14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a prison can bind your body, but cannot hold the lives you carry inside?
In Jack London's The Jacket (The Star-Rover), Darrell Standing is a former professor serving life for murder in San Quentin. Warden Atherton believes he is hiding dynamite. To force a confession, officials lace Standing into a canvas straitjacket until pain fills his world.
Fellow prisoner Ed Morrell teaches Standing a trance he calls the little death. Through it, Standing leaves his body and enters past lives across distant lands and centuries. His journeys turn a prison story into an adventure through sea, war and wilderness, while his captors keep trying to break him.
What you’ll discover
- A cell without limits Follow Standing beyond his bound body into lives the prison walls cannot contain.
- Survival on distant shores Meet Adam Strang, cast ashore in Korea, and Daniel Foss, alone on a Pacific island.
- Cruelty brought into focus Face London's attack on prison conditions through the canvas jacket and the dungeon.
- One soul, many struggles Travel with an emigrant wagon train and a hunter fighting to protect his family.
- Freedom under unbearable pressure Explore the novel's claim that the spirit can resist what confines the body.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love a fierce narrator, adventure stories set in many ages, and bold questions about mind and body. It also rewards anyone curious about prisons and American writing from the early 1900s.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Standing claims one self holds many lives
- A useful lie becomes a prison sentence
- Tapping turns isolation into human company
- Morrell offers freedom beyond the body
- Other lives carry knowledge Standing cannot explain
- Adam Strang holds love through suffering
- Different lives reveal different forms of strength
- Standing separates the self from matter
- Endurance connects the cell and other worlds
Who’s who
- Darrell StandingA former professor of agronomy serving a life term who learns to leave his body in the jacket and relive earlier lives.
- Ed MorrellA loyal fellow prisoner in solitary who teaches Standing the secret of willing the body to die.
- Jake OppenheimerThe Human Tiger, a sharp skeptic and brave friend who taps out chess and arguments from a faraway cell.
- Warden AthertonThe prison chief who wants hidden dynamite and tries to break Standing in the jacket.
- Captain JamieThe Captain of the Yard who believes the dynamite story and drives the search for it.
- Cecil WinwoodA poet and forger who invents the dynamite plot to win his own freedom.
- Doctor JacksonThe prison doctor who is sure no jacket can kill Standing and keeps the torment going.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout. The eBook opens when the book texts go online.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
The Jacket (The Star-Rover) in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Jacket (The Star-Rover)
by Jack London · 1915
A condemned professor escapes San Quentin's straitjacket by willing his body to die, then roams through time.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
Learn a language with medium classicsSpanishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseEnglishHow we measure levels
Excellent
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeRenews every year · Cancel anytimeHow it works
- Read, large type too
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
“Life is the thread of fire that endures through all the modes of matter.”
In short
What if a man laced into a canvas straitjacket could walk out of his cell and live other lives? Darrell Standing, a former professor of agronomy, says he does exactly that.
The Jacket (The Star-Rover) at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 55 min5 h 30 min fast, 8 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 98,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1915by Jack London
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A condemned professor opens his memoir
Darrell Standing writes from a cell at Folsom Prison. He says he is neither a fool nor a lunatic, and he asks you to believe him. He will be hanged within weeks, and he means to set down what he has lived.
His first claim is that every child remembers other times and places. He points to the dreams of falling and flying that haunt small children. Dreams are built from experience, he says, so the experience must come from somewhere.
Renews every year · Cancel anytime
You looked at
Which edition is right for me
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer. Your place follows you, and you can make the type as big as you like.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
London, Jack. The Jacket (The Star-Rover). Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-jacket-the-star-rover.
London, J. (2026). The jacket (The star-rover). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-jacket-the-star-rover (Original work published 1915)
London, Jack. The Jacket (The Star-Rover). Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-jacket-the-star-rover.
@book{london2026jacket,
author = {London, Jack},
title = {The Jacket (The Star-Rover)},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-jacket-the-star-rover},
note = {First published 1915}
}
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every eBookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about The Jacket (The Star-Rover)
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The Jacket by Jack London about?
It follows Darrell Standing, a professor condemned to die, who tells how torture in a San Quentin straitjacket frees his mind to relive earlier lives. The tales range from old France to Korea, Jerusalem and a lonely island.
What does the jacket mean in The Jacket?
The jacket is a canvas straitjacket laced tightly around a prisoner as punishment. In the novel it is both a cruel instrument and the doorway through which Standing escapes into trances.
Why is it also called The Star-Rover?
The title names the narrator, who says he roams among the stars and across time while his body lies in the jacket. A star-rover is a wanderer through many lives and ages.
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.
“Life is the thread of fire that endures through all the modes of matter.”
More by Jack London
See all their booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
