New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-12

sv,nro.bet,caIIv. 40 powerfully and with such
sincerity. at the very outset. that he has sue
ceeded In making thoroughly credible man
out Of the monster
Tba tale begins with the sinking of q ferry
hoat IN San Francisco Bay and the tossing about
In the fog of one Humphrey Van Weyden,
nrosnerous dilettante who has done
.troke Of hard work In his life he has written
little ESSAYS instead. He is pulled aboard the
Ghost Wolf Larsens sealing schooner, and in
short order he is made to see that there is no
hone Of his being put ashore until the cruise is
ended The vessel Is a place Of torment. The
cantain uses his men with almost unthinkabie
cruelty, and he is feared as some malignant
giant might be feared. II this all that
Jack London had TO tell US. THE Sea Wolf
might be dismissed as but one more yarn OF the
sort which has of late been made excessively
familiar. But he does two things to make his
work original He gives us a new type in Lar
sen, and he puts the story in the mouth of
man who looks at life with sensitive imagi-
native eyes. Humphrey Van weyden makes
no ludicrous mistakes. Jack London's knowl-
edge Of the is behind him. and the book is
marveIlously truthful In the seventeenth chap
ter, for example, there is description of
storm in the Pacific accurate that it has
seemed to one reader at least, who has wit
messed just such storm, like the Photographic
record Of an actual experience. But The Sea
Wolf has not been written to prove that the
author knows the Technology Of his subject
It has been written to show what men see
and feel and do at sea, and still further to
humanize the picture figure is placed in the
centre OF 1t fascinating IN himself as is the
element which he has his being. Mr.. Lon
don has accomplished his purpose the more brill
iantly through bringing in man like Hum
IN fell fbe tale he
gets closer to the heart OF the thing through
getting at It with the aid of unprofessional a
go-between. Humphrey is not a born sailor
He Ia something that is, in the circumstances
much better-an artist qualified to put the sub
stance Of THE Sea Wolf into the right per-
spective.
AS the chapters unfold. Wolf Larsen grows
upon us; we shudder over his brutalities but we
become absorbed in watching for his next move
and, indeed, for the next word gesture that
may tell us little more about his strange soul
If 1t is a wicked soul it has also certain gran
deur. and so powerful personality is he that
down to the very last moment In his life he
holds the centre Of the stage Curfously, Mr.
London seems not to have realized the loyalty
he owed to his own creation, and In the middle
OF the book he makes the mistake OF dragging IN
love motive. 1t does not precisely hurt THE
Sea Wolf''-as a story. With the entrance of
Maud Brewster upon the scene some new issues
raised and some new elements are brought
to the development Of Humphreys character.
But all the business of Maud's arrival aboard
the Ghost, her literary aptitudes, her share in
the escape from Wolf Larsen and in the estab-
lfshment OF camp desolate island, would
do far better In some story of mere adventure.
In this book II is irrelevant, homogeneous. mar
tistic. Wolf Larsen gets out of the hands of the
man who invented him. and holds. repeat,
the centre Of the stage, that the romance Of
Humphrey and Maud affects US as something
that we want to brush away and have done
with 1t is as though painter delineatng a
mighty hero were to introduce an fdyl into his
background The defect is the more distressing
inasmuch as 1t seems unnecessary. The life
and death of Wolf Larsen might have been set
forth in the very manner Of this book without
a detail changed. and the work then have been
brought to a close. No would have missed
the love episode, and we would have had a
shorter. but finer, achievement AS it u.s. we
must take the i'll with the good and be thank
full. There is much that is good in THE
Sea Wolf" that we could forgive the author al
most anything. Reading 1t through at a sit
ting, we have found 1t pognantly interesting
and. barring the mistake have noted.
superb piece Of craftsmanship. No one who
cares for a faithful study of sea life painted
with strength and insight, afford to leave
1.-The Sea Wolf" unread.