I started reading this, because it filled two criterion: it would be pre-1914 reading, but would not seem like homework (as I was going on holiday). I was not surprised to see that it was written after The People of the Abyss, which was a bit of reportage written during 1902 about living conditions in London's East End. The character of Cookie was evidence of that. I was surprised to learn that Jack London had served on a seal whaler ship in his youth. To me, Wolf Larson seems like an epitome of Jack London's creed. He is a man of action, yet a man of learning. He mentions reading Darwin and Spencer, and I think this is where it gets a bit dodgy. I don't honestly know a lot about Herbert Spencer. He was big in the C19th. I think he extrapolated Darwin's theories on evolution to human evolution, in a way which social scientists of today would disapprove. I don't know, but I suspect his theories were a bit racist and that he approved of Eugenics, and I have read this criticism of Jack London too. Still, it was a subject that a lot of people were thinking about at the time. Jack London was still a unique writer: a lad, an adventurer, yet still a big brain and a talented writer.