4 h 41 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 41 minPaperback · 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.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A doomed man sells a false secret
- A borrowed bag becomes a sacred duty
- Cold judges a man without imagination
- A dog nobody can get rid of
- A haunted cabin and a camp's rough justice
- A chief's daughter pays her father's debt
Who’s who
- SubienkowA refined Polish exile and fur thief, tied in the snow at Nulato, who stakes his life on a bold bargain.
- MakamukThe head chief of the Nulato Indians, proud and cautious, who must decide whether a prisoner's strange medicine is real.
- Fred ChurchillA strong, stubborn man who promises to carry a friend's heavy grip out of the Klondike and refuses to let it go.
- The man in the coldA newcomer to the Yukon, confident and practical but short on imagination, walking toward camp on a bitterly cold day.
- SpotA handsome sled dog who steals, fights and refuses to pull, and whom nobody can lose.
- Lon McFaneA hired dog driver who guards the sad secret of a beautiful woman living alone in a cabin at Surprise Lake.
- Marcus O'BrienJudge of the lawless camp of Red Cow, who sends offenders down the Yukon and is fond of whisky.
- El-SooA chief's daughter, schooled by nuns and fierce with pride, who sets out to pay her father's debt in her own way.
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 41 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- 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.
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Lost Face
by Jack London · 1910
A Polish exile bargains for his life in the Yukon snow with a made-up medicine and an axe.
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
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.
More by Jack London
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