Martin Eden; Jack London

Family and Self

Jack London's Martin Eden is concerned with the rise to fame of a working class seaman who becomes an intellectual and a writer and eventually, having become what he had craved in the first half of the book, falls into a depression from which he does not escape until the final page of the novel. 

The novel was originally published in serials in the Pacific Monthly magazine between the Septembers of 1908-09, before being published as a book in 1909. It is interesting that the book should have been read by so many in a magazine, and it makes a lot of sense. Martin Eden is concerned with the failures of magazine editors, and so its format as a magazine serial clearly forms an important part of its appeal, and its later publication into book-form offers a nice parallel to the life of Martin Eden in the book.

There are some major themes beyond simply the following of the development of Eden as an intellectual and a writer, as a Kunstlerroman. There is a major attack upon socialism and the individual within the book, the former in direct contrast to the beliefs of the book's writer, Jack London. In fact, it is clear that London pits socialism and individualism against one another, a fight out of which it could be argued that socialism wins, and individualism, in which the sympathies of the lead character, Eden, lie, fails miserably. Martin Eden defends a stalwart self-improvement in which he cares not for the failures of his class, but only for the failures of himself. As he rises intellectually above the Morse family, he becomes lost as he has nowhere left to look up to. His eventual suicide could quite easily be put down to his failure to follow socialism, and his reliance upon his own Self. 

In a large way, Martin Eden mirrors the personality and life of Jack London himself. Both became disillusioned with their literary fame and took off on voyages around the Pacific, and the character of Ruth could be said to reflect the real figure of Mabel Applegarth, London's first love. 

Martin Eden is a fascinating novel, and a very real portrayal of an artist's life and the failures of fame and fortune when they are eventually reached. Reading it now, it often seems very cliched - largely, I think, because of its similarity to so many Hollywood films produced at the moment, which follow the idea of a 'falling out of love', as a result of the lover's failure to appreciate the love had in the first place. 

I'll be reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night next, so get reading.

Please, if you have any comments on my reviews, I welcome them. Consider this a book group, rather than a book review - debate, discuss and shout me down, by all means. Thanks for reading.