The Sea-Wolf
A pampered literary critic named Humphrey Van Weyden is thrown from a ferry into San Francisco Bay and fished out by the Ghost, a seal-hunting schooner commanded by Wolf Larsen, one of the most memorable brutes in American fiction. Larsen is a self-taught philosopher and a merciless tyrant, and Jack London uses the clash between his raw materialism and Humphrey’s soft idealism to argue about strength, survival, and the worth of a single life. As Humphrey hardens into a capable man and a shipwrecked woman poet joins the doomed voyage, the story turns from sea adventure into a test of everything he believes. Free to download as a PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist and adventurer whose tales of the Yukon and the sea·The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf·made him one of the most popular writers of his time.
See all books by Jack London →
Listen to The Sea-Wolf Audiobook Free
Listen to The Sea-Wolf by Jack London free online. The full audiobook (11 hr 29 min, 39 chapters, read by Tom Crawford) streams free on this page.
The Sea-Wolf (1904) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 01: I scarcely know where to begin | 19:39 | |
| 2 | 02: I seemed swinging in a a mighty | 19:08 | |
| 3 | 03: Wolf Larsen ceased swearing | 26:19 | |
| 4 | 04: What happened to me next | 16:10 | |
| 5 | 05: But my first night in the hunters' steerage | 18:48 | |
| 6 | 06: By the following morning the storm | 33:17 | |
| 7 | 07: At last, after three days of variable wind | 8:23 | |
| 8 | 08: Sometimes I think Wolf Larsen mad | 17:42 | |
| 9 | 09: Three days of rest, three blessed days | 21:26 | |
| 10 | 10: My intimacy with Wolf Larsen increases | 16:27 | |
| 11 | 11: The Ghost has attained the southernmost point | 15:03 | |
| 12 | 12: The last twenty-four hours have witnessed | 24:17 | |
| 13 | 13: For three days I did my own work, and Thomas | 10:06 | |
| 14 | 14: It has dawned upon me that I have never | 18:42 | |
| 15 | 15: There was a deal of cursing and groaning | 13:48 | |
| 16 | 16: I cannot say that the position of mate | 17:25 | |
| 17 | 17: Strange to say, in spite of the general foreboding, | 32:54 | |
| 18 | 18: The next day, while the storm was blowing itself out | 16:53 | |
| 19 | 19: I came on deck to find the Ghost heading up close | 15:15 | |
| 20 | 20: The remainder of the day passed uneventfully. | 18:23 | |
| 21 | 21: The chagrin Wolf Larsen felt from being ignored | 11:05 | |
| 22 | 22: I knew what it was as she came toward me. | 8:29 | |
| 23 | 23: Brave winds, blowing fair, swiftly drove the Ghost | 12:22 | |
| 24 | 24: Among the most vivid memories of my life | 15:57 | |
| 25 | 25: "You've been on deck, Mr. Van Weyden," | 30:35 | |
| 26 | 26: Wolf Larsen took the distribution of the whiskey | 30:55 | |
| 27 | 27: Day broke, grey and chill. | 18:12 | |
| 28 | 28: There is no need of going into | 16:36 | |
| 29 | 29: "Fool!" I cried aloud in my vexation. | 13:09 | |
| 30 | 30: No wonder we called it Endeavour Island. | 17:37 | |
| 31 | 31: "It will smell," I said, "but it will keep in the heat | 6:33 | |
| 32 | 32: I awoke, oppressed by a mysterious sensation. | 19:22 | |
| 33 | 33: We waited all day for Wolf Larsen to come ashore. | 14:20 | |
| 34 | 34: "It's too bad the Ghost has lost her masts. | 12:08 | |
| 35 | 35: Next day, the mast-steps clear, and everything in readiness, | 15:03 | |
| 36 | 36: For two days Maud and I ranged the sea | 22:06 | |
| 37 | 37: At once we moved aboard the Ghost, | 20:43 | |
| 38 | 38: "I think my left side is going," Wolf Larsen wrote, | 7:38 | |
| 39 | 39: The day came for our departure. | 16:34 |
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