveller heads toward his friends on a bitterly cold Yukon trail, accompanied by a dog.
- The dog
- The traveller's animal companion senses the danger of the bitter cold through instinct rather than human judgment.
- Subienkow
- A captive held by a northern band, he relies on his wits while facing the threat of torture.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 42,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Le Visage perdu
What is Lost Face by Jack London about?
It is a collection of seven stories set in the Yukon and Alaska. They cover a Russian fur thief facing torture, a gold rush delivery, a lone winter walker, a dog, a haunted cabin, a camp judge and a chief's daughter.
What does the title Lost Face mean?
In the title story, losing face means losing standing and being mocked for it.
Are the stories in Lost Face true?
They are fiction, but London drew on the world he saw during the Klondike gold rush of 1897 and on tales he heard. Places such as Dawson, Chilcoot Pass and the Yukon are real.
What is To Build a Fire about?
A newcomer to the Yukon walks alone with a husky on a day colder than he understands. When the cold closes in, he must think and act quickly. It shows how instinct and imagination matter in nature.
Is Lost Face easy to read?
Each story is short and has a clear shape, with vivid scenes, lively dialogue and plain language. You can read one at a time or all seven in a few sittings, and the humor in That Spot keeps the pace light.