野性的呼唤 (1903)

《野性的呼唤》（英语：The Call of the Wild，又名《荒野的呼唤》）是作家杰克·伦敦于1903年发表的著名小说。故事叙述一只名叫巴克的狗历经磨难，最终回到自然的野生环境的故事。

《野性的呼唤》为一部动物冒险小说，是美国文学史上的经典作品，被誉为“世界上读得最多的美国小说”。小说中体现的主题——推崇战胜敌人后而存活所需的力量与勇气，一直是杰克·伦敦创作的核心思想。小说不仅十分畅销，后来被多次改编成电影《极地守护犬》。

情节

本书的主角是一只叫巴克（Buck）的大型杂种狗。巴克原本生活于一个无忧无虑的法官家庭中，却被好赌的园丁拉得偷走卖给了一个壮汉，然后又被带到一个小屋等买家的到来。

几经转手，巴克被卖到了育空地区。在一位负责递送公文的邮差手下当雪橇犬。而巴克也渐渐的适应了北极的寒冷，也在这里学会了如何在弱肉强食的情况下生存。在狗群中，巴克露出了他的野心，在一次机会下打败了原本雪橇队中的首领，并让自己登上了领导者的地位。

巴克的队伍在休息不足的情况下，狗儿们的身体越来越差，，，，结果被邮局淘汰，廉价地被卖到了脾气暴躁的新主人手中。在新主人的凌虐下，奄奄一息的巴克被好心的桑顿救了下来。巴克自此对桑顿忠心耿耿，并于急流中救了主人一命。

在主人在淘金冒险途中被印第安人杀害后，巴克为了报仇而以锋牙利爪杀掉了他们。而后，巴克加入了狼群中，带着狼群觅食，成为了人们闻之丧胆的狗魔。

The Call of the Wild is an adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively more primitive and wild in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primal instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild.

London spent about a year in Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and was published later that year in book form. The book's great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted to film, and it has since seen several more cinematic adaptations.

One of the most notable adaptations was the 1935 film, starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young, as well as Frank Conroy and Jack Oakie. Considerable liberties were taken with the story line.

Summary

The story opens in 1897 with Buck, a powerful 140-pound St. Bernard–Scotch Shepherd mix, happily living in California's Santa Clara Valley as the pampered pet of Judge Miller and his family. A gardener named Manuel, needing money to pay his gambling debts, kidnaps Buck and sells him. Buck is shipped to Seattle, where he is confined in a crate, starved, and ill-treated. When released, Buck attacks his handler, the "man in the red sweater" who teaches Buck the "law of club and fang" with a severe beating, sufficiently cowing him. The man shows some kindness after Buck demonstrates obedience.

Shortly after, Buck is sold to two French-Canadian mail dispatchers from the Canadian government, François and Perrault, who take him to Alaska. Buck is trained as a sled dog and joins a team in the Klondike region. In addition to Buck, François and Perrault have ten dogs on their team, many but not all of whom are named and have distinct personalities. Buck's teammates teach him how to survive cold winter nights and about pack society. Over the next several weeks on the trail, a bitter rivalry develops between Buck and the lead dog, Spitz, a vicious and quarrelsome white husky. Buck eventually kills Spitz in a fight and becomes the new lead dog.

When François and Perrault complete the round-trip of the Yukon Trail in record time, returning to Skagway with their dispatches, they learn that the government is ending its sled dispatch service. They sell their sled team to a "Scotch half-breed" man who delivers mining supplies. The dogs, accustomed to light work, are now forced to make long, tiring trips, carrying heavy loads to the mining areas. While running the trail, Buck seems to have memories of a canine ancestor who has a short-legged hairy man as a companion. The team is quickly worn down by hard labor, and the wheel dog, Dave, a morose husky, becomes terminally sick and is eventually shot.

With the dogs too exhausted and footsore to be of use, they are sold off to three stampeders from the American Southland (the present-day contiguous United States) — a vain woman named Mercedes, her sheepish husband Charles, and her arrogant brother Hal. Hoping to find gold quickly to restore their family's bankrupt estate, the stampeders ignore others' helpful advice and start their journey ill-prepared for the harsh winter. Hal foolishly creates a team of 14 dogs, believing they will travel faster, and because Mercedes insists on keeping her heavy but useless fashion items. The dogs are overfed and overworked, then starved when food runs low. Most of the dogs die on the trail, leaving only Buck and four others still alive when they pull into the White River.