3 Review(s)

Entertaining, atmospheric, and action-filled--yet difficult to obtain until now--the eight short stories in Jack London's A Son of the Sun center on the thrilling exploits of Captain David Grief in the dangerous and exotic South Seas. Captain Grief encounters the adventurers, scoundrels, pirates, and opportunists who followed the example of their colonial predecessors and exploited the islands and their resources early in the twentieth century. Inspired by London's own voyage through the South Seas on board his self-made yacht, the Snark, these stories paint a colorful--and at times horrifying--picture of the remote South Pacific. Thomas R. Tietze and Gary J. Riedl provide concise and illuminating introductions to each story as well as informative notes. The volume is enlivened by reproductions of London's own photographs and maps, and by the illustrations that accompanied each story when first published.