Advent Book 10 – Two modern classics in one volume

Day 10 of my bookish Advent calendar brings another modern classic – in fact it is two books in one. This paperback book in the Penguin Popular Classics series contains both White Fang and Call of the Wild by Jack London which seems like excellent value to me. It’s an older book, although in good condition, and therefore the print is rather small but it’s not too bad.

I obviously know of these books but have never read either of them. They are both books about wolves and tell their stories of living in wild places and also their relationship with men. The stories are written from the point of view of the animals. They were written at the beginning of the twentieth century and have been favourites ever since. They are not sentimental books but give a true account of what it was like in the late 1800s in the Klondike Gold Rush and the way that men and animals were treated in what were very harsh conditions.

I have to say that I am not greatly enthused by today’s book. The choice is fine and fits into the parameters I gave when I ordered the books but I am not fond of books about animals or which contain a lot of cruelty. It might be, like many other readers, that I start this book and love the stories but I am not sure that that will be the case.

The whole point of having a book subscription or buying a bookish Advent calendar like this is to try new books and expand my reading horizons so I shall start this book and give it a go and if I don’t take to it then the local Oxfam shop will be gifted the book and can sell it onwards (this is probably what will happen to many of the books in this calendar).