4 h 41 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In the frozen north, a wrong judgment can kill as surely as a cruel enemy.
Jack London’s Lost Face gathers short adventure stories set mostly in the snow, ice and long dark of the Yukon and Alaska. Gold seekers, traders, trappers and local peoples share a country with little mercy. Cold, hunger, greed and fear press hard, and survival depends on what a person can do when there is no time to spare.
In To Build a Fire, an unnamed traveller heads toward his friends along a bitterly cold Yukon trail. His dog senses danger by instinct; the man trusts his own judgment. In the title story, Lost Face, the captive Subienkow faces torture and a savage death. His wits are his means of resistance in a struggle between cunning and cruelty.
What you’ll discover
- Cold you can feel Enter a northern landscape where weather threatens lives as directly as any human enemy.
- A man and his dog Follow a frozen trail where human judgment and animal instinct meet the same terrible cold.
- Wits against a cruel fate Meet Subienkow as he relies on clear thinking under the threat of torture.
- Survival without comfort These tough tales confront hunger, fear and greed without promising a gentle path.
- Respect for powerful forces Explore stories that ask what survival demands when confidence alone is not enough.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like short, tough adventure tales, northern settings and stories of survival that read fast. It may be less suited to anyone who wants gentle plots, or who dislikes violence and the blunt attitudes of its period.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A northern world with no mercy
- A man, a dog, and the cold
- Cunning against cruelty in the title story
- Themes and the way London tells them
Who’s who
- The man in To Build a FireAn unnamed traveller on a Yukon trail in bitter cold, who trusts his own judgment and sets out toward his friends.
- The dogThe man's animal companion in To Build a Fire, which senses the danger of the cold by instinct.
- SubienkowThe captive at the heart of Lost Face, facing a cruel fate and relying on his wits to survive.
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- Large print hardcover
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
A northern world with no mercy
The collection takes place in the cold country of the far north. Gold seekers, traders, trappers and local peoples share a land where the weather can kill as surely as any enemy. London knew this setting from his own journey north in the late 1890s, and he writes it with the detail of someone who has felt the frost.
The stories are short and hard, and most of them are built on a single test. A person is cornered and must act. There is little time for speeches or reflection, and the plots move toward the moment where a choice is made.
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The author
Jack London
1876–1916 · American novelist and journalist
Jack London (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist and social activist. He was born in San Francisco and lived in California. He wrote novels, short stories and essays. His novels include The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904), White Fang (1906) and Martin Eden (1909). He died in California.
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What is Lost Face by Jack London about?
It is a collection of short stories about survival in the far north. The tales show people tested by cold, danger and cruelty, and how they use courage and cunning to live or fail.
What is the story To Build a Fire about?
A man travels alone with a dog on a Yukon trail in extreme cold. The story shows how overconfidence and small mistakes become dangerous when the weather offers no second chances.
When was Lost Face written and published?
The collection was published in 1910. London drew on his own time in the Klondike gold rush, though the stories are fiction and not a record of real events.
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